Dr.Tray

Long time review (used for 1.5+ years) - If you are strategic with 3M helicopter tape on the front of your fork, this could be a solid, easy to use rack that will work for you.

However, if the cosmetic or even functional condition of your fork is important to you, use this rack with great care. For standard sized and more traditional designed forks, you will need to consider using an adhesive protecting tape to prevent the hook from wearing into the paint on the front of the fork. I have attempted, numerous times, to position the hook almost 1” forward of the fork, but on long trips, the hook nearly always works its way back towards the fork. This is with proper tire inflation on the front tire and with appropriate pressure on the hook when setting the bike on the rack.

I recently purchased a fat bike with a suspension fork. The fork is the Manitou Mastodon. I was weary of fork damage on my first trip with the rack. On the second trip, it happened. The hard plastic at the end of the rubber on the wheel hook dug into the paint and started damaging the fork seal. I engaged the hook on the tire per the instructions: “on the bike tire 1” or less from the brakes or fork. Compress the hook against the wheel by applying firm pressure”. The damage was minor since it was a short trip, less than 30 minutes, but for the 6+ hour trips we have planned for our fat bikes in the future, the damage could far worse, possibly tearing a seal or rubbing into the upper stanchion of the suspension for.

Bottom line: This is a solid rack that is easy to use. But it will cause cosmetic damage to the fork of your bike unless extra steps are taken. Not recommended to be used with suspension forks with rear brake arch design.

I will be purchasing a different hitch rack to transport our fat bikes.

First off, I was a little scared by the price. Lets be honest, this is not the cheapest rack on the market. However...you get what you pay for. And also - let's just assume you are hauling a couple of nice bikes. Do you really want to hit a pothole on the highway doing 75 mph with a junk rack holding your $5,000 (or more) bike? This rack seats into the hitch receiver easily and then the twist knob (which is also how it locks into the receiver) tightens up to remove any slack. It is bombproof when it is on. Bikes are super easy to load and unload. The handle which raises and lowers it works really well (even for my 5'5" girlfriend). The drop down feature is great to open the rear hatch. Lastly - The integrated bike lock is rad. It is long enough to go through the wheels and frame on your beloved stallion. You can not go wrong with a Dr. Tray.

This is a phenomenal bike rack. I was slightly hesitant at first because of the price but you definitely get what you pay for. The weight is super reasonable...light enough to move around but heavy enough that it is a solid piece of equipment. The latch mechanism which allows you to fold the rack up or down is easy to engage and really solid. I do not own any fat bikes and have put everything on here from road bikes to mountain bikes with no issues. I wouldn't be concerned that because it can accommodate fat bikes that the rack works poorly with other bikes - it has been flawless for me. As far as mounting and securing bikes is concerned the overall system and components work exceptionally well. Easy to lock a bike down and quick to get it off the rack. Yakima did a great job with this one!

tl;dr - The 2018 version of this rack will fit just about any bicycle. Kids bike to 26 x 5" fat bike (It might go bigger, but I haven't tried). No add on kits or compromises. The updated lever is easy to use for raising and lowering. I have been using the 2018 version of the Dr. Tray and EZ +1 weekly since August. The first trip was 400 miles each way with a small hybrid bike, a fat bike and a mountain bike. No problems. No adapters or extra straps needed. Everything worked and was solid. They sent me the original version of the EZ+1 until they had the 2018 in stock which was super nice so we could make that trip with three bikes. Having the pre-2018 EZ+1 tray to compare to the 2018 trays gave some insight. I see why there was some concern about the tire cradle wire thing and the length of the tray in the original version since I could compare them back to back. I could see how a fat bike tire designed to roll over anything could roll over the original wire cradle. I am between a L and XL in mountain bikes, so the tray length was a concern of mine. It's totally taken care of in the updated version. My mountain bike didn't look any different than it did on my old Hold Up for the last few years, so I know it was secure even if it looked like it was on the edge a little. It sits on top a little more on the updated Dr. Tray though. It's so nice to have a rack that fits any bike out of the box. No adapter kits, extra straps or anything. Three fat bikes = no problem. I have 4.8" tires and the fit is perfect. The stock straps are plenty long enough to fit around any deep aero rim and I can get them a few clicks in on the 4.8" tires too. The arms move smoothly and are a cinch to use. The bikes move much less than my first generation Hold Up. I think that wedge that tightens the insert to the receiver deserves most of the credit, but the hardware is pretty stout too. You can install or remove the rack in about a minute. I would normally leave the rack on year round, but I finally took it off a few weeks ago once CX season was done and there wasn't a fat bike race in the near future. Super smooth. The part that goes in the hitch receiver can fold flat into the rack so it hangs on my garage wall without sticking out. Nice surprise. The longer cable locks aren't the easiest to get in and out, but the extra length is much appreciated. They aren't bad, it's just a little bit of work moving that much cable through a small opening right next to your wheel. I can get the cabkle through both wheels and the frame on most of my bikes when previous racks barely made it around the frame's downtube and back. My Dr. Tray is attached to a wagon, so I have to raise and lower it constantly to access the hatch. The actuator to raise and lower moves pretty easily. I can typically get it one handed with my fingers on top and my thumb pulling the lever upwards. Sometimes it takes both hands. I wouldn't want it to be any harder to move, but I haven't ever thought that it was too difficult. If Yakima found a way to make it easier to move and still be secure, I don't think anybody would complain. Making it easier would be on my recommendation list for the next update. Again, I have no complaints about the 2018 version. It's much nicer having that hand lever up top instead of towards the bottom where it gets road junk on it. The first generation Hold Up had a slot where you could keep the straps in the open position all the time. It was super handy to drop the bike on the rack, move the arm in place and then put the strap around the wheel. There's *barely* a spot on the Dr. Tray to position the mega long strap out of the way to put a bike in place and you certainly can't keep the strap there full time. I don't think it was intended for that purpose, but there's enough of a slot to make it work long enough to set your bike in place. I would really like to see a slot to hold the strap out of the way more similar to the first generation Hold Up. If you didn't realize you could put the tip of the strap next to the buckle while loading the rear wheel onto the tray, it would be frustrating to use one hand to move the bike around and another to position the strap. I didn't realize it could fit there for the first month and was admittedly a little sore about that because you would have to set the tire on the strap, then move it around. The trays to move left to right and back and forth don't move super easily. I have to tap them a bit to get them to move. It's not bad and I have only had to move them a couple times when putting on somebody else's mountain bikes. The amount of space between bikes on this rack is huge. Unlike any other rack out there. Keep in mind the EZ+1 doesn't move back and forth or left to right. You're putting 3 bikes into the space other racks fit 4 bikes, so you still have plenty of room though. If you don't need to carry 4 bikes Fantastic customer service from Yakima as well. Thanks a bunch!

