Mike Hardaker Unloading a Heavy Hunting Bike With Ease Thanks to the 1UP Extreme Duty Rack | Photo Greg Von Doersten Mountain Weekly NewsAre you looking for an insanely rugged, made-in-America, bike rack for hauling hundreds of pounds of bikes? Look no further than 1UP USA 2″ Xtreme Duty Single Rack paired with the Xtreme Duty Add-On.
About 1UP
Founded in 2001 and based in Dickeyville, Wisconsin, 1UP is the real deal. Once you know what their products look like, you’ll likely start recognizing their hitch mounted racks everywhere. Their award-winning bike racks come in four levels of ruggedness from Equip’D to Heavy Duty to Super Duty to Xtreme Duty (what we tested).
Once you’ve chosen your level of ruggedness, you then get to choose how many bikes you want to haul around: one or two. If you’ll primarily be hauling around just one bike, you can always buy an add-on rack to use when you want to carry a second bike (we tested an add-on). You can also choose whether you want a ramp (we tested a ramp). The final decision is if you want to buy wheel chocks for extra extra security (we tested chocks).
Weight
The 1UP Extreme Duty Weighs in at 42 pounds, please don’t forget to lift with your legs and not your back as you muscle the rack into position. Once you factor in the Extreme Add-on Rack, the chocks, and the ramp, the rack we tested weighed 84 pounds. Woof.
Capacity
What all the weight of this rack system unlocks is an insane carrying capacity. The base 1UP Rack is capable of carrying 150 pounds and the add-on can carry an additional 120 pounds. INSANE! Given that e-bikes weigh an average of 40-60 pounds and fat-tire hunting e-bikes are only clocking in at 80 pounds, this rack can tackle every e-bike that comes to mind. If you also dabble in dirtbikes, a 50cc dirtbike should work just fine on the rack.
Setup
We found the setup to be rather straightforward although we’d love to see 1UP double or triple the diagram size in the instructions. While the base rack is pretty much ready to go out of the box, it took us roughly an hour to attach the add-on rack and chocks and tray given the squinting we had to do whilst looking at the small diagrams in the instructions.
Arms and Chocks
Once we had the rack setup we were super impressed with how stable the whole rack felt. We really liked how the rack arms are doubled up for increased lateral stiffness and the wheel-grabber is v-shaped to help the wheel seat in the middle and prevent wobbling.
The chocks add-on provides a snazzy way to further ensure the front wheel doesn’t wobble. If you want to really really secure your bike, you could always add a few Voile strap to further help seat the wheat in the rack v-channel.
Adjusting
After getting the rack onto the truck we discovered that it’s best to get a friend to help you with moving the rack from horizontal to the storage position given the heft and the location of the adjuster pin next to the hitch. That said, we were able to move the rack from horizontal to the storage position with just one person.
Removable Bike Ramp
Thanks to a clever removable ramp that has its own storage spot on the rack, loading heavy bikes couldn’t be easier. We appreciate the peace of mind the ramp provides in knowing we’ll never have to lift another heavy bike into place. The ramp’s v-channel shape helps ensure the bike rolls right into place on the rack.
1UP 2″ Xtreme Duty Rack Pros & Cons
Pros:
- Insanely rugged and made in America
- Handles up to 150 pounds base capacity
- Includes a removable bike ramp
Cons:
- Setup instructions diagrams are small.
- Overall weight of rack system is heavy.
- Adjusting rack position may require assistance.
Overall Impression
1UP’s 2″ Xtreme Duty Single ($850.00) bike rack paired with the Xtreme Add On ($600.00) is a great option for someone looking for a rugged American-made bike ramp that can tackle two hefty e-bikes and/or dirt bikes with ease.
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