I need a ladder rack for the bed of my 2019 Tacoma occasionally to haul things like kayaks, ladders, lumber, steel tube and pipe. Sometimes I need to haul these things over 300 miles, so having them stick up out of the bed not only looks like the Beverly Hillbillies, but it is dangerous and can cause problems at the drive through if you forget about them.
Yakima, Thule and others make some really nice rack systems that are specifically designed to bolt on to the Tacoma bed rail system, but if you have looked into any “universal fit” or generic racks, you probably already know that most of them do not play nice with the Tacoma (and Tundra) rail mounts. There are some universal racks that use “J bolts” that can grab the top of the Toyota rail, but they generally do not seem to be strong enough at least for my taste. The other issue is that most of the generic racks are about 6-8 inches taller than you would need for a Tacoma causing problems with getting in and out of my garage. There are some adjustable height racks, but these do not look very sturdy, and a common complaint is that they whistle, which would bother me on a 300 mile trip. The welding on some of the adjustable and non-adjustable aluminum rack looks questionable and there have been reports of welds cracking in the reviews. That left the possibility of customizing a universal rack to fit my Tacoma.
Harbor Freight has a pretty nice looking universal aluminum rack that seems sturdy based on comparing the thickness of the mounts and clamps and gets good reviews and is quiet at highway speeds. It is also bolted together, so you can cut the uprights to whatever height you want and then just tap the new hole and bolt it up. The clamps for the base plates clearly would not fit the Toyota rail system, but there were some good photos of them with a Tacoma bed that it looked like it would be possible to modify them to work. The other possibility is generic bed cap clamps that engage the Toyota rail. These would clamp without modification, but their top profile does not fit the profile of the rack base and they seem flimsy as there are reports of them bending and breaking and the product literature warns you not to torque more than 7.5 foot pounds. There are aluminum racks using these Toyota-specific clamps marketed specifically for Tacoma and Tundra, but they are about twice the price of their “universal” rack. I was ready to pull the trigger on the HF rack and the Toyota specific bed cap clamps would be my plan B if my plan A of modifying the original clamps didn’t work out. Before I bit, I took a look at Amazon and I found a rack that looked identical to the HF rack, but for $80 less, so I went with that one instead.
The HF version is called the: Haul Master 800
The Amazon one is called: Elevate Outdoor ATR Rack V2
The first thing I did was measure the original clamps for the rack with their base plate and found that the bottom of the clamp would fit nicely in the Tacoma rail if I cut 22 mm (7/8 inch) off the bottom end and drill and tap a new M10 1.5 hole centered 10 mm (7/16 inch) from the new cut end. I cut the clamp ends with a Sawzall using a 12 tpi non-ferrous metal / wood blade because I couldn’t figure out a good way to clamp them to my 10 inch miter saw. If one of those clamps got loose cutting it with the circular saw it could ruin your day. See pictures 1. 2 and 3. This also required drilling a hole in the bottom of the rail for the clamp bolt to pass through (picture 4). You could also cut a slot, but drilling a hole is easy and it worked fine. A minor issue is the head of the clamp bolt is very close to the plastic bed liner, so turning the bolt head with a wrench scratches the plastic. It is also a PITA was to tighten the bolts, so I bought 8 new M10 1.5 x 50 mm cap screws that can be tightened with an Allen wrench instead. See picture 4. Be aware that the rails are not symmetrical and that there is a front and rear end. You can swap them left to right side, but not flip them front to back. This means to be sure that you mark which side is the bottom to drill. You also have to decide where to locate the holes. I chose 3 1/8 and 7 ¼ for both front and back ends as this allows me to mount the racks as far apart as is possible on the bed. I also used a ½ inch hole. It took about an hour to modify the clamps and rails.
Yakima, Thule and others make some really nice rack systems that are specifically designed to bolt on to the Tacoma bed rail system, but if you have looked into any “universal fit” or generic racks, you probably already know that most of them do not play nice with the Tacoma (and Tundra) rail mounts. There are some universal racks that use “J bolts” that can grab the top of the Toyota rail, but they generally do not seem to be strong enough at least for my taste. The other issue is that most of the generic racks are about 6-8 inches taller than you would need for a Tacoma causing problems with getting in and out of my garage. There are some adjustable height racks, but these do not look very sturdy, and a common complaint is that they whistle, which would bother me on a 300 mile trip. The welding on some of the adjustable and non-adjustable aluminum rack looks questionable and there have been reports of welds cracking in the reviews. That left the possibility of customizing a universal rack to fit my Tacoma.
Harbor Freight has a pretty nice looking universal aluminum rack that seems sturdy based on comparing the thickness of the mounts and clamps and gets good reviews and is quiet at highway speeds. It is also bolted together, so you can cut the uprights to whatever height you want and then just tap the new hole and bolt it up. The clamps for the base plates clearly would not fit the Toyota rail system, but there were some good photos of them with a Tacoma bed that it looked like it would be possible to modify them to work. The other possibility is generic bed cap clamps that engage the Toyota rail. These would clamp without modification, but their top profile does not fit the profile of the rack base and they seem flimsy as there are reports of them bending and breaking and the product literature warns you not to torque more than 7.5 foot pounds. There are aluminum racks using these Toyota-specific clamps marketed specifically for Tacoma and Tundra, but they are about twice the price of their “universal” rack. I was ready to pull the trigger on the HF rack and the Toyota specific bed cap clamps would be my plan B if my plan A of modifying the original clamps didn’t work out. Before I bit, I took a look at Amazon and I found a rack that looked identical to the HF rack, but for $80 less, so I went with that one instead.
The HF version is called the: Haul Master 800
The Amazon one is called: Elevate Outdoor ATR Rack V2
The first thing I did was measure the original clamps for the rack with their base plate and found that the bottom of the clamp would fit nicely in the Tacoma rail if I cut 22 mm (7/8 inch) off the bottom end and drill and tap a new M10 1.5 hole centered 10 mm (7/16 inch) from the new cut end. I cut the clamp ends with a Sawzall using a 12 tpi non-ferrous metal / wood blade because I couldn’t figure out a good way to clamp them to my 10 inch miter saw. If one of those clamps got loose cutting it with the circular saw it could ruin your day. See pictures 1. 2 and 3. This also required drilling a hole in the bottom of the rail for the clamp bolt to pass through (picture 4). You could also cut a slot, but drilling a hole is easy and it worked fine. A minor issue is the head of the clamp bolt is very close to the plastic bed liner, so turning the bolt head with a wrench scratches the plastic. It is also a PITA was to tighten the bolts, so I bought 8 new M10 1.5 x 50 mm cap screws that can be tightened with an Allen wrench instead. See picture 4. Be aware that the rails are not symmetrical and that there is a front and rear end. You can swap them left to right side, but not flip them front to back. This means to be sure that you mark which side is the bottom to drill. You also have to decide where to locate the holes. I chose 3 1/8 and 7 ¼ for both front and back ends as this allows me to mount the racks as far apart as is possible on the bed. I also used a ½ inch hole. It took about an hour to modify the clamps and rails.
