Today on our 2012 Ford F-150, we're going to install the Thule Xsporter Truck Bed Rack, part number TH422XT. First, we're going to need our four upright supports and our upright rails, and we're going to assemble them together. We'll insert our upright rails into the upright support and line up the slots. Once you have the slot lined up, you can close the cam handle, securing the upright rail into the support. We'll assemble all four of the upright rail assemblies. The next thing we need to do is clean up our bed rails.
We're just going to use some spray cleaner and a shop towel to wipe them down and make sure they're free of dirt and debris. With our bed rails cleaned, we're ready to start test fitting our rail supports. We want to find the location that we can clamp that's not going to interfere with wheel wells or mountings points, or anything like that. Once we found our spot, we're going to need to assemble our clamps. We'll take the bolts and the jam nuts and thread the jam nut all the way down to the end of the bolt then we'll take our bolt and jam nut assembly and thread it in to our clamp.
We'll do this for all the clamps and then we'll start mounting our supports to the bed. We're going to start here at the passenger's side front corner. We'll fit our clamps onto the rail support, set the rail support into place, and then we'll tighten down the bolts to the bed rail. As we start to tighten the bolts, we're going to fit the clamp pad channel on top of the bolt beneath our bed rail and we're going to hand tighten the bolts. Once we've done that for our first support, we're going to go over and do the other support on the driver's side.
We're going to use a tape measure and measure against the cab of our truck to make sure we set them up in line with each other. We'll attach all four bed rail supports to our bed, again making sure that the driver's side is always in line with the support on the passenger's side. With all four of our supports in place, now we're ready to start mounting the crossbars up on top of our support. We'll take our crossbar and on the bottom slot we'll install for of our T-bolts. We'll pick the crossbar up on top of our supports and make sure that our T-bolts are route through the bolt holes.
We'll double check to make sure that our crossbar is even from left to right and then we'll use the flat washer and nylon locking nuts to tighten it down. We'll repeat the same procedure for the crossbar in the rear. Once we verified that everything is straight, we'll go back to the bolts on our clamps and tighten them down. Once they're firmly tightened, we'll take the jam nut and tighten the jam nut against the clamp. Once we've made sure everything is tight, we'll open the cam handles and make sure we can lift our crossbars up and down. Now that we have all of our crossbar assemblies tightened to our truck and we've checked to make sure we can still raise or lower them, we've just got a few last things that we need to do to button up this installation. The first thing that we're going to do is install our lock horse on the four cam handles. That way, we can lock our ladder rack to our truck. We'll insert the change key into our lock cylinder. We'll put the cylinder into place on the cam handle, remove the change key, and then use the lock key to lock the cylinder in place. We'll do that for all four of the lock cylinders. After we've installed all four of lock horse, the last thing we have to do is install our Weatherguard stripping. A quick tech tip: We use the soapy water solution to help lubricate our tracks when we install these Weatherguard strips and it makes a lot easier for them to fit in. We'll fit our Weatherguard stripping into the channels and cut it to fit. We'll do the same for the top and the bottom. The Weatherguard strip seals up the tracks to keep water out and it also helps keep wind noise down. With our Weatherguard strip installed, that completes the installation of our Thule Xsporter Ladder Rack part number TH422XT on our 2012 Ford F-150.
DeWalt Ladder Rack Installation - 2005 Ford F-150
Today on this 2005 Ford F150 Long Bed, were going to be installing the Dewalt Industrial Grade Steel Truck Rack, part number DIGFFR360. Before we actually get started installing the truck rack system, we need to do a little bit of pre-assembly. And the first thing we need to do is just to figure out which side rail setup we need for our particular truck, so you want to go ahead and measure the length of the bed first and per the instructions, you determine the setup that you need for the side mounting rails. Now, the particular setup were using today is a long bed and its a 99-inch bed, so were going to need not only the long base rail, but two of the short base rails as well which when installed, this is going to look something like this. We can go ahead and start aligning the long base rail and what we want to do is go ahead and center it on the side rail of the truck not only front to back but side to side as well. Go ahead and do that for the passenger's side rail as well.
TracRac Cantilever for G2 Ladder Rack Installation - 2006 Ford F-150
Today in this 2006 Ford F150 with an eight-foot bed were going to add cantilever over the cab extension part number TA44000-02. Well be adding this to our tack rack kit TA21000-02. In order to add our cantilever kit we need to replace the sidles on our existing rack. What well do is go ahead and remove the bolt for the cross bar and then remove the bolt for the sidle unit. Then repeat the same process on the passenger side. Now we got our tension points loosen up.
TracRac G2 Sliding Ladder Rack Installation - 2006 Ford F-150
Today were working on a 2006 Ford F150 with an eight foot bed. Were going to install the TracRac overhead rack system, part number TA21000-02. For installation, well first need to install our base rail kit. The base rails stand up on the edge of the bed rails. They are side, front to back specific so you need to make sure you identify the correct base rail for the driver and passenger side. Once weve done that well need to mark the holes that will be our mounting points.
