Kuat Grip 6 2022 - 2020 Review by The Good Ride

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Ethics Statement: We don’t get paid by the manufacturer to write these reviews and this is our unfiltered opinion. We do make money from the “Where To Buy” links, but this is our best attempt at an honest and objective review from an average riders’ perspective.

Kuat Grip 6 Review- How it rides and who it is for

How This Review Happened:

Sent to us to review. Lost the contact to return it. They never contacted us so eventually just sold it to make room in my garage.

Conditions:  Clear to snowing.

How It Was Tested

We drove 30 min each way from my house to Mt. Bachelor several times.

Why We Like The Kuat Grip 6

The main reason we liked the Kuat Grip 6 was how the inside of the rack slides out. You don’t get your outerwear dirty trying to get your boards out of the rack. Everything else about this rack is well thought out.

Assembly

So I thought this would suck like my Yakima’s did to assemble years ago but it didn’t…for Peter… who set it up. It is so well designed that it didn’t take Peter more than a few minutes to assemble. It just takes a little Allen Wrench work and then everything else is pretty much tooless.

Move Your 2009 or later Outback Crossbars

While setting this up is super simple I noticed one thing for snowboarders on Subaru Outback’s 2009 or later with the built in crossbars. I had to move one crossbar back for the boards bindings to fit in between where I like them to be. It was only a little more work though.

Locking Mechanisim

The Locking Mechanism of the Kuat Grip 6 can be a bit tricky because it is a two part system. You have a slide button and a key so at first you are wondering why in the hell doesn’t it open. Once you get used to that it’s fine.

Low Profile

I really like the profile of this. It isn’t super rounded and low profile like high end Yakima racks but it is still on the upper end of the class.

Slide Out Feature

This is the main selling point of the Kuat Grip 6. Being able to slide your boards out from inside the rack makes this the best rack we have ever used. I hate climbing up on the foot step of my passenger door or leaning into the side of a usually dirty car to grab a board. I always get my expensive outerwear dirty doing that. This is such an ingenious idea and we both loved it.

Taking Them Off

It is almost as easy to disassemble the Kuat Grip 6 as it is to re-assemble. It is tooless to get it off the car racks and one tool if you have a Subaru Outback 2009 or later to move the cross bars back in place so they fold back into the sides. Then it is just some easy Allen wrench work removing the clamps if you want them the way you get them out of the box. Most will want them assembled though.

Conclusion

So the only real fault we found was the price. This is pretty expensive but you get what you pay for with the Kuat Grip 6. This is a highly recommendable rack. I use a sky box for what I need but if I was a rack guy this would be my first choice.