Saris MHS DUO Bike Rack for 4 Bikes - 2" Hitches - Wheel Mount

Video Transcript for Saris MHS 1 Bike Rack Receiver Base Review - 2021 Kia Telluride

Hi everyone, it's Evangeline here at etrailer. And today, we're gonna taking a look at a very interesting bike rack. This is the Saris MHS four-bike rack, and we're gonna take a look at all of its really cool features and specs right here on our 2021 Kia Telluride. So the MHS is a modular hitch system, which means that you can switch around different bikes, different components of the MHS rack. So what we have here is our own very special thing, which is the four-bike platform rack, where you can carry around four bikes. So two electric bikes, two regular bikes, whatever configuration you wanna do with this.

We'll be taking a look at different specs and different measurements of this bike rack, but what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna focus on our Kia Telluride. That way, you can make the best decision for you, your different types of bikes, and your vehicle. So we're gonna start with the trickiest part, which is the tilt away, and it's not tricky as in it's more heavy than anything. We have a lever here as well as a little protector, a little guard on the bottom. So you're gonna wanna pull that lever, and then drop that down 'cause it reaches the ground.

And why would you wanna tilt away your bike rack Well, if you wanna access your hatch without having to take your bikes off. So notice with how high the Telluride is, we still have a very decent tilt-away angle, giving us access or clearance for our hatch and our pedals and our handlebars. So now we can be chain to our trunk, grab whatever we need. Notice though, it does kind come sort of close to where our handlebars are, and I don't even have long handlebars. So definitely something worth considering, you may have to switch your bikes around.

And once you grab whatever you needed, all you need to do is lift up on the bike rack, and then it snaps into place, and you're ready to hit the road just like that. Very convenient, especially if you have four bikes up there. If you do have longer handlebars, I suggest just taking that bike off on its own in order to have access to your hatch. This has a weight capacity of 60 pounds per bike for your first two trays. So one and two.

