20 Best Truck Ladder Racks (2022 Updated)

I’ve had this rack for 3 years now and use it regularly. I attach 7 ft 2×6 cross bars to the rack with t-bolts and locking nuts in order to haul 2 canoes. I have hauled those canoes repeatedly over a very (very!) rough trail, and the rack has shown no signs of distress.

I have also made a jib that attaches to the rear cross bar so that I can hoist big game – the rack had no problem supporting the 40lb jib and a 250 lb + animal. I personally also like the look of this rack, with the vertical uprights sloping at an angle to match the profile of most truck cabs.

I have slightly bent the sheet metal on my truck box where the clamps are secured. My truck is older and this doesn’t bother me, but would make me cringe on a brand new unit.

I bought this item last month at my local store. I needed something to carry the kayaks I had bought. It was easy to assemble and install on the truck bed. I had to buy longer carriage bolts to fit the kayak supports to the bars.

I had no issues transporting the kayaks over a two hour drive with a strong cross wind. The rack and supports performed flawlessly. I also get a lot of questions and positive comments on the rack from acquaintances and strangers.

Easy to assemble, install, take down and put up as needed. Easy to load our tandem kayaks then break down to allow us to use our fifth wheel hitch for our toyhauler. Perfect solution without a lot of tools needed to get things done.

Well designed and sturdy.

I ordered this truck rack about 6 months ago. The assembly is not for the faint of heart, and will require some help. Fit my extended cab short bed well. I read some reviewers that thought it sat too high above the cab, but I don’t agree with that unless you are mounting it to a compact pickup.

For a full size pickup this rack is a good size with rugged, professional look. I did replace the removable pins on the back removable bar with bolts to hold it more solid since I have never needed to load anything higher in the bed.

It was strong enough with just the pins, but it makes less shifting noise with the bolts. I later added a couple of Brute truck boxes on the top of the bed sides and they fit very well with this rack.

I read somewhere that it make a lot of noise, but in my experience I did not find it so. It doesn’t seem to make any more noise than any full rack would, and far less than some. Only thing I would change would be the bolts.

I would like to see them come pre-painted black to match the rack. I just painted them myself. Good value, good quality.

Love the fact that I was able to get the look I was hoping to achieve and she sure turns heads unfortunately that’s because it squeaks very loud all the time!! Anytime the truck flexes the rack squeaks.

Sits a little high off the top of the truck. Wish it was a lower profile. Full day to install because J hooks didn’t provide a secure attachment and taking on and off a lifted truck is a pain. 3/5.

Easy assembly and installation. Rack was too tall for Ram truck and required customizing the uprights to be a reasonable height above the cab. J hooks for mounting did not bind tight, but permanent mounting was simple.

provided pins for removable rear bar are significantly smaller diameter than the holes, requiring purchase of larger diameter pins and rubber grommets to reduce excessive rattle. Heavier gage and better finish than anticipated.

Generally pleased with purchase. Fast shipping.

On initial installation – with all instructions followed including torque specs, rack seemed solid. Problem is after a period of time the bolts holding the uprights to the top crossbar cradles break off due to the stress of normal twisting of the truck bed under daily use.

Given 800lbs of rated capacity it hasn’t been subjected to more than 2x 46lb kayaks and 2x Thule Hull a Port Aero mounts so it’s been far from overloaded. A bit disconcerting when the kayaks try to lift off the truck at speed.

As a result can’t recommend. The diagonal braces used on the TracRac SR would go a long way to eliminate this defect.

I’m very happy with this purchase. This is a great truck rack for what I need. The whole thing is really solid and fairly easy to assemble. Construction and materials are heavier duty than I expected.

It’s sturdy, but still light enough to move around. You have to use Allen wrenches to secure the clamps but I can see how that’s better for security reasons. Otherwise, it’s fairly easy to put on and take off.

Clamps are heavy duty and secure the rack very well. Even the load stops are really well built. The rack is powder coated, so it resists scratching and chipping much better than a painted rack. I use it for my two kayaks, but it is great for carrying anything else longer than my truck bed and what’s nice is I can easily remove it when I don’t need them.

