etrailer | A Closer Look at the Yakima Exo System Swing Away Hitch Extender

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Full transcript: https://www.etrailer.com/tv-review-ya...
Hey everyone, it's Evangeline here at etrailer. And today, we'll be taking a look at the Yakima EXO system. So this is gonna be a kit, a great way to start. You have the swing base as well as the top shelf paired together. So if you wanna get into the EXO system and you wanna have that base for all of your different accessories, this is a great way to start. Now, there's some different features to it too.

You've got some pros, you've got some downsides, and we're gonna talk about them in this video to see if getting into the EXO system is the one for you. So why would you get into the EXO system and what are your other options This is very unique since you have the two-tier cargo system. Otherwise, you could just get a bike rack on your hitch or a cargo carrier on your hitch. Not really both. So first, what are the other things you might see on the highway So the common choice is to get a roof rack and a hitch cargo carrier.

So on your roof rack, you might have things like a roof box or a roof-mounted bike rack, and then on your hitch, you have maybe another bike rack or a box. Perfectly fine option, but the EXO system is an upgrade in terms of you probably have more weight capacity with the EXO system. With a roof rack, you're limited to at most 160 pounds. Also, if you have things on your roof, there's a lot of climbing up and down onto your roof. So for your heavier cargo, might not be as fun to do.

Now, is your vehicle capable of carrying the EXO system First and foremost, please double check your tongue weight capacity on your hitch receiver. Right here, right now, this is okay. It's bulky, it's heavy, but it's definitely doable to get into your hitch receiver. Once you start loading it up with your accessories and your cargo, it gets heavy very quickly. In fact, right now, I would say, please have a 350 pound tongue weight capacity on your hitch receiver.

Fully loaded up you will not exceed that, but I recommend that as a minimum. The next option is to get a small trailer, and trailers are awesome. We're here at etrailer.com, we know, because then you have all that space to load things up, you have the versatility of just it being down to the ground, and it's easy to grab. Now, the downsides is you have a trailer, and there's all the extra hassle to having a trailer, towing it around, where do you put it So the EXO system helps out with that because you just put it into your hitch and you don't have to worry about the trailer associated hassle. So after all that, if you're ready to go into the EXO system, let's take a look at some of its different features that will help you out with getting things ready for your adventure. And later on in this video, we'll go through some of the downsides to it as well. So right off the bat, how versatile is it You have two tiers of cargo space, and each of the tiers has this track system on the inside. Now, if you just have the swing base on, you can actually have it all folded up. Make sure to go in the right order, one and two. And when you're ready to accessorize, you just pull these knobs, and bring them right back out. So you saw how streamlined it was with the arms in. Now for the top shelf, the arms do not fold in. So if you wanna take up less space, what you'd have to do is you'd have to take the top shelf off. It's, let's say, three outta 10 difficulty because you do have these two bolts here, very easy to remove, but you're gonna have to figure out where you're gonna store it and what you're gonna do with it. And when you are ready to accessorize, you just pop that top shelf back in and tighten down those bolts again, and now you have that two-tier system. So it definitely takes a little bit more time if you wanna go back and forth, but it's nice to know that the options are there. Something unique to the top shelf being paired with the swing base is gonna be your locks and your security though. So with a swing base, you're gonna get two extra empty lock cores. That means you can take out an old lock core and put the new extra one in. Now, the swing base has two extra ones, the top shelf has two extra ones, but we cannot guarantee that you'll get them keyed alike. So for planning ahead purposes, before you get your other accessories, figure out how many lock cores are you gonna be working with. If you're fine with carrying around maybe two keys to access the whole system, that's great. If you wanna just use one key for all of your EXO system stuff, you're