Video Transcript for Review of the Westin Overland Truck Bed Rack

How's it going, neighbors This is Ed here with etrailer.com, and we're gonna take a look at the Westin Overland Ladder Rack. There's two schools of thought generally with these types of rigs. Some people like going with a single brand like ARB or Front Runner, where everything works together and all the accessories intermingle easily right out the box. Whereas if you're the type of person that wants to customize and make it their own specific setup, this is gonna be a great format for a person that's not scared to customize. The Overland is constructed of 14 gauge, black powder-coated steel that also has a e-coat underneath. And what that's gonna do for you, it's gonna help hold up against the corrosion and just the abuse of being on the back of a vehicle in some pretty extreme conditions.

Your hardware is stainless steel, and that's gonna help hold up against corrosion and rust as well, and it'll make it really easy. If you ever need to make adjustments with these center bars, you can set 'em out to go in closer using the included holes, and you also have more holes on the top front and rear cross bars in order to make more connections to customize it for your setup. The Overland has a great value with the fact that it comes with your sidebar, and it's already pre-drilled for RotopaX brackets and those high lift jacks that you could put on the side of your rig. Another popular accessory for off-roading and overlanding are recovery boards. One thing I found is that with the recovery boards, the way that it positions, especially when you have a tent, the Maxtrax MKIIs, these guys just don't fit.

If you we inchesre to put the bracket on, there's no way to actually line it up, partially because of the mountain range cutout there. It makes it really difficult to use these guys on the side. However, the Overland is a solid skeleton, so to speak, for your setup. So you can definitely think of other ways, maybe on the inside of the bed, hanging it from the bottom where you can make recovery boards work, or you could go with the half-size recovery boards to fit into this space here, but you'll still have to come up with your own mounting solution. And taking advantage of having this additional space on top of the bed of your Gladiator, you still have access to the cargo area.

So I have my huge tote right here that's gonna give you kind of a representation. You know, that's gonna fit your coolers, your grills, propane tanks, all the things you need for your fun time out in the world. As far as your height, we're gonna get your max height from the bottom of the bed to the top bar, it's right at 27 inches. So that's gonna give you a pretty decent amount of space to fit those bulkier items underneath your setup here. As far as the tent that we have on top, a lot of our neighbors that we spoke with, when we do ladder racks on the backs of vehicles, the number one request is for us to throw a tent up there.

So this is giving you an example with the Yakima, the SkyRise tent, of the type of footprint that you'll have with a tent on here. As you can kind of see on the edges, it makes it really tight for like your RotopaX Jerry can, and you would have to plan accordingly, but it's not impossible. The overall weight capacity is right at 400 pounds, so that's gonna work for most situations for rooftop tents. We also have options for slimline tents where you don't necessarily need that entire space taken up. The Overland is also available in a longer 57 inch with side rail. That's gonna work for the Toyota Tacoma. And both versions, the 45 and 57, require having the OEM Track system installed in the bed, and that's where it works right here. You just bolt it right in. Installation and materials are the same, just a longer length for the Toyota. Overall, the Overland is a great option for setting up your truck in a way where you can customize it to be exactly what you want for your rig. You do have other options that we offer here at etrailer.com. Thule TracRac is a really solid product as far as a ladder rack system. And the Yakima OutPost is gonna be pretty close to the height as far as a mid-level rack that doesn't go above the cab. It uses channel mount versus brackets and nuts and bolts. So you just kind of have to compare that pros and cons for what works best for your setup. So again, this has been Ed with etrailer.com, taking a look at the Westin Overland Ladder Rack system for both the Jeep Gladiator and the Toyota Tacoma. Have a great day.