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This custom fit half tailgate pad is a perfect solution for transporting bikes for you and your partner. It carries your bikes upright over your tailgate, while leaving your hitch free to tow a camper. Thick foam cushions all points of contact.
Features:
Specs:
Cushioned Protection for Your Truck and Bikes
With a 1" thick cushion running the entire length of the pad, the Kuat Huk offers superior protection for your tailgate and bikes. This provides more protection than half tailgate pads that only have cushions only on the front and back sides. And unlike half tailgate pads with thin, notched cushions on the top, the Huk allows for flexible positioning of your bikes so they don't bump into each other.
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
How's it going, neighbors This is Ed with etrailer.com, and we're taking a look at the Huk half tailgate pad on the back of our 2022 Toyota Tacoma. The Huk half is a solid bike pad for the back of your truck. It's gonna fall into the more premium category for it. In general, the reason you would select the half is if you just have one or two bikes that you're transporting. Also, if you're wanting to still keep half of the truck bed open for whatever else you may be taking out along with you. The material that it's made out of is TPU, and essentially what that is is a weather resistant, abrasion resistant material that's super soft to the touch that's gonna help keep the bike, you know, keep any damage from your bicycle, as far as scratching.
You wanna definitely make sure when you come off of the trail that your bike is free of debris because these points, like with your nylon straps and buckles here and right underneath here where it makes contact with the pad, you know, if you get dirt in here and you get a little vibration, that can cause micro scratches or scratches. You may notice the gap right here closer to the edge. Once you get closer to the bike, once this is fenced down, you can see around the frame, it actually fills in that negative space and conforms to the shape of the frame. So it helps hold it securely, as well as protecting both the truck bed and the bike frame. On the back of our Huk, you can see we have five contact points to run our straps through, and this is where we're gonna be able to secure our bike using the rear nylon strap.
On this particular model, the Tacoma's bed is gonna align with this first strap where the wheel well is gonna get in the way, so this first position is pretty much unusable. It'll be the same with this one if you we're to move it to the driver's side. But you still have plenty of space to position your bikes where they're not making, where you can minimize the contact. If you have trail bikes or mountain bikes like these guys, they tend to be a little bit wider, have a little bit bigger footprint versus a road bike, that's gonna be a little bit more narrow where you can kind of put 'em closer together. So just things to consider if you're thinking about using a truck pad on your Tacoma.
So we're gonna take a closer look at our carrier. We first remove our bike. We're gonna push up on the retaining clip on our nylon strap and just pull it loose. From there, we are free from our pad and we can park this guy over here and we'll take a look. If you notice, the straps are secured at the bottom using these powder coated G-Hooks.
These guys are gonna be weather resistant and, you know, corrosion resistant as well with that powder coating. One of the cooler things as far as how you install it, instead of trying to fish it the other way, you actually drop it underneath. A lot of the other pads, you actually have to fish it from the underside of the tailgate and try to retrieve it on the back. So this is one of the easier installations as well. So I went with the installation of the Huk on the passenger side to try to keep from blocking out the backup camera. On the Tacoma, it's actually offset to the driver's side of the handle, but you're kind of picking your poison with this where you don't have access to the key slot for your tailgate. If you would prefer to have the key slot available, you can put it on the other side and it'll fit in the same way, but you're just selecting what thing you're gonna block off. One thing to consider as well, if you have your bikes loaded, you can access anything in the bed from over the side, so just consider that. So this is Ed with etrailer.com. Thanks for hanging out with me here checking out the Huk half on the back of the 2022 Toyota Tacoma. Have a great day.
Ratings & Reviews
Easy to install and remove from tailgate. Securely holds cruisers and mountain bikes.
Holds up well to rain and weathering, although it is better to store in garage when not using.
Service rep was very helpful in shipping me a new unit since the 1st one I received did not fit my tailgate properly. Thank you!
Good quality and fast delivery. Will work great with for transporting our bikes.
It is a well-made and highly functional pad. My only issue is that the e trailer video that described it sttted and it appeared to work with the tailgate up and a flexible tonneau cover deployed. On my 2018 F150 with a Gator brand tonneau it does not close with the pad installed without bowing the tonneau end bar up and/or jamming the tailgate so much that the latch is jammed and hard to use. That was disappointing to find out after seeing your video and thinking it would work.
Love this rack! I’m using it with my e-bike and was concerned the straps wouldn’t be long enough for the thick downtube. No problem works like a charm! The thick pads are also in the perfect location.
Easy to mount on the tailgate. The straps work well, but I would have preferred the straps holding the pad to the tailgate permanently connected to the pad instead of the hooks. While the hooks work well, they are loose so they can get lost when stored.
The straps to hold the bike to the pad are confusing. Which way does the tab go? Fortunately, it does not seem to matter how you use them.
Mounting the bike on the pad was easy. Since I’m 70 and not as strong as I once was, I mounted the bike over the tailgate while standing in the bed of the truck. No issues at all. Dismounting the bike was just a reverse of the steps and just as easy.
While driving, the bike barely wiggled, very stable. As a precaution, I strapped a piece of pool noodle to the frame in case it did try to bounce on the tonneau cover or the second bike. But that was not necessary. Much less stressful than watching the bike bounce in the hitch rake, wondering when it will fly.
Two Honda specific issues. First, the pad covers the backup camera if the pad is on the driver side, but not if mounted on the passenger side. Second, since the truck has a short bed, you must put the bike in the bed at an angle to close the tailgate. This makes loading the second bike more difficult since you have little room to maneuver in the truck bed.
Another reviewer noted they had trouble closing the rollup tonneau cover with the pad mounted. I did not have that problem. A little extra push and it shut.
Gwendolyn Y.
4/30/2026
Thanks for taking the time to share you experience with the tailgate bad. I'm glad it helps you get our and bike the trails :)
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Gary
6/25/2025
We still use this when we are riding and its in great shape. Makes it simple to put the bikes in and out of the truck bed.