etrailer | Saris Freedom SuperClamp EX 4 Bike Platform Rack Review

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Today we're gonna be taking a look at the Saris Freedom SuperClamp EX Platform-Style Four Bike Rack, part number SA4026F. The Saris Freedom SuperClamp EX is the perfect bike rack for carrying four bikes of different styles. As you can see here, we're carrying a fat tire bike, a mountain bike, a road bike, and a woman's bike. But we can also carry children's bikes and bikes with alternative frame styles. It holds our bikes by the front and rear tires. There is no frame contact.
For additional security, it also features front and rear wheel straps. One of its best features is it has the ability to tilt away from our vehicle with bikes loaded so we can gain access to our rear hatch. To do that, we'll simply just pull out the safety pin first. Then we'll push down on the gray lever at the very back. I'm gonna pick up slightly on the bike rack, push it down. Then we'll want to lower it down slowly.
Now as you can see, we've got plenty of room to remove anything out of our rear hatch. We've gone ahead and removed the bikes so we can go over some additional features. The arms are adjustable to work with bikes of different sizes and styles. The ratcheting wheel hooks allow it to adjust for different tire sizes. The wheel cradles are adjustable along the platform. They're gonna work with road bike tires, mountain bike tires, and fat tires up to four and a half inches wide.
Our rear most cradles feature reflectors to help it remain visible at night. Our platforms hide integrated cable locks which allows us to secure our bikes to our rack. When not in use all the arms fold flat. This gives you a better look at our raised shank, which is gonna give us more ground clearance here at the rear of our bike rack. With it in this position, we can also fold the whole thing up against our vehicle for compact storage. We use that same lever.
Push down, raise it up, until it snaps in. Now this is ideal for pulling in your garage or a tight parking spot. It's made out of a sturdy steel construction. The base and the arms feature a black powder coat finish so they're gonna resist rust and corrosion. It features a weight capacity of 60 pounds per bike on the inner platform. On the outer platform it's 35 pounds per bike. It has a maximum wheel-base of 48 inches. It secures with an included anti-rattle bolt and lock, that way our bike rack cannot be removed from our hitch. The Freedom SuperClamp Ex features a limited lifetime warranty. Now that we're done with the features, I'll go ahead and show you how to get it installed. Now this is designed for two inch receivers only. Let's go ahead and feed it into our receiver tube and line up our pinholes. Once we get our pinholes lined up, we'll take our included anti-rattle bolt and start threading that through here on the driver's side. Then once we get it hand tightened we can grab a 3/4 inch wrench or socket and tighten it down the rest of the way. And you will have to provide your own tools. Once we have it fully tightened down we can then grab our lock and put that in place. The nice thing about that anti-rattle bolt is it's gonna reduce all that rattle and play within our receiver tube and our bike rack to make a nice, solid ride for our bikes. To get ready to load up our bikes, we'll need to lower the bike rack down into the platform position. To do that, we'll grab ahold of the gray lever here at the back. Pull it towards us, lower it down until it snaps in place. Then we can raise out our arms by pushing in on the gray button here. We'll also want to be sure that our hooks are all the way up and out of the way. Finally, we can undo our wheel straps and then load up our bikes. Now it's recommended that you load up the heaviest bike first. In this case, it's gonna be our fat bike. So I'll just set it in place within the cradles. Now we can raise up our arm to about the one or two o'clock position. Then I'll lower down the hook. Here in the front we can do the exact same thing, except for this time, it will be the 10 o'clock position. Then we can do our wheel straps. Bring it between our spokes and down through the ratchet, pull it nice and tight. I've gone ahead and loaded up the rest of my bikes the same way. The only thing different is you want to be sure and alternate your handle bars. Now we can run our integrated cable locks. I'm just gonna press down on the button here at the end. Pull it all the way out. Route it through my wheel, then I'll go down through my frame, and put it into the hole here. With all of my cables