To see if this custom-fit item will work for you please tell us what vehicle you'll use it with.
Your truck needs to be ready for more than one job a day. This rack carries long cargo overhead so your truck bed stays usable for tools, bins, and bags. And you can adjust the height as the load changes and stop reshuffling before you hit the road.
Your truck works best when it's ready for whatever the day brings, not locked into one job. This rack is built to move long gear overhead so the bed stays open for tools, bins, and bags you want within easy reach. Instead of reshuffling loads or choosing between work and weekend plans, this setup can carry lumber or kayaks, regardless of when you're doing it. You set it once, get familiar with it, and spend less time solving logistics before you roll out.
Different loads call for different setups, and this rack is designed to adjust based on what you're hauling. The height changes easily so you can run it low for bikes or a rooftop tent, then raise it when you need clearance for kayaks, ladders, or longer gear that won't fit in the bed. The rack uses lightweight yet tough aluminum uprights and crossbars that provide the strength needed to support heavy loads, whether the rack is set low or raised. Plus, you can mount clamp-on accessories around the bars or use the upper and lower T-tracks to install channel-mount accessories. And each bar has built-in tie-down points on each end for ratchet or cinch straps.
The system includes the crossbars, uprights, mounting kit, hardware, and a ratcheting wrench, so it's ready to install out of the box. The uprights bolt directly to your Toyota's utility rails using the included mounting kit, then the crossbars attach to the uprights to complete the setup. The included ratcheting wrench lets you tighten everything to the proper torque without guessing, and its design clears tight angles so nothing gets in the way as you work. The process stays straightforward from start to finish, with no trial-and-error adjustments.
Alternate Instructions
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Hi, I'm Matt with etrailer, and today we'll be talking about the Thule Escape Ladder Rack on the back of our 2022 Toyota Tacoma. Now what I really like about this ladder rack is that it's going to be adjustable for the height. So right now it's sitting above our cab and that's perfect if you have anything longer like some lumber, piping, or if you use this for recreational uses, you can even use it with anything like a kayak. And you can lower it down so it's a little bit closer to your truck bed, and I like that because if you want to put something up here, either like a bike rack or a tent up here so it's easier to access, that's another reason why you might want to lower it down. But it's important that you find the right one for you so I would recommend using our fit guide because we do have the Toyota rails on here, so you want to make sure you are grabbing something that is going to work with this like the one we have today. Now my main goal today is to tell you how it's going to work with the truck we have, and where I want to start is with the two pieces we get with our kit.
So we are going to get these 60 inch long bars, and beneath there we are going to get the actual ladder or the tower itself. Now focusing with the bar itself, this is going to be a pretty beefy one, and what I like about this design is it's very low profile and very flat on top. That's going to help anything sit on here a little bit easier. And you are going to have a tie off point here at the edge, so you can tie off anything like your kayaks or your lumber, or your tools like that. You're going to have some weather stripping here that's going to prevent any wind from blowing and whistling through here, because right underneath this, if I can peel this up, we are going to have this T channel if you have any T channel accessories.
Now I'm going to put that back down. There's going to be an additional T channel underneath here. And this one is used to connect our actual tower into place. And you can notice it's in two different sections. And this is going to be the section that extends up so we will get a lot of rise out of this.
You can actually look at our specs on our page to see what that match rise and drop will be. And this is going to be the base of it. And now this is going to be a pretty sleek design. I think it matches our truck bed caps pretty well. And there's also going to be some hardware that attaches it from the inside.