I’ve never loaded anything more than a canoe and this rack has been a series of endless problems. The bed mounts broke first. Thule wouldn’t even respond to my request for warranty. Now the rail mount bolts have sheared.

Perhaps a canoe is too much weight for this rack, despite its load rating. Dissimilar metals don’t mix Thule. Considering the cost of this rack and their inability to reply to warranty inquiries, I won’t even bother this time.

It’s a solid piece(es) of hardware. I’m confident it’ll handle the material, and occasionally kayaks, that I’ll put up there. I added the cantilever extension to the forward cross bar. I wish I had known or had read somewhere that it’s much better to to attach the extension “hubs” to the front towers as part of the initial install, vs removing the originals to install later.

I’d have waited. A friend, who is more mechanically inclined than me, helped with the install. We were both scratching our heads while reading the minimal instructions. Pay very close attention to the drawings and particularly hole placement.

Sometimes it just seemed 50/50%, which way something went.

The rack is well made and functions well. For something that is moveable it feels very solid. Moving the overhead parts on the tracks is really easy, they glide smoothly. Taking extra care in aligning the rails probably helps.

The only downsides I’ve come across so far are that the side rails get extremely hot in the sun which makes reaching into the bed of the truck or leaning on the rails painful. Also, if you slide the rear uprights forward as far as they go, the two crossbars create a lot of wind noise.

When they are positioned at the front and rear of the bed this isn’t an issue, but it’s disappointing since pushing the rear bar forward out of the way was one of the biggest reasons I got this rack.

This was the stoutest truck bed rack system I could find. I had to customize this to mount base rail with bolts to my truck bed side rails. I have enough room to also have my roll up locking tonneau cover.

Had to weld/remove height to fit RTT to truck better. Looking to do again to get below cab of truck but leave enough room for roll up of tonneau and side access to truck bed. Would LOVE to see Thule make adjustable height or offer different fixed height options with side rack holders to mount gas cans, etc.

and help keep lose load items secured when tonneau rolled up.

This is a fantastic product, but don’t set it and leave it as is, for years. The adjuster knobs need to be loosened and retightened once in awhile. How often doesn’t matter, you don’t have to change the height.

This prevents any corrosion built up on the built in T-nut on the adjustable knob. As a matter of fact I loosen every screw on this rack at least once a month and just retighten it. It’s not an inconvenience, what is inconvenient is having the adjuster knobs completely seized on you This is no fault to Thule it’s what nature does to aluminum when exposed to the elements.

I’ve seen it first hand, unfortunately Thule does not sell the adustment mechanism separately you have to buy the whole base assembly and they are very expensive. Having said all that I love this Rack and it’s features, holds my canoe on my truck rock solid.

I bought this for my Saranc 146 canoe because loading it by myself with my previous set-up was not super easy. Now I can load my canoe myself with little effort. Installation was a piece of cake and it looks great.

The adjustability makes this work in so many ways. Just turn the knobs, make your adjustments and tighten them back up. Done. It’s rock solid. Worth the price.

First the clamps do not work on 2013 F150 had to bolt thru side rails. No Problem. Front bar vibrates like crazy and causes horrendous noise in cab have to reach up and grab hold of it to put pressure on it to lessen vibration.

Just my opinion but side rails should be made out of one solid piece not 2 PCs each side. If it has to be 2 PCs each side then make the rear 2 pieces long enough to be able to remove front bar when it’s not needed.

The customer rep I spoke said vibration was because I bolted it down instead of clamps, please be for real, I believe that bolt it down makes it stronger. And it’s a once and done. I will have to make more modifications to make this work properly.

But will not purchase again for my other trucks. Positive side –Looks great on the truck!.

I received the package on time! The directions are good! They get you started. My truck is. 2018 Tundra and I found it easier to attach the corners to the truck bed, Then I assembled the top rack all sections and had a helper to help place it on the corners where they fit.

