Rail Kit Installation - 2004 Ford F-250 - Video

All right, today on a 2004 Ford F-250 long bed, we are going to install BestRail kit part number 42730. One of the first things to do to prepare the rails is apply some camper tape to the bottom of them which is supplied with the kit. There are three rails we have to do this to. It is really simple. We will apply the tape to this edge here, over this gap, and onto this ridge right here. We will just work our way back all the way down. Repeat the same process on the other two rails. The next step is to slide three of the clamps into each one of the BestRail side rails. Using an 1/ 8 inch Allen wrench, we are going to install four of the 1/4 by 20 by 3/ 8 inch set screws in each of the corner brackets. Next we are going to go ahead and take the front BestRail and place it on the front rail of the truck bed. more

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Posted: 10/7/2009 9:41:31 PM

Rola Ladder Pegs with Tie Down Straps for Roof Racks Demonstration - Video

Today we are going to be showing you part number 59881. It is the ladder peg with tie downs from Rola. Each package comes with four and these ladder pegs install in the channel of your Rola roof rack cross bars to provide support for ladders and other similar loads. The pegs come with many tie down straps and are sold four to a pack. We will go ahead and show you how these install on the roof rack itself. We have them installed on the front one as you can see. Now we will go ahead and show you on the back one exactly what is needed to get everything set up. First we are going to go ahead and loosen up this arm here so we can actually slide in the plates that the ladder pegs actually screw into. Lift up like so, and you loosen the screw here. And then this strip here will actually be removed. more

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Posted: 9/21/2009 5:03:07 PM

Karrite Full-Frame Truck Bed Rack Review - Video

Today we are going to show you part number 98101, the Full-Frame Truck Rack from Karrite. A couple of points about this truck rack: it features 2-inch outside diameter, high-strength, steel construction. And the steel construction is encased in black powder coat. And also what is nice about this is that the rear part of the bar is actually removable, so you can load refrigerators, or big boxes or whatnot. And also, it has a built-in rear handle and equipment hanger, you can see on the end of the truck, so you can put down your cables or something else you want to hang off there. And it also makes a good hand hold to climb up on the truck. And the weight capacity of this rack is in excess of the deck capacity, so it is always a good idea to check the vehicle manufacturer for the actual bed capacity that it can hold. more

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Posted: 4/7/2009 4:11:49 PM

Karrite Full-Frame Truck Ladder Rack Installation - Video

Today we are going to install part number 98101 from Karrite. This is their full-frame truck rack. We are going to install this on a 2006 Ford F-150. It does have a bed liner in it and we did take it out to make it a little bit easier access to the bolts when we install it. Other than that, we will show you how it gets installed. All right, we will begin by putting our two top rails together. This will make the entire length of the rack itself. What is going to happen is they are going to fit together like so. When you fit them together right, these two places will be flat. It you do it the wrong way, on the wrong side, they will not line up. Put a little bit sealant around here as you put them together. Once you have them together, you can go ahead and bolt them. And these you can go ahead and snug on down. more

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Posted: 3/26/2009 3:48:26 PM

Thule Professional Cap Ladder Rack System Installation - Video

Today we are going to install part number TH342 from Thule. This is part of the Professional Line. This is a Cap Rack System that gets bolted to the top of the cap of your truck whether it be a fiberglass unit as we have shown here or an aluminum unit that can be also available. The first step involved is to find a place where you can actually mount the rack itself. Generally, in the corners of the cap area is going to be your strongest area. Try not to go too far forward away from the corner, to keep it as strong as possible. Also, you have to take into account what is underneath here. On aluminum racks, you have the bars that are going across the frame of it. And also, on some fiberglass caps, such as this one, there is a layer of insulation or a thicker material underneath here. We actually had to fit between that thicker layer and the corner here, so that is why these are sitting as far in the corner as possible. And once you have the pads in place where you want them, we did tape them down to hold everything in place. And we will go ahead and drill out our holes to mount them. more

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Posted: 11/17/2008 3:25:39 PM

Thule Professional Pickup Truck Ladder Rack Installation - Video

Well begin our process with the main cross bar. Well start by putting our caps on the ends. These just slide in like so. Take this little screw and just they thread their own hole in the plastic that holds it in place. Following that, you install four bolts that slide into the track. There are two on each side. At this point we can start assembling the main uprights. Basically, they install on the bolts we just installed, and we bolt them loosely as we may have to adjust them depending on the bed of the truck. At this point we can set the rack on the truck itself, again leaving it loose for adjustments, this will require the help of an extra person. Once you get it the way you want it, go ahead and snug down one of the bolts just for the readjustment, at least it gets you in the ballpark. At this point we start the assembly of the clamps themselves. more

