Westside Scout Hyper Review
Overall
User Review
( votes)Westside Scout Hyper Review
The Westside Scout Hyper is a solid piece of equipment that takes the reverse hyper and makes it portable.
Pros
- Solid padding that feels good even under heavy load.
- Larger rubberized feet keep the product from slipping.
- The swingarm glides flawlessly.
- Decently priced for the product class.
- Easy to mount and dismount.
- A great included strap that feels very comfortable.
Cons
- Poor powder coat.
- Loadable sleeves could be slightly longer.
- One bolt will rub against your weight plates and cause damage.
- Can be tricky to fold and unfold.
The Westside Scout Hyper is a portable version of the Reverse Hyper machine, an innovative product from the mind of powerlifting legend Louie Simmons. This time around, Simmons teamed up with Rogue Fitness to create a lightweight, mobile version of the Reverse Hyper. The final solution is a useful product with some obvious drawbacks.
Let’s take a deep dive into the Westside Scout Hyper to see what makes it so special.
Westside Scout Hyper Packaging
The Westside Scout Hyper ships in a single box that weighs 86 pounds. The cardboard is thick and fully taped around all of its edges to avoid any accidental opening. The box is also tied down by two straps, as pictured.
My box arrived in surprisingly good shape and was delivered via UPS. Considering that this product is made in China and shipped to the United States, I was thoroughly impressed with the quality of the delivered shipping box.
Once opened, each component within the box is surrounded by thick styrofoam that should ensure no accidental rubbing or chipping during shipping.
Westside Scout Hyper Installation
The main part of the unit, including the padding, handles, and swingarm is shipped already put together, to finish the process I only needed to attach the legs and the Rogue-provided strap. The entire process for a solo installation took about 15 minutes, which included my unpackaging time.
I did have an issue when performing the installation. There are several stickers on the left and right side legs that feature “L” and “R” stickers for left and right side installation.
When peeling off the stickers, a portion of the powder coat ripped off from the left side of the unit. Upon investigation, I noticed that the nuts on that part of the unit warped the powder coat. I had closely followed Rogue’s instructions which called for not overtightening the bolts, yet one section still fell victim to some damage.
Rogue could easily improve upon this issue by using better bolts or installing a threaded section to attach the legs. Obviously, with a product that will leave the user swinging up to 300 pounds, it needs to be tightened down sufficiently.
There’s a fine line with this product between sufficient tightening and causing bubbling from what I would describe at best a sub-par powder coat job. In fact, this overseas-manufactured product doesn’t come close to matching the powder coat found on many second and third-tier manufactured gym products.
Besides the obvious powder coat issue, I do recommend installing all of the bolts before any level of tightening is performed. If you tighten the two side bolts before adding the third stabilizing bolt, you won’t achieve a proper fit and will be forced to loosen the first several bolts. This is common among most pieces of gym equipment.
Overall, it’s a flawed but easy installation process.
Westside Scout Hyper Build
When I started my Westside Scout Hyper review I was worried that the overall build would match the powder coat issue. While there is definitely some room for improvement, I’ve been satisfied with the general overall quality of the product from a pure usage standpoint.
First, the actual legs on the Scout Hyper are solid and I have absolutely no fear of the product buckling, even when pushing the maximum weight allowances of 300 pounds for the user and 176 pounds on the swing arm attachment.
One issue you’ll likely notice at heavier weights is that the front feet slightly pick up off the ground. I was prepared for this to occur after reading several other reviews but it still caught me off guard during my first 10 to 15 sets. Rest assured, a lot of Westside Scout Hyper units have shipped and I’ve yet to read about any accidents caused by this slight shifting.
It does help that the Scout Hyper includes large rubberized feet that keep it from shifting back and forth. Even on my polyaspartic floor, which isn’t at all grippy the unit stays in place.