The rear corners we’re the reference. About five and a half inches from the tailgate notch. Secured the top first on these rear corners. Moved the brackets back switching out to two small holed frame brackets out and forward of the main assembly brackets.

They bolted right on then! I tightened all the bolts and it is a solid rack! Holds the ladders and equipment and performs very well! I am searching for a box that will fit between the attachments and once I find one I will drill out the two bolt holes to match the front bracket rear bolts and secure it right over them to make my configuration permanent, yet I will be able to go from Rack N Box to Tuneau cover in minutes! So far I love it! It makes a little wind noise and a little drag.

Not bad for the price! No truck rack is going to be totally quiet! So far I love it! It looks great on the truck! Discount Ramps Service was very Proffessional and helpful in aiding me to make the right choice for me! Thank you to the makers of the Apex Truck Rack and to Discount Ramps Company! I highly recommend this rack!.

When I initially thought about purchasing the ladder rack, I was skeptical if it would fit on my F1 50 short bed. The rack was delivered to my house without any problems. All parts were accounted for in well organized packaging.

Instructions could’ve been a little bit better. Once I got the rack up on the truck, my skepticism was confirmed. The rack, although adjustable, would not fit correctly on my short bed F1 50 without custom drilling holes.

I also found some of the pre-drilled holes or in the incorrect location. I was able to drill new holes to accommodate my short bed. I feel that Apex should notify buyers of potential limitations. Although there were some shortcomings, I feel the rack is still a good choice for the price and weight.

Looks good on the truck. I have a bed tool box and had to drill thru the tool box and the rack feet to secure them to the bed of the truck but I like that better than the portable clip system. I take the rear rack off when pulling the 5th wheel or hauling things.

Once I broke the landing feet in a low car parking structure. The Mfg sells replacement feet so I was able to replace only the feet and not the system. Very please with use and look of this rack system.

This is my second system from this Mfg,.

Hey. Let’s just powder coat the inside of the screw holes. Thats a great idea.

Awesome product! Lightweight but very strong, very easy to put together and install. Highly recommend.

While I have not installed these on my truck yet, I have put them together. I received them as a gift and am not ready to use them yet. The instructions were easy to understand and everything went together fairly easy.

A couple of the bolts that are to hold racks to bed rails were kinda hard to thread but they went together after a bit of work. They seem to be all that I expected. Looking forward for spring when my cap comes off and these go on.

This is a great rack! You can adjust how far apart they are by just moving the mounts up or down the sides. I like that you don’t have to bolt the bases on. Also, easy to take the racks on or off if you want say, go through a car wash.

I added mounts on mine to carry kayaks and other items. Easy to put together and put up! And they seem to be really sturdy when bolted in.

Unfortunately, the truck ladder rack did not suit my purposes. I need a rack that will mount in the side rail pockets and is not required to wrap around the bedrails. I have a hard tonneau top that needs to function between the upright posts of the ladder rack.

The photos on the box do not indicate how is mounted, if they did, it would have saved me the hassle of purchasing the item and taking it home to discover it wouldn’t work and then have to return it.

One reason I bought this is because someone posted a pic of it installed on exactly the same make and model and year truck that I have. Unfortunately, this pic of the rack installed was completely misleading.

I’m happy with my purchase but I’ve yet to figure out exactly how to install it. My bedliner is all one piece and it goes over the rail. To install, I’ll have to cut out sections and then figure how to cover them up so water doesn’t get in.

After buying this rack I went back to the other customer’s pic but it was no help. The pic is too blurry and it was taken at night so it’s difficult to tell how he installed it. But not so blurry that you can’t see that he’s installed it all wrong.

3 of the posts only have 1 clamp which is all wrong. This is my first rack so I’m not sure if they’re all like this but you should consider that each post requires 4 clamps which hold the post in place by clamping down on the rail in front.

The top part of the clamp goes over the aluminum rail to hold the post down and then from below the clamp uses a bolt to push up from the bottom against the truck rail. If you have a bedliner is one piece and goes over the truck rail, you’ll have to cut out a section for the clamp.