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Posted: 8/7/2008 3:05:59 PM

Thule Professional Ladder Rack Tilt Installation - Video

This works with the professional series ladder rack. To install the ladder tilt, what we have to do is disassemble a couple parts of the rack thats on your vehicle. What happens here is this rubber strip gets taken off and these ladder holders get taken off, they get replaced by the ladder tilt. The next piece that has to come off only temporarily is the end cap. We put this back on when we install the ladder tilt. This is the completed ladder tilt, it slides onto the track. This one rides on the top track and this one rides with a special bolt on the side track, then it just slides into place. Once its in place we can put our end cap back on. Then this whole assembly gets slid all the way to the end. You have a little adjustment left or right obviously. Start at the end and tighten down these bolts here. When youre finished with this one, repeat the process for the other rack. more

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Posted: 7/24/2008 8:41:59 AM

Thule Professional Ladder Tilt Review - Video

Well show you how this works, you just open up the latch and give it a gentle pull towards you which will bring the rack down. This is the strap that hold the ladder in place and keeps it from going anywhere. It simply works like a ratchet mechanism. Also on this assembly are the ladder stops and theyre infinitely adjustable across the whole rack as well as the ratchet strap. Lets go ahead and put a ladder on there and show you how it works. To lock everything back into place, you simply slide the latch back over. Just to let you know what you get for this part number, this system includes two aluminum tilting arm assemblies, one pair of adjusting ladder holders, four powder coated aluminum adjustable load stops and the hardware to install this on your existing Thule rack. There you have it for part number 339, the ladder tilt from Thule. more

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Posted: 8/7/2008 3:01:05 PM

Thule Professional Ladder Rack Conduit Box Installation - Video

The first step you want to take is to decide which end you want to be the front of it, which goes towards the front of the vehicle. Once you determine that, well install the bracing that goes up front. The first step involved is opening up the hatch to install the T-nuts which go in the tracks at the bottom of the unit. Before that though, we have to add special teflon washers to the T-nuts. Once thats accomplished we need to install our T-nuts into the tracks at the bottom here. You access them on the inside and push them down into the track. There will be four on each side. The next thing to install is the back stop, which includes installing the handle. Moving to the other side we install two bolts just like we did on the front but without the back stop. If you remember the T-nuts we installed earlier, thats part of the clamping system that holds it down to the rack. more

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Posted: 7/24/2008 8:37:16 AM

Thule Professional Ladder Rack Conduit Box Review - Video

The idea behind this product was to obviously carry conduit, plastic or metal tubes for industrial applications. Well show you how it works. To use this product is a simple act, you just push the button latch, you open the rear hatch and put the conduit in. As an added security feature, the hatch does have a lock. Well show you a couple of measurements here to give you an idea of the size of the conduit box. The height is approximately 5 inches, and the opening at its most narrow point, is 7 inches, pass the latch is 7 3/4 inches. The overall length of the conduit box is 10 feet which does not include the end caps. You can tell the heavy duty construction of this conduit box by the fact that its made of stainless steel. The only high impact plastic is found on the end caps which have been reinforced with ribs for extra strength. Well now open the front latch to show you the stopper installed to keep your cargo secure. more

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Posted: 8/7/2008 3:04:39 PM

Thule Professional Series Ladder Rack Roller Installation - Video

The purpose of this part is it adds a roller to your existing professional ladder rack so you can load heavy ladder onto it from the rear. You just push it all the way up to the front and you have a little more control over it so your ladder doesnt drag on the bar itself. Well show you how the unit installs now. Well start with the roller attachments here, it comes in separate parts, basically all you do is put this block in here and thread your bolt onto the inside here and this hole will simply slide into your track on your Thule Professional Series ladder rack. Again it slides into your track and theres one on each side of the roller. The next step is to set the roller ends where you want them and tighten it down. more

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Posted: 7/22/2008 12:08:04 PM

Thule Professional Locking Ladder Holders Review - Video

These rapid action locking ladder holders allow you to attach ladders to your professional series ladder rack here with out having to tie them down or anything like that. They work with any extension ladder to quickly secure and lock the ladder to your Thule professional ladder rack. The clamps are constructed of heavy duty steel and come in a pair of two. Well install a ladder and show you how they clamp down. Once you have a ladder in place its a simple matter of moving the latch over and installing the locking knob. After that all we need to do is repeat for the front rack. more

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Posted: 8/7/2008 3:00:19 PM

Thule Professional Series Locking Ladder Holder Installation - Video

What this device does is lock your ladder into place on the Thule Professional Ladder Rack so it will not go anywhere. Well assemble one of these clamps to show you how it works. The first thing we need to do is take off our end cap and install two square nuts into the slot were going to use. The next thing we need to do is install the rubber pad onto the bracket. Next we loosely install the bracket onto the square nuts we installed earlier, it gets a special alan bolt and a washer. We need to leave it loose so we can move it back and forth. Next we need a measurement of the ladder where the attachment point will be. In this case were looking at 20 1/2 inches. Next were going to install the rubber pad for the approximately the same width as the ladder away from the bracket on the rail. Going back to the brackets, we need to install some pads on the brackets here. more

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Posted: 7/24/2008 8:45:08 AM