To keep the collapsible legs in place, Westside Barbell chose to include two pop-pins, one on each side. The pop-pins feel very solid and screw into large threaded metal anchor points. The pins were definitely built to ensure they remain in place while keeping you safe.
Because you need to pull two pop pins to fold the Westside Scout Hyper, this reverse hyper features a locking mechanism. Above, you can see that the lock is initiated with the attached steel bars hidden inside the pop pins slot mechanism.
When you need to unlock the pop pins you simply pull them out and twist the ball on the pin to leave it unlocked as shown in the photo below.
I have to note that actually folding the unit can be a bit tricky. You have to watch for pinch points to avoid injury and it’s a tight slide. On the one hand, it’s not easy to hold, on the other hand, it’s tight to keep the unit from shifting during use which is a trade-off I fully understand.
Once folded the upright storage takes up little space, I laid the reverse hyper in the closed position against my Rogue RM-4 Monster Rack 2.0 to show its size when in the closed position.
With a full gym and new equipment constantly shuffling in and out of my space for testing and reviews, I needed a product with a small footprint and this piece of gym equipment fits the bill.
Moving on to the actual swing arm, the unit swings like butter and performs well even if you’re swinging 150 pounds.
Due to the small size of the unit, which is needed to keep it portable, the weight horns measure at a rather small 5.25” loadable length. This should suffice for 99.9% of users.
I took a picture with two 25-pound Rogue Color Echo Bumper Plates on each side to show you the useable space available on the sleeves.
As you can see, there is enough room for just one more of each plate at that size. That’s a total weight of 150 pounds which nearly maxes out what Westside Barbell considers the maximum swing arm weight limit.
If you want to push another 25 pounds I would recommend loading up heavier bumper plates to start or moving over to steel plates which offer a skinnier overall profile.
The actual loadable sleeves provide plenty of room for sliding my Rogue Bumper Plates into place while the included spring clips do a great job of holding each weight plate in place during every swing.
There is one issue with the Westside Scout Hyper’s swingarm. The bolt that attaches the included Rogue strap will rub against your weight plates. The picture below shows the bolt as it nestles up against the rubber of my 25-pound weight plate.
I’m not overall superficial about some scratching on my plates but this is still a weird choice in design from the team at Rogue and a design choice that has received complaints from other reviews and some users.
Here’s a full view of the swing arm:
When unfolded the height of the Westside Scout Hyper to the top of the pad is 46.5″. I bring up the height because at 5’10 inches I would have to jump onto the pad if not for the included footstep on the right side of the reverse hyper.
The actual step isn’t very wide but making it larger could interfere with the swing arm so it makes sense in this instance. I do like that the step is rubberized, allowing for a solid foot grip when getting both on and off the Westside Scout Hyper.
Once I was situated on the product I felt comfortable thanks to the padding that Westside Barbell chose for the product. The padding is very comfortable while remaining firm. You want a firm pad so you can focus on your movement and the padding on this product fits the bill while remaining grippy and well-stitched.
Remaining situated on the padding is partially the responsibility of the reverse hypers arms. I ordered the Westside Scout Hyper handle extension kit to provide additional hand placements but that add-on is currently on backorder.
The included arms on the Westside Scout Hyper fit my body type perfectly, allowing my legs to properly hang over the end of the unit while providing a rubberized grip that keeps me secure to the unit, even during a sweaty workout.
Rogue ships this Westside Barbell product with a simple but effective strap. The strap is wide enough to fit around my ankles while still allowing enough room to place my foot on the rubberized step which makes getting on and off the Westside Scout Hyper a breeze.
The strap offers a decent amount of cushioning which means there is no stress placed on my ankles, even when swinging 150 pounds.
The stitching on the strap is solid and the two large rings that attach through the swing arms strap bolt are attached in a way that should allow for the longevity of the product. Overall, I have zero complaints about the strap.
You can find the Westside Scout Hyper and plenty of positive user reviews on the Rogue Fitness website (click here).
