Really torn on the Swingdaddy

By dav3731904 Ranked #198 - Car Racks September 13, 2010

Okay, first off, let me say that, in concept, this is a really cool rack. With three kids and two dogs, access to the back of the SUV is critical. And it does work really well at swinging out of the way when you need access to something. The swing up arms and cable lock are also really slick.

However, it's the execution where the Swingdaddy really suffers. On our first one, the cable lock stopped retracting shortly after we got it, and then, about a year after owning it, the swing arm stopped swinging. Wouldn't go up, which makes it pretty dang useless as a bike rack. Yakima was extremely nice on the phone, and it was replaced with no issues under their generous lifetime warranty.

I've now had the second one for going on two years, and this one is now starting to have issues with the swingarm - they don't stay locked down, but are starting to swing back and forth. In addition, it's becoming almost impossible to screw the locking screw into the part that swings out. It was always difficult, but now it appears to be stripping out. There are always little specks of metal after I unscrew it (the first one didn't have this issue - it was really easy to screw and unscrew - it appears to be an alignment issue). It took me the better part of 10 minutes to screw it in yesterday, with my wife pushing on rack itself (I know, it sounds like a personal problem ;-) ). VERY frustrating.Long story short, I'll be calling Yakima tomorrow to see if they'll replace this one. I'm sure they'll be cool about it, but considering how much this product costs, I'm just really disappointed that it doesn't work better.

View Details: Yakima Swingdaddy 4 Bike Rack

Helpful Votes: 1 Yes