Thule Professional Ladder Rack Eye Bolts Review - Video

As you can see here we have one of the eye bolts on display, with that part number you get two of them. Thules eye bolt can slide into any one of these sides of the Thule professional loadbar T-slots which makes them extremely versatile. The eye bolts will quickly lock into place with a quarter turn or slide into a new position as we will demonstrate here shortly. To install it we need to take off the cap and the eye bolt will install on any one of the three channels you see. Now well put a tie down to cover our ladders and steel on top of the rack. more

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Posted: 8/7/2008 2:59:44 PM

Thule Professional Ladder Lift Installation - Video

To begin with, we need to prepare our Thule Professional Ladder Rack, and that means taking off the end caps. At this point it would probably be a good idea to remove all the load stops on the rack. Next we need to install two square nuts at the top of each rail. We can re-install the end caps now. Next we install the bar mount, it goes on top here and theres two holes at either end. These get screwed into the square nuts we put in earlier. Now we can snug them down and well do the same thing for the rear. Now we can get the arms ready to be installed on the rails. That entails putting square nuts here and one rubber pad in the middle. Well repeat for the back arm too. We need to install the brackets on the end of the arms. They simply mount here to those square nuts. Now we can install our knob to the bracket and just leave it loose. more

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Posted: 7/24/2008 8:38:49 AM

Thule Professional Ladder Lift with Assist Review - Video

Well begin by showing you how the ladder lift works and then well show you the attributes of it. First lets install a ladder on it and show you how it works. Well go ahead and put our clamp on and hold it in place. There is one on each side. With our ladder locked into place we can lift it to the top of the rack. The ladder is up in place, all we have to do now is secure the ladder lift. That requires to pins and locking it down. With the safety pins installed and the locks locked down, your ladder is ready for transport. To remove the ladder we simply reverse the procedures. Unlock it, pull the safety pins and lower it down. Construction of this unit is the same as any of the Thule professional racks, all aluminum construction except for the pivot point which is painted steel. more

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Posted: 8/7/2008 3:04:01 PM

Thule Professional Ladder Rack Review - Video

This high capacity great looking pick up rack will carry all of your equipment needs with a 750 pound maximum capacity and requires no drilling as it clamps onto your bed rails. The aerodynamic tri-slot load bar with the rubber provides load support and protects equipment from damages. Also it makes a great base for a lot of different accessories for this rack. Finally, there are a set of four load stops to get you going right off the bat. Well just toss up a ladder to show you how this works. A nice part about this rack is the load stops are adjustable to custom fit your ladder. Now your ladder is ready to be tied down in any fashion that you like. With your ladder latched down youre ready for service. There you have it for part number TH375 from Thule, part of their professional series. more

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Posted: 8/7/2008 3:02:49 PM

Thule Professional Ladder Rack Awning Assembly - Video

This awning mounts onto Thules professional series load bars Also, this awning can be installed on Thules other line of load bars. Before we mount this on our bars theres a few little things we have to do. First off we have to install the T-nuts that go into the track at the bottom, and then we install the caps to close them off. There will be four T-nuts that go in each track. Next we add this cap to the other side. Next we need to install the clamps that hold the awning to the load bars, thats a simple strap right here. We will put a couple of bolts in and hold them loosely in place and slide this whole assemble onto the load bars. And then our next step would be to go ahead and get an extra pair of hands and we will go ahead and mount the awning on top of the bars themselves. Once you get the awning situated the way you want it on your load bars, then go ahead and clamp them down into place. We need to make one technical note here, this awning is specified for three load bars, instead of the two shown here. Chances are this is probably going to be used on a van more than it is on a pickup truck bed but everything still applies to that application. That covers it for part # TH326. more

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Posted: 7/14/2008 6:13:19 AM

Thule Professional Ladder Rack Tilting Load Stops Review - Video

This is a tilting load stop that works on the Thule professional series ladder racks. This is a really handy device to have on your ladder rack as it does not require you grabbing a knob to move it down. You simply grab it and pull down towards you which loosens it like a ratchet. You slide it to where you want it and you push it back up and it locks into position. Well install a couple and show you how it works and how useful it can be. To install the tilting load stop, we have to take off this cap because it slides into this track right here. Pretty much its installed and to lock it into place you flip it up and it does not go anywhere. Now well repeat for the other side. Well show you a typical application for these load stops as they are designed to work with the existing load stops on the ladder rack. more

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Posted: 8/7/2008 3:01:49 PM

Thule Professional Ladder Rack Awning Review - Video

This is a professional awning that goes with the professional series ladder racks for your trucks. This awning is great for providing shade anywhere on the work site, and possibly for some tailgating activities. Aside from those two, you could possibly use it in some sporting events, if you have to sell tickets or stuff like that, it is great little place to do it under. Now we will show you how it works. To extend the awning, there is a hand crank that you install onto the drivers side of the truck and it goes in there you twist it and pull it down, it then falls into place and you can uncrank the awning. To extend this what you do is extend it out to about a foot and a half to two feet, and then we down the legs. If you do this on concrete or on a somewhat slick surface, you may want an extra set of hands since the feet could slide on the bottom. If you were on the dirt the feet will not go anywhere. The legs simply pop out and come down. more

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Posted: 8/7/2008 3:05:15 PM