Rhino-Rack T-Load Assist and Support Bar Review

Review of the Rhino-Rack T-Load Assist and Support Bar

Today, we're going to be taking a look at the Rhino-Rack T-Load Assist and Support Bar, Part Number RRRTL001. Now you can carry bigger, longer loads with your load assist here attached to your hitch ball. It's perfect for ladders, kayaks and even lumber if you're looking to make some home improvements around the house. Load assist has a varying height adjustment, from 42 to 64 inches, to accommodate vehicles of varying sizes and heights. It also has a weight capacity of 132 pounds to carry your heavy items. On top of our load assist, we have a 49 inch long aero-style crossbar, with two load stops, which can accommodate either your traditional loads like your ladders, or be reversed around for your kayaks. The load assist has a tilting option, that actually helps you load and unload your heavy items. The load assist attaches to your existing hitch ball, and our hardware and tools are included to install.

It also includes an anti-swivel plate, which ensures less play with your hitch ball when installed. This is made from a steel construction with an e-coat and black cutter coat finish, which is for its durability and resist rust and corrosion. The load assist also comes with a lock core and two keys, to better secure it to your hitch ball. Although, we strongly recommend that you get a hitch lock for your ball mount as well for added security, so someone just doesnt walk up and take it out. We recommend the stainless steel hitch receiver lock, part number 40107. Now that weve gone over some of the features, Im going to go ahead and show you how to install it. Now first, you are going to want to remove your two inch ball from your ball mount as we need to install and anti-swivel plate.

Now you want to install the anti-swivel plate with this slit here, facing outward. We do want to know that you do not want to grease your two inch ball when re-installing it. Now, we can go ahead and reinstall your ball as we would normally would. Okay. Now we go ahead and place our load assist on, first placing it on the ball, making sure that our spacer block here goes through this slot here. Now, go ahead and tie it down here with this knob, till its nice and tight.

Once its tightened down, well take our key here. Im locking it in place, now what it does, is just spin freely. Now come on to the other side and tighten down this 10 bolt, with our included tool. This will further tighten it down to our two inch ball. Nice and secure. Now Im going to go ahead and raise our load assist up to the same height to match our roof rack in the front.

To do that, we are going to loosen this bolt here and raise it up and re-tighten it, to where we need it. Now with that in place, well go ahead and tighten it down. Now, right now we actually have our load assist setup to carry a kayak. What you have to do, is you have to take off this strap, take off these load stops here, switch them around so we can load up our ladder. Now to switch these around, you have these knobs on the bottom. Just loosen them up and switch them around. Now we dont know exactly how much space we are going to need with that ladder, so Im going to leave them kind of loosely installed. Now to assist with loading a ladder, we are actually going to angle the bar down so we can set it on safely. Now to do this, we are actually going to loosen this knob here. That loosened, well pull it down, and well set on this rubber bushing here. Now with our load assist angled down, we are going to get an extra set of hands to help us lift this giant ladder up onto the truck. As you can see, as we lift it up, the load assist does angle forward. Now we can go and reinsert our pin. Now that we know where our ladder is going to be at, we are going to go ahead and take our load stops, loosen them up and put them close to the ladder so we can tie it down. Well repeat this process on the other side. Now with the ladder up, we have it strapped down and ready to go. Now, Rhino-Rack does have its own straps they can use part number RTD3. Now with everything tied down, lets go ahead and take it on our test course and show you how it looks. First we take it onto our slalom course. This will show you the side to side action such as making turns or evasive maneuvers. Now we are at the alternating speed bumps. This will show you how it looks driving on uneven pavement or potholes. Finally, we are at the solid speed bumps, which simulates going into your driveway or parking lots. There you have it for the Rhino-Rack T-Load Assist and Support Bar, Part Number RRRTL001.