I’ve had the rack now over a year. It’s a great piece of kit with the shortcomings seemingly addressed. As I was an early adopter my rack isn’t so easy to operate. Two hands are needed to operate the release lever. The release button for the front wheel is also hard to depress. My next bike will hopefully be a Pole so unless I can retrofit the larger wheel trays someone might get a bargain. Good to see Yakima have addressed these issues and made a good rack great. Weight is very manageable too.

I didn’t consider any other rack than Yakima since I’ve had their ski and bike products in the past, some of which are 25 or more years old and still functional. Overall a nice rack. It’s light and easy to handle and very quick to mount to the vehicle. The adjustability between bikes is very nice and quickly accomplished. The fold down/up feature is great! A couple of things that I don’t like are that the straps for the rear tires, just barely, and I do mean just barely, fit my 5” fat tire. I have a hard time getting the front tire locking arm to release. It takes considerable effort-no way my wife could get it released and I thought for a brief time that I might not get it released and I’m a fit 220 lb weight lifting enthusiast. I assume after continued use that that will work better. The locking arm worries me that it could rub on my expensive front fork, but it’s an off-road bike it gets dings and dents, right? I like the fact that the hitch tightens up securely in the hitch receiver, this is well designed and that it is lockable to the reciever is also a great design. After seeing this feature I thought it would work well on the back of our 5th wheel camper. That is not the case. Although it locks very tight in the reciever there is too much wobble elsewhere in the rack to trust it with a couple of 35-40 lb fat tire bikes on the back of a swaying trailer. However, It is just fine for the back of my truck. The front tire tray accommodates 5” tires very nicely and securely. As far as the locking cables go, well, they could easily be defeated and as with most cables they are no match for bolt cutters. The cables keep the honest people honest and that’s about it. Bring along a Ulock and some extra cables just to make a thief think twice. I definitely wouldn’t trust it in a motel lot overnight. That’s not Yakima’s fault it’s just the nature of cable locks, although the onboard storage design for the cables is cleverly thought out. Overall, I like the Dr Tray, it’s a useful design. Inclusion of the SKS locks and keys is nice. Pricey for sure, but to complain too much about the rack price seems ridiculous if you paid thousands for a bike!

I've had this rack for over a year, so this is a "long term" review. I like this rack, it is capable of holding all sorts of bikes and is easy enough to use. The biggest problem i have with the rack is that it doesn't hold XL framed mountain bikes in place on the rack. When my mountain bike is on the rack, the rear tire is far enough over that the pivoting strap plate rotates so that you can strap in the tire. As you drive, the bike shifts towards the rear wheel and the front wheel starts to roll up onto the little metal bracket. Although i have never lost a bike off of the rack, it is a bit unnerving to see the bike shifted a few inches to one side. My only other issue is that the lever to lower the rack is really hard to pull. The rack is very easy to put on the car and take off, and the +1 added tray is great too.

Got this recently because I needed a hitch-mountain platform rack for my 2011 RAV4. This car is tough because it has a spare mounted on the rear and the tailgate swings out instead of lifting up. This rack fit the bill completely. It's low enough that when folded all the way down, that my door can swing over it (obviously without a bike on it) completely open. When folded up and adjusted, it sits with enough clearance from the rear-mounted spare tire. Even with a bike or two on it, I can slide them all the way out and lower them to open the door maybe 40 degrees, enough to get some stuff in our out. The rack seems well built in my opinion, I've driven around with one bike on it so far, but I noticed no real swinging movement or anything crazy like that. It's a little pricey, but the value is there. It has integrated security (built in locks), it's lightweight, fits 2 bikes, and has a quick-release hitch mount. These are features that are hard to find in a lot of racks, at similar price points. Anyways, my requirements are unique, but this was good.

I purchased this rack due to a Fat Bike purchase. I was initially concerned because it failed to stop the bike from almost falling off the rack since the small wire tire stop allowed the fat bike tire to roll over it. I've noticed later racks have higher stops, so I think this issue has been resolved. I bent mine so they sit more "proud" and the problem is now solved. I think Yakima should have a beefier wire piece here, and larger as well to fully ensure fat bikes are secure without the owner having to bend a piece of the wire to make it work. Other that that, this is very well constructed, except expensive.

Its a good bike rack for my Specialize Camber Comp 29. It was slightly difficult to assemble as the rails the bike rests on were hard to slide into their holders, the rest of the parts went together easily. The major problem is with my 2017 Ford F250. Ford has a 2 1/2" receiver as standard with a 2" receiver insert that allows you to use a 2" bar, which is what the Dr Tray has. The problem is the insert must have a 5/8" pin to hold the insert in place which the Dr Tray does not support. I haven't research it but my guess other years and models of Ford pickups have the same receiver configuration.