Saris Freedom 4-Bike

I looked around for a while to find the best rack and deal for a hitch mount tray style rack. Love the light weight of this rack and the ability to fit all different size bikes on it. It works great with my carbon road bike and my kids 20" bike. It works great and is easy to setup. The tilt feature works awesome. On a recent trip everyone was jealous of the ease of loading the bikes and the stability once the bikes are loaded. My wife especially likes it as it's much easier to load than a roof style rack and and she no longer has to set things in front of the garage so she doesn't pull in with the bikes on top. Also as a follow up I just received a hand written note in the mail from customer service with a business card and some stickers. Haven't had to use customer service but it was a plus to see how accessible they are.

When searching for a multi-bike rack, a friend recommended that I look at Saris. The Freedom 4 certainly fits the bill. Easy to use and very stable. Excellent customer service and warranty. I would recommend Saris to anyone looking foe a bike rack.

This rack is as good as it gets! It is easy to load/unload, and (when the bikes are not loaded) allows easy access through our SUVs rear hatch. And while it allows easy access while attached, it is light-weight enough to easily remove when not needed. We love it!

Bought this unit almost a year ago and used it almost daily until winter arrived. Bought it so we could take Grandchildren riding with us. For a 4 bike rack it is considerably lighter than other racks and very stable. Would like to see a revised hitch bolt setup. This threaded piece only just sits in the hitch throat and will slide out of place if tilted a little. I installed a set screw on the rack to keep the adapter in place until the hitch bolt was installed. Makes life and installing eqsier.

We purchased brand new bikes and were looking for a rack that would fit 4 bikes without worrying about scratches etc. This rack holds our bikes securely and doesn't scratch them. We can use in our vehicle hitch or in a receiver on our camper. This one is great!

I thought configuring my family's bikes would be difficult but the adjustment features on this rack made it a breeze. We have four bikes ranging from 24" child size to large adult. They all fit very securely, I can cruise down the freeway or (carefully) off the (slightly) beaten path and not worry about the safety of my bikes. The profile is surpisingly short given the load it carries, I haven't had any issues with parking or reversing.

I bought my freedom 4 the spring of 2014. I loved how easy it was to assemble though a few words rather than smiley faces and sad faces would have been helpful.I had no problem setting it up for my bike or any of the multiple times I loaded 3 other friends bikes on it. It works great for our road bikes, mountain bikes and kids bikes.I have never had another rack that I could put three different types of bikes on without a problem. All of this without help from my husband.

We did a lot of research before purchasing this rack. Loading the bikes is very easy and when traveling they are very stable, very little to no movement at all which is what I wanted. The nice thing is that when bikes are offloaded and rack is folded up I still have plenty of room to fit the car in the garage. Nice feature because it makes it easy to go fir a quick trip to the greenway anytime.Purchased the lock set as well. Love the rack!Great product.

Bought this Freedom 4 last summer along with four new bikes for the whole family. No more excuses. Get out there. We've done a few day trips, leisure rides and some off road trails last year. Looking forward to getting out there again, maybe next weekend. Snow finally all gone. Our Saris bike rack has made it all possible. It is a little heavy but very solid and holds our 4 adult bikes. (Parents and two teenagers) It did take a few tries to configure the bikes to sit without touching and now with the new season starting, remembering the correct order, but once I got it I was able to get them on in ten to fifteen minutes and that includes getting the bike rack on the truck. But don't rush. check and double check everything. You don't want to miss a locking pin or strap. It was very convenient to be able to recline the rack and get into the back of our truck without taking the bikes off. Don't get me wrong, it is heavy fully loaded. You may need some help to get it back up. But that's what family is for. I bought a 15 ft. bike cable to secure all tires and frames to the rack and the trailer hitch and a locking pin for the hitch so we can leave the truck and enjoy a walk around town or a meal together. The kids are asking when we can hit the road again. Thanks Saris

I am a petite lady with a number of kids and adult bikes that need dragging around to trails and bike parks. I used it yesterday with a mix of the two different bike types and it worked great! Easy to get on the car, bikes went on and off easily. I do think it should have locks included. The price was good too!

Researched racks for a solid two weeks. Settled on platform style as I did want to mess with hanging bikes and figuring it out each time. Rack is sturdy and easy to assemble and set up. Figure adjustments one if the same bikes are used. Can't wait to use it some more.

We have tried a few racks and found this Saris product to be the best value and most functional for weekend trips to the mountains and summer vacations. Doesn't take long to fit four bikes and they are easy to load/ unload.

Did lots of research of many brands for a hitch mount platform/tray rack. The key features that totally sold me on the Freedom 4 were: 1. Easy to reach TILT HANDLE - From fully upright to tilted flat, the competitors' racks require you to stoop down to the hitch and pull out a pin just to open your trunk; and when you fold theirs up, you must reach down again and align and push in a pin. What a pain. With the Freedom4, just grab the easy to reach tilt handle. LOVE IT! - The Freedom4 does have a redundant safety pin that must be pulled to fully lower the rack into the fully tilted down position, but there is no weight on that pin even with 4 bikes loaded, so it's relatively easy to do. 2. Fits KIDS BIKES - Even my son's 12" Specialized Hotwalk run/balance fits perfectly on the rack... would be a shame to have to throw a dirty kids bike or two in your trunk while you still have empty slots on your rack. 3. Four bike capacity in a COMPACT LIGHTWEIGHT FOOTPRINT - To fit 4 bikes, the competition offers racks that protrude 4+ feet behind the car. When the competitions' racks are folded up, they're as high as the roof of an SUV. When my Freedom4 is folded up, it barely reaches the bottom of the rear windshield of our Outback station wagon. - What this also means is that with 4 bikes loaded, you can still tilt the rack to its fully tilted position to access the trunk. I mention this because once you add the "+2" option to competitors' tray racks to add 4-bike capacity, you can't tilt it down as much and so your odds of handlebar interference with trunk-lid is much greater. The bike I always place closest to the car has 28" wide handlebars and I have no trunk access issues on my Subaru Outback. - At only 53 lbs, it's a lot lighter than the 80-100 lbs beasts offered by the competition. I remove and store my rack with ease on a weekly basis since we usually only need it on the weekends. 4. Four bike tray capacity at a VERY REASONABLE PRICE. Close to half the price of the other name brands. 5. GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE. I had to get a part replaced, and they shipped it all for free with international 2-day shipping to Canada. Downsides/concerns: 1. Takes time to setup adjust for different bikes the first time (about 10 minutes for 4 bikes). If you're always loading up different bikes of different sizes, you might find yourself spending more time adjusting everything to fit and to minimize bike interference. Not an issue for me since my family always uses the same bikes, in which case it only takes a couple minutes to fully load. 2. More plastic parts than other brand name racks. The plastic parts still look well-made so I'm not too concerned. The upside of a lightweight rack and lifetime warranty makes up for it. 3. Rated for "only" 35 lbs per bike... so if you're riding super heavy steel cruisers or big downhill mtn bikes, you might want to look for something else. This is not an issue for our all-mountain style mtn bikes.

I needed to carry 4 more bikes on my van, at a level that I could easily get them on and off and in a way that they would not hit each other. This rack is perfect for that and is easy to operate. Very little adjustment needed when you use it, once you get it set up. Very convenient and solid!

The Rack is solid and well built. The design prevents any movement or rubbing of bikes. Easy to adjust to different size bikes.