Swagman Paramount Tailgate Pad for Full-Size Trucks - Up to 7 Bikes - 61" Wide

Video Transcript for Swagman Truck Bed Bike Racks Review - 2023 Chevrolet Silverado 1500

Hi everyone. Aiden here with etrailer. Today we're gonna be taking a look at the Swagman Paramount tailgate pad for full size trucks and seeing how it fits on our 2023 Chevrolet Silverado 1500. A tailgate pad is gonna be a great way to carry a large number of bikes with you whenever you're going to hit the trails or go riding with some friends. This one in particular can carry up to seven bikes and that's going to be the number of slots and straps it has available to secure down those bikes. One thing that you'll have to keep in mind is with how closely and tightly packed these are.

Depending on your bikes, they may or may not fit without clearance issues so you will have to keep that in mind and maybe do some workarounds to try to make it all work. But if you've got seven bikes and you need to get them somewhere, you really don't have many options unless you start splitting them between two different vehicles and maybe using hitch mounted racks between, again two different vehicles. So keep that in mind as you're looking at this. But this for me is one of my favorite tailgate pads because it's easy to use and it has a lot of nice convenience features like these extra thick foam blocks on the outside that just add for some extra padding protecting our truck a bit better and giving us a little bit more security for our bikes because it kind of wedges in the forks of the bike. So when the front tire is draped over there's going to be some more limitations for the side to side movement.

The hook and loop strap that holds the frame in place is going to do a pretty good job at it and especially if you can line up the back tire in the ridges of your bed there's not going to be too much room for movement here and things are gonna be pretty solid. Obviously a hitch-mounted rack is gonna be a lot more solid but this for me is doing the trick just fine. I'll get the bike undone here, starting with that hook and loop strap, which can be a little bit tricky to get your hand in there, but once you undo that and loosen it up from the frame, that whole thing just kind of removes from the loop here. So do keep an eye on it because you don't wanna lose it. And then you can lift your bike up and away.

This might be one of the things that kind of steers people away from a hitch mounted or from a tailgate pad rather and maybe towards something like a hitch mounted rack because you have to lift your bike up and over the side of the bed rails or the tailgate. And depending on how heavy your bikes are and how comfortable you are lifting that overhead, you might find that something lower to the ground is a bit more comfortable for you. But it really just depends on your setup. All it takes some time to get this strap resecured here and leave it so we don't lose it. And one thing I do wanna point out on the edge is that we are using this with a tunnel cover which can be a problem for some of these tailgate pads but there are cutouts on the edge here to make the rails for that tunnel cover fit just fine.

It's always good to know that you don't have to sacrifice extra functionality of your vehicle and incompatibilities with other accessories just to make this one work. Whenever bikes are unloaded, if you wanna leave this on the tailgate so it's ready to go for the next ride, you can pop open this buckle, flip this cover back and this will open up a panel right here where we can see our backup camera and access the button to lower down our tailgate. At the back here there's going to be another buckle to secure that flap into place and keep it held back. With it held back, we can also see the felt lining that's all throughout the tailgate pad. This is what actually makes contact with our truck and the paint keeping it protected. And on the back here we've got two large elastic mesh pockets. These are great for anything that we might wanna bring biking with us whether it's bike shoes, helmets, sunscreen, bug spray, anything we might need. It's just good to have it all in one place. And if it is something like bike shoes, having it be mesh we're gonna get some good airflow when you're going down the road and hopefully get some of that smell away. And as we push this back into place, you can see full function of the tailgate just like we would normally expect. For me, this one is a really solid option for most trucks because it packs a lot of features. But if you don't need this many bikes then I'd maybe check out something like the Swagman Tailwhip. That has a five bike capacity and gives you the option to move these straps all along the tailgate pad to space bikes out a little bit differently. So if you have a larger bike that needs a bit more space and some smaller bikes that can fit closer together, you can kind of customize that and make it work for your setup. Otherwise, it's gonna be a really solid option and I think it fits pretty well on the 2023 Chevrolet Silverado 1500. Thanks for watching.