I bought this rack to outfit my Ford F-250 super duty, and to have a way to haul my wife’s 16 foot canoe and my 13 foot kayak, as well as tow our trailer all at the same time. This is a very heavy duty, well made rack.

It does the job, and it is easy to take on and off the truck. My complaint is that is sits a little lower than i expected, and items barely clear the roof of my truck. In fact, the first time I strapped down the canoe, it gouged the roof of my truck.

I had to get gunnel extensions to raise it up enough to clear the roof. Not the rack’s fault, and a user error on my part. I should’ve test fitted the rack and boats upon purchase instead of just assuming.

However, this product, because of it’s clearance issues on Ford trucks, is not universal. Once I purchased gunnel extensions for the canoe, it clears the cab by a couple of inches.

I have had this rack for a year now. The packing could be a bit better large box had quite large hole in it by the time it arrived. But nothing missing. It took about 2 hours to assemble (by myself on the truck, only needed help installing front radius bar so I didn’t damage top of cab) Front radius bar holes didn’t line up exactly, I had to drill holes to fit.

The thing made a LOUD oil can effect / NOISE on top of the cab. It would have broken the sheet metal in time, if I could have withstood the noise, it was that bad!! (I installed on an F150 crew cab) the wind coming off windshield was hitting front radius bar and straight down into top of cab.

I made a deflector and problem was corrected. A riser extension kit may have solved this as well? The rear bar works loose quite quickly. I have seen several of these racks with the rear rack solid bolted in place from loosing the mount hardware.

I put a jamb nut on and use a wrench to tighten in place and it still works loose in less than a thousand miles. A possible solution would be a cross bolt design? The price has gone up since I purchased it, but what hasn’t in a year? I have removed the rack once and 3 people can remove & reinstall quite easily without causing damage to truck.

It folded up quite flat to store until it was needed again. I have recommended this rack to a friend. Told him to sell his truck before moving back to TX. (Trucks cost more here) and buy this rack when he gets there, he likes my rack better than his!.

I had some difficulty mounting it on my 2005 Toyota Tacoma. The J hooks and mounting feet don’t work together on this truck without a mod, had to take off the rail covers and drill new holes in the feet to line up the bed rails with the feet and into the bed rail to attach it with 3-5/16 bolts on each foot.

That solved the problem and made it a permanent installation. Instructions are simple and helpful but not real technical. Seems solid enough, but I would look for a different mounting system if I had to do it again.

I gave it 4 stars could have been 5 if all the parts fit together a little better some issues, like lining up the rear bar so it would screw in place, had to file out the holes a little to make it work, and of course the mounting system I had to mod to make work.

Product shipped fine. Packaging was good. Instructions were easy to follow and assembly was a breeze. To get everything to fit properly we assembled it loosely in some areas. Once on the bed, everything was tightened down.

It fit fine although there are a couple of spots under the lip of the bed where the plate on the j hook hand to be tightened into place because of a really snug fit. My BIGGEST complaint is the awful noise it makes when you drive over 50mph.

It’s terrible. We actually remove the ladder rack when we don’t need it just so we don’t have to deal with the noise.

Hook clamp design may not allow you to place racks fully to front or back of your box. My I I like them. They work fine, easy to install and remove. You may not be able to locate them exactly we’re you want.

f150 has rail guard clips in the way of unhook clamps and rack sits back a couple inches from the front of the box. Nice tie down brackets/hooks but you cannot slide them to the end of the rails without dissembling the rails from the legs.

As well rail to legs mount makes a portion of the rail unusable for tie down hook placement.

All welded aluminum frame with steel cargo tie downs and mounting bolts. The cargo tie downs slide along but are severely limited in their travel as they cannot pass the cross bar mounting brackets. If you had a wide load you would have a lot of effort to potion the cargo tie downs to the outside.

I had to remove the four corner truck bed tie down rings from my truck as their location interfered with the rack. The rack is not fitted with tie down rings to compensate for losing the other rings.

The “J” bolts which hold the rack in place stick out a lot once installed and I you cut off the excess (as in the advertising) the each cannot be remounted. There was no notes about these drawbacks. However, the “J” bolts can be used as tie down rings from underneath, it’s just a little awkward.

