etrailer | Kuat Piston Pro X 2 Bike Rack Review KU48VR

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Full transcript: www.etrailer.com/tv-review-ku...
What's up everybody, it's AJ with etrailer.com Today, we're gonna be checking out the Kuat Piston Pro X. It's gonna be a platform style bike rack made for your inch and 3/4 hitch. It's also gonna hold two bikes. Let's check it out. First thing you might notice is the bike racks got built in lights on there. That's definitely a cool feature.
You got a four pole that runs from the rack all the way to the four pole in your vehicle. It attaches there. And then your lights on the bike rack are gonna mirror your taillights on your vehicle. So when we hit the brakes or a left turn, right turn signal. It's gonna do the same thing back here, which is cool so that at night people can still see your taillights if they're blocked by the two bikes as you can see them here.
Now, if you remove the bikes and pull the bike rack up towards the vehicle, you can still see the lights, and it'll still work too. Look how it holds the bikes on the platform rack. It's gonna be these wheel cradles that's push up into place. So they're pushing against each other to hold the bike nice and tight. Now it's got the one tap system here to release it.
So I'll show you how that works. Just hit it. It releases and pushes out. I'll do that on both sides to easily remove the bike. You just lift the bike up and pull it right off.
I like that 'cause it's quite a bit easier than some other platform style bike racks that might have that center mast there that makes it a huge pain to unload or load the bikes. You have to kind of go around it, move the hooks and get those set up. This makes it far easier just to either put the bike on there or take it right off. Now you can adjust the cradle to fit different tire sizes. Goes all the way up to 29 inches. We had it set at 27 and 1/2 because that's what that last tire was. So it has a better hold on there. I like that it's just got the two push buttons on the other side that you slide that up or down wherever you need to adjust it. That's better than some of the other bike racks out here that have this kind of similar style to where you either have to unscrew it and move it around or just pop it out and move it. This seems more secure. And I like how easy it is just pushing those two buttons in to slide it down or up where you need it. The arms can each go back a little bit further too if you need more clearance, this helps it keep outta the way when you're loading up that bike. If you just don't wanna move around one while you're setting up the other one, you can go down a little further too and that's when it starts to ratchet back in. It can all go all the way the ground if you need it to but then you're gonna have to use the one tap system to release it to be able to bring it back up. So it starts ratcheting against the tire about there. The arm is held in place and able to operate because of the hydropneumatic system that's built in right here. So that's gonna allow you to push that arm up and apply the tension to the bike on both sides, holding it in place onto the platform rack. Another thing that sticks out right here is gonna be the Kashima coating on this portion. You can see it's a different color but that's gonna help it hold up to the elements. You don't have to worry about it being damaged or just wear it out on you or any of these teeth out here and not be able to ratchet when you wanna go add that tension. With the bike removed, we can take a better look at the tray here. You can see it's got plenty of grooves in there for different size tires. We have the road bike channel right there. It opens up a little bit more for mountain bike tires or even e-bike tires. The tray can handle a max wheel base of 53 inches. And just keep that in mind of what kind of bike you wanna throw up on there. With that in mind though, let's throw another 29er up there and see how it handles two of 'em right next to each other. I just wanna point out some points that we had issues on. You can see the seat is making contact with our brake here. Now we could go a little bit higher with the seat and go above the rails, but that's also something you have to adjust every time you go throw your two 29er bikes on here. Now another thing we can do is try and shift the bike forward back for a little bit but it's just the seat. It's too much. We can't adjust that much forward it or backwards. Another option we had with this bike rack, which is kind of unique is you can actually flip the bike with the handlebars on the same side and you might be able to get some cle

[@j.allencrute7016]

Good for mountain bikes with knobby tires, but my city e-bike slides right out of the supports - no matter where I set the wheel locks. The center groove needs to be deeper. No mention of locks???

[@jamesc6137]

Any security features??

[@etrailer]

The Kuat # KU48VR Piston Pro X provides a cable lock, and a stainless locking hitch pin is available separately as part # HL2.
www.etrailer.com/Hitch-Bike-Racks/Kuat/KU48VR.html
www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Hitch-Lock/Kuat/HL2.html

[@jamesc6137]

@@etrailer so you’re saying that the locking hitch pin is a separate item that one has to buy???? Surely not. $1500 for the rack and they don’t include a locking hitch pin. No way. Dig in that box deeper. It’s got to be there