Easy Lift Caddy

Great company to deal with

North Division Bicycle and now Hillyard Bicycle have been selling these for the last couple of years. Reliability is great. Assembly is easy. When you need the help getting your heavy EBike onto your rack. This is the best option.

This is easy to install if you already have a 2 inch receiver on your vehicle. The total up/down motor travel distance is 22 inches. On my vehicle it only goes about 14 inches until it rests on the ground. The caddy comes with a 7 pin RV type plug but only two wires are used inside the plug. I cut that plug off and made up a two pin plug as my SUV did not come with a towing package. If you go into the wiring that goes from the relay board under the lift-caddy cover to the 7 pin plug they did not use traditional DC colors IE red positive and black negative. Instead the black wire is the positive wire and the white or grayish wire is the ground or negative ( A/C wiring scheme). The book shows just using a red and black wire to a battery and going into the 7 pin plug if you don't have an RV type wired receptacle. If you are not confident you understand the wiring have someone who does wire this for you if you don' have the proper receptacle already wired. I replaced my Durango battery and used the old battery to drive the lift caddy. The battery sits in the cargo tray by the rear hatch. It is not tied to my vehicles charging system or my vehicle in any way.I ran two wire 8 gauge for the circuit. I also used a remote relay which is mounted by the battery so I can turn off the battery power to the lift caddy with a FOB. So my circuit is: battery > fused positive> remote controlled power relay> wiring out to lift caddy>50 amp quick connect plug> lift caddy harness. My battery I am using is an AGM 800CCA 80AH lead acid. I have a 10 amp charger wired into the battery that I can plug in. So far I have run the lift caddy 10 up down cycles with bikes loaded and the battery is still maintaining 12.6 volts under load. The lift caddy draws a maximum of 22.6 amps per the manufacturer. This translates to I should be able to charge the battery once a month and have no low battery voltage problems. There is a hand crank supplied should something go wrong with the power circuit. The lift caddy comes with a remote but I use the switch on the unit.Now for the only problem I had. I drove approximately 120 miles with an empty bike rack on the unit. I was on secondary roads that were 55MPH and when i finished my trip I noticed the safety pin that locks it in the up position was bent. There was another reviewer who stated he lost the lower part of the lift caddy and his bikes. I could see where that could of happened as he drove 1500 miles as I remember. So I threw the bent pin away and now use a high grade alloy bolt and nut. The grade is 10.9 (metric bolt). So far I have had no issues with this bolt bending or showing signs of failure. I carry a spare bolt should there be an issue but it is looking like my problem is solved. I will be keeping an eye on the welds for the safety brackets. The lift caddy does tilt away from the car but it is heavy with the bike rack on when you tilt it but can be done. By itself it is not a problem at all to tilt.The lift caddy square tube that goes into the receiver is threaded so you can't use a hefty lock but have to use the threaded lock they supply. That lock's shaft is knurled so you cant wrench it in but you can use pliers to get it tight and then snap on the lock on the other side. I will eventually drill the threads out and use my robust pin lock.I gave this 4 stars because of the safety pin (not heat treated steel) problem that needs to be addressed by the manufacturer. The reason that pint bent ( see photo) ,I believe , is design does not take into account the shock loading that occurs when you are traveling and go over a rail road track or a dip in the road. That is when you have much heavier shock loading on the safety pin.I do love this device and at 70 I dont have it in me to be lifting a 60 pound bike onto a rack. Yes you can use a ramp but try pushing one up a fairly short steep ramp. I remove the batteries out of my bike before loading because they weigh almost 40 pounds as a pair.

As older adults with a few orthopedic challenges, we were looking for a solution to transporting our 50 lb Trek ebikes without having to lift them onto our Thule EZ Fold bike rack. Further challenge is the height of our hitch on the Ascent that requires us to lift them amost to chest level to get bikes on rack.We ordered the Lift Caddy to allow us to have an electric option to raise and lower our bikes.The system is well thought out and solidly made. The Customer Service to help get the unit assembled includes a well written, albiet brief, user's manual, an email address to contact the owner of the business (who was EXTREMELY Helpful) and several well done video turorials by Sean on assembly and trouble shooting issues.PRO: bike rack easily slide into the Caddy's hitch, The electric plug is very easy to connect to car electrical power, options to customize how the unit box that lifts and lowers the rack works, and solid materials used in the products construction. Excellent Customer Support. Cost.Con: The weight of the system was problematic for both of us. For others without shoulder orthopedic issues this would most likely not be a problem. Handling two systems vs one (the lift unit and a bike rack vs an integrated lift and rack) resulted in too much weight for use to safely place on car repeatedly for use.

I purchased this to help load my e-bikes. I have a motorhome with a Swagman e-bike rack and have been using it for several years. Last year we changed one of the bikes to a heavier fat tire bike. It weighs over 60 lbs without the battery and made lifting the bike onto to the rack very difficult. I purchased an extra add-on ramp to help roll the bikes onto the rack. This helped as long as the rack wasn't to high off the ground... but by the time you level the motorhome the back end can end up being too high to use the ramp. THIS product ended this issue. Now I can lower the bikes to near ground level and easily manage loading and unloading them. Thank you!