Then notice how your third and fourth kinda lift up. That's because these have a different weight capacity, so 35 pounds for those. So if you have heavy electric bikes, go ahead and put them closer to the vehicle. Your regular bikes, your carbon fiber frame bikes, further away. Speaking of carbon fiber frame bikes, notice the way our bike is strapped down. We have four mounting points. One on the wheel strap doing this extra stability there, then we have two and three, which is gonna be our wheel mounts. So notice how it holds in by the front and the rear wheel, making it super duper easy to engage the bikes. When you need to secure your bikes, each and every tray has their own cable lock. So this goes around, secures around your bikes. You also have a lock core on the other side. And the keys you get with this bike rack can be used with whichever lock core under there, they're all keyed alike. So let's take the bike off. I'm gonna start at the wheel strap. You just press that lever, pull up on the strap, and then put this over to the side so it doesn't get caught up in our spokes. This can go back and forth, we'll take a look at the that later, and then we're gonna go over here. So depending on how your bikes sit, you may wanna go towards the front, towards the back. Notice where we have our grips though. So they're gonna be on each side of the bike. I'm gonna go reach here, press that handle, and push that out. So it's different from the tire hold, which has it on the tray itself. This has the handle on the wheel mount itself. So definitely something worth considering when you're trying to access your bike. But once you're here, you can now grab it and go. So notice how this mount goes around and secures your front and your rear wheels. You can adjust this up and down, depending on your wheelbase or your tire size. You also have this strap, and this strap goes back and forth for those different wheelbases. Another cool thing about the tray system is that you can roll your bikes back and forth, just to get the best clearance with your handlebars and your pedals. Definitely something that other people with platform racks struggle with. Now what I'm gonna do, I'm just gonna secure this strap. Notice is how that tightens down, secure the wheel. Then I'm gonna secure this wheel mount, and this goes down there. Another thing about wheelbase as we do go back and forth is that this can carry a maximum wheelbase of 53 inches. You do have a wheel track right over here in the front, just to help you out with that security for your front wheel. Another thing about capacities is your tire width. Remember how we took a look at the straps earlier Well, you can go for a tire width of up to five inches. So if you have those fat bike tires, no issues at all there. So this is the three-plus-one modular system. So it does add a lot of length to the back of your vehicle. Now our four-bike version seems like a lengthy one too, so we'll take some measurements to see exactly how much does the four-bike MHS add to our Kia Telluride. I'm gonna measure from our bumper here to right over here at the end of the rack, and it's 52 inches. So a little bit over four feet. Now, if you have a small garage, definitely something worth considering. When you're backing into a tight spot, don't forget that you have a huge MHS bike rack plus four bikes behind you. Now let's talk about ground clearance. We saw earlier when we tilted the bike away that the bike rack hit the ground. So our clearance is gonna be at the end of the bike, about 12 inches, so that's gonna be foot. Compare that to where our top tray sits, and that's 20 inches. Now that's also gonna be the measurement over by our shank. Our hitch receiver is about a foot up off the ground. Definitely something worth thinking about. When you're driving up those steep inclines like your driveways or your hills, your front's gonna go up, your back is gonna go down. This is a good security guard for those ground clearance issues, but it is nice to know we have a little bit of shank rise so our bikes themselves are sitting higher up off the ground. Now what might happen is maybe you're not planning on taking your bikes out for a ride just yet, but you also don't wanna take the bike rack off or maybe you wanna store it inside your garage. What you can do is fold this up into the compact or portable position. Remember that lever we pulled earlier You're gonna wanna pull that lever again, but this time, instead of dropping down, you're gonna have to lift up. This is a heavy rack, so get that up there, and it stops too at a certain point. We're gonna have to pull that lever again, just to bring it back up. This is tricky 'cause it's a heavy rack. But if I can do it, you can do it too. So notice how much space it takes up behind our car. Well, let's take some measurements to see exactly how much. First is does it make contact with our car Well, closest point is actually gonna be from our bumper to our front wheel mount, and that sits at 3 1/2 inches away. Plenty of clearance there. Length now added to the back of our car bumper again and the bike rack, about 11 1/2 inches. Maybe 12 inches of you include this handle. So definitely big difference compared to when this rack was folded down. You can see that if you do have issues with clearance inside of your garage, you can put it up like this. Now note, if you do have it up like this, what is it like living with a bike rack this big behind you Notice how most of our rear window is covered Our taillights are kind of visible through the bike rack, through this opening, but does cover the inside lights of our Telluride. Our license plate is definitely covered, as is our rear camera. Well, good thing though about the Telluride is you do have that 360-degree view. So while this area will be blocked off, you can still kind of see around you through your other cameras. So if that's gonna be a major issue for you, you may wanna consider driving around with the bike rack in the down position instead. Now this uses a two-inch shank to fit into our two-inch hitch receiver. We get a lock at the hitch receiver too. So this will help secure your bike rack. And again, you can use these keys on the cable locks on all four trays. Now the anti-rattle bolt, to tighten it down, helps secure that shank to the hitch receiver, I use a 5/8 socket, or you could use a 16-millimeter socket to tighten that down. I know it's really small in terms of socket sizes, but with it fully in place, let's do a quick shake test, shall we As I shake our bike rack just to simulate that road movement and vibration, we have a little bit of movement right where the add-on trays are, but the shank itself is pretty secure. So that's definitely something worth keeping in mind. You will still have some movement, but a lot of the rattle at the hitch receiver itself is cut down. My personal thoughts of about the Saris MHS rack for four bikes is it's a huge rack. It is a modular system though, so it's very similar to the EXO system in that it lives in its own special category. If you want the ability to switch things around, have the add-on, not have the add-on, you can take this top bike off, that's what this is for. If you're looking for just a four-bike platform rack, we have other options right here at etrailer. We have the Destination rack from Hollywood Racks. That's a more affordable, but doesn't have the same kind of premium features. We also have the Kuat NV four-bike platform rack, which is pretty cool as well. Definitely check that one out if you want just a basic bike rack that can do a lot of things. But this focus is the modularity, the ability to switch things around. So if you're interested in the MHS system and you're wondering if it will fit on the Kia Telluride, from this video, you can see that it can. So hopefully, this video helped you out with choosing the best bike rack for you, your bicycles, and your vehicle. But right here, right now, we took a look at the Saris MHS for four bikes right here on our 2021 Kia Telluride..