So you'll notice right over here we have a bolt on either side that goes through, and there's going to be a plate that you install on over here. And what I like about this is it's not going to require any modifications to our truck bed so it's really easy to install, and I'll show you that process later on. Now when it comes to how sturdy this is going to be, it's going to have two different capacities. If it's at the lowest position, that's going to be 500. And then if you have it on anything above that, it's going to drop down to 300 pounds just because it is way further away. Still 300 pounds is going to be able to work with a lot of stuff out there and that's going to be its dynamic capacity when you're driving down on the road. Now when it comes to where you should set this, it's going to depend on what type of stuff you have, but right now I think this is going to be a great height if you want to clear the cab. And the height we have it at right now is going to be five visible notches that are not being used here in the side. And that distance from the bottom of our bed is going to be roughly about 41 inches. So that's still plenty enough to store anything else you might need on your trips. Now when it comes to the crossbar spread, you're going to have a wide range of what you can work with. At the moment I am sitting at about 49 inches. We still have a little bit more room at the end so even if you have something with a really wide crossbar spread, this will most likely accommodate it. But that's pretty much it for some of the things that really stand out to me on how it fits on our Tacoma today. Now if you're looking for another option out there, another one that's really good is going to be the Yakima overhaul. And really I think it's just going to come down to what brand you're a little bit more familiar with or which one you like some more. Me personally, I just like the look of the Thule ones, and I find it a little bit easier to raise and lower them because with the Yakima one, there are going to be a few more bolts you have to tighten and loosen down compared to this one, where there's only going to be one on either side of the crossbar. So really efficient to use. All right so the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to grab my crossbar. I already have one of them installed. It's going to be the same process for either one. With this crossbar, if you already have this weather stripping on here, you're just going to peel this back and there is going to be a bolt inside of here. Use your tool that comes with your kit and we'll get this taken off of here. And once that's removed, we'll be able to take off our end cap. Now with that off, what we're going to do is set this down. You could take off both end caps. I find it easier just to take off one of them. And then we'll install our towers. Now the way you install your towers is you want to make sure that this inside is facing in like this. So I'm just going to grab this little block here on the top of the tower, slide it through this channel. If it's too tight, you can always loosen this with this hardware here. Now with that pushed in, you'll grab another tower, set that down, and you want this to face in the opposite direction. But the legs should be facing forward like before. And if you have a friend, they can help you out, but you should be able to do it yourself too. You're going to get this rubber pad too. It's going to have some nibs on there. You just want to make sure the nibs are lined up. So right now mine's a little bit off so I'm going to flip it around, make sure that's going to work for my application. Yeah, that's looking pretty good. You just apply pressure and it should seat in. You'll do that on both sides. Now you're going to grab your crossbar with the towers and you're just going to lower it down. And we're trying to get this lined up to the side of our bed walls. Once you get this lined up, it is recommended if you have a friend, they'll come over to one side as you hold this in place. Tap it in some so we can get the same overhang on either side. All right now we need to secure this down into place. So what I'm going to do is grab this little plate that comes from the kit. Now this is important to note that these plates and this clip here are designed for the Tacoma rail system we have in our bed. Now if you do have a version of the Tacoma that doesn't have that, you are going to get some other J style clamps. So just grab underneath your bed rail and squeeze this platform to your bed. But in most cases, you're probably going to use these. So what I'm going to do is press this into the clip, just like that. Pretty easy to do. And then what we do from here is you'll put the plate inside of that rail system and you're going to line it up with these holes here. And I found this is actually even pretty easy to move to the other one too. You would just put your hand underneath here and you can still grab onto that clip and get it lined up, just like that. What we're going to do now is grab our hardware. There's going to be a washer and a larger bolt, and we're going to skew it down from here. Line it up with that plate we just installed. And I'm just going to loosely tighten this down till it's hand tight. But I'm only going to put one bolt on it for right now. Then I'm going to repeat that on the other side. Reason being is I want to make sure this doesn't fall on me as I'm working on it. Once both of those are in place, then you can put the second one on here too. All right now we're going to take our special tool. It is important that you don't lose this because this is going to have a very specific type of tip on there that you won't be able to find anywhere else. So with this, I'm going to come up here and I'll make sure you can tighten it down. And I would just recommend tighten this down till it feels very snug. Put a decent amount of pressure in here, but you want to make sure you don't strip these either. All right, and really the last step is just going to be us coming down here. We're going to tighten down these as well, make sure they're fairly snug. I've already done that on the other side. And from there, you can throw up any type of gear you have. Also make sure you give this a good shake test, make sure it's not going to go anywhere. And if it feels good, you can take it out for a ride. Now if you guys have any other questions, let us know here at etrailer. And again, I'm Matt, and thanks for watching.
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