Overall pretty good, just a little pricey.

Good quality rack, very sturdy. But there are a few things to be aware of and improvements to make. The loops on the top adjust easily but if you don’t tighten the adjuster screws then they will unscrew and get lost under way.

These racks mount by clamping onto the bed rails and will scratch up the paint unless you use a pad. Why didn’t Erickson include a pad? The bent bolts which clamp the rack to the bed are slightly too short.

If they were longer you could leave them attached and swing them out when removing the racks. These are very stealable. Everything is bolted together so you can steal someone’s rack easily with just a crescent wrench.

That said, this is a sturdy and convenient rack and mounts quickly so I find myself using it a lot.

This is a sturdy rack for a standard pickup. The instructions are very basic, and could use some tweaks. I was able to install the rack by myself. I had one glitch. On piece was slightly damaged (the threads were damaged, so I had to rethread a piece with a built-in bolt.

) And, I bought this one, because the weight on the website says 77. 5 pounds, but it is 138. So, not as eay to work with as I had hoped. Did have a little trouble with fitting in on my 2015 Standard Ford F-150 – the brackets are not ‘flush’ with the side.

But, still a good product. Some have complained about the identification of parts. I didn’t really have difficulty with that – in the instructions bolts and connectors are listed with two reference numbers – use the numeric (not the alphabetic) references.

Still in process of assembling unit. Parts are not marked which makes it difficult to know which part is which. Also, I purchased a 1,000 lb. unit but box says 800 lb. limit. I should never reach either number so it’s not a big deal but does indicate lack of attention to packaging and/or order processing.

Those two factors are the reason for the 3 star rating. The unit seems to be solid quality material so I don’t anticipate any problem with usage. Order was filled quickly and it arrived in a very short time.

The price is right. But you get what you what you pay for. The portion of the rack that extends over the cab is not strong enough. It need some kind off support. The web-site said it’s capacity is 1000 Lb.

When it arrived the box said 800 Lb. I don’t think the portion over the cab will carry 100 Lb with out an additional brace. Still it is worth what I paid for it.

I’ll get to the point. Installation wasn’t too difficult. However, the welds on the rack are terrible. The lock nut that was welded to the upright broke off while I was trying to secure the rack in the mount.

Then after about two weeks of use, the weld on the diagonal that ties to the upright broke on three welds. It appears that in an effort to make it look nice they ground off too much of the weld. But when the lock nut came off there was rust behind the nut, so that weld wasn’t good to start.

Wish it was a little more secure to the truck. Seems to move around alot even with ladders on. Also wish the hardware kit had a few extra fasteners in case 1 or 2 had stripped out, I had to improvise with a few nuts n bolts I had laying around.

Othere then that I really like the design of the rack itself.

The only thing that I didn’t like is that the tail gate bracket had to be trimmed because it was to big to fit against the truck. The hardware then didn’t work. Had to improvise. Overall not to bad. It definitely serves its purpose.

Well built, beefy ladder rack for our ’10 Ford F-150 work truck with an 8′ bed. Assembly was a breeze since detailed instructions were provided. With an 8′ bed, had to install the center bar and front legs ahead of the front bar so the support would be where it’s needed.

This created a slight sag in the middle, but the connecting brackets negate any issue. The J-hooks provided were not able to be used because the spread was too wide on the J-hook. Given the narrow lip under the bed rail, this pushed the mounting foot out off the bed rail.

So, we drilled and mounted with new hardware. This rack is solid! Be sure you have a few friends ready to help when installing on the truck! Would definitely purchase again if another rack is needed!.

Was pleasantly surprised at the high quality of this rack. Very heavy duty and looks great for a bolt together truck rack. Was worried with the short bed on my 2019 Ram 1500 it wouldn’t fit well but it turned out great! Would throw 1200 lbs on it without blinking an eye, no concerns it couldn’t handle it.

Did the install alone and was able to build it on the truck without issue, and was very happy the side rails had mounting holes for retractable ratcheting straps already which I wasted no time installing once it was put together! Some slight wind noise while driving at high speed but I’ve never had a rack that didn’t make a little noise while driving.

Overall very happy.

Let me start with, it would have been nice if it came with instructions. That said, all three of us figured it out in three hours. Added to a 2020 Crewmax Tundra. Being a universal rack there will be minor quirks but nothing you can’t figure out.

Fasteners are 14mm and 24mm, big. Great price too. Strong rails etc.

The uprights and crossbars are solidly constructed. When bolted together, the assembly is stiff and square. The gutter clamps work well, although mine needed a little modification to grip the gutters securely.

The bolts that secure the gutter clamps and the steel tabs they are bolted through are probably the weakest part of the design. It’s easy to bend them in clamping the rack to the gutter. They don’t seem likely to fail though.

For the price, these are hard to beat.

Purchased the rack to mount emergency yellow lights on as I travel approx. 1000 miles per week at night. Also to place plywood on to make a dry place when unloading newspapers out the back doors on my van when raining.

Have had great customer -TS employee relationship over the years.

I like the ease of installation on the van. It will hold everything I need, I bought two sets. At speeds above 55 MPH, it is horrible with the noise and vibration. I hope someone can give some input on how to quiet this down.

I purchased this to replace one I passed on to my son. I use it to haul my canoe and other gear when going camping. It is a great product. The only reason why I gave them 4 stars is it was missing pages out of the manual and the box appeared to be open before.

I am not sure if that was for quality control but everything was there and a manual was available online. Not too hard to assemble I feel anyone should be able to do it if they are able to climb in and out of the truck bed as well as lift the heavy bars.

4/5 on assembling. Was shipped super quick and I just paid for ground shipping. 5/5 on shipping Packaging was poor as above but I am not sure where the fault was 2/5 on over all packaging. After purchase support was great.

I shouldn’t need the manual but it was easily available. 4/5 support. I drove over 500 miles in all sorts of conditions after the installation and the rack is still rock solid. 5/5 dependable.

Ladder rack arrived quickly after my order – 3 days – standard shipping FedEX. Good quality and price. Tooka little while to assemble – easy – just had to take so time. Removal and re-installation once assembled the first time will be easy – just 8 “J” bolts.

Does not extend too far above the cab of my truck (Nissan Frontier). Lots of room to fit under my 8 ft garage door. Just a couple minor suggestions to improve product. Edges of the base and top support were a little sharp where they had been cut off of formed stock in manufacturing.

So I rounded off these edges with a file before assembly. Also added rubber adhesive backed felt pad to the base and J bolts to protect the side rails a little better. On my truck (Nissan 2019 Frontier) the J bolts holding it to truck protrude about 1- 1 1/2 “.

Easy to “hook” yourself on these or damage the threads. A rubber cap to protect the threads and yourself would be helpful. May try and find these at a hardware store. Also share another commenter’s comments re: the adjustable load brackets/ladder stops on the top rail can not be slid past the vertical supports.

On my truck, 4 ft width (plywood panel) falls outside of the vertical supports, and a ladder or lumber would fall inside the vertical supports. You must decide at assembly time which configuration you will use the most as moving the brackets from inside the vertical supports to outside the vertical support requires the removal of the top rail so you can slide the supports along the top rail.

Got to be a better way. Otherwise very pleased. I don’t intend to carry really heavy loads so these will work fine.

It functions great! Holds ladders in place well. Installation was relatively easy, but I ended up having to drill through the front rack and into the truck bed to attach it to the truck. Couldn’t fit c-clamps according to instructions because of the profile of my bed side wall and pockets.

Also, had to put spacers under my tool box to level it out. But hey, it’s for a work truck. 2013 Tundra.

This rack goes together real fast and mounts to vehicle just as fast. The gold color part that goes over the rain gutter gets loose after driving around for awhile, I found that drilling a hole through it and the white upright for a bolt took care of that problem.

I would buy these again if I needed another set.

Installed these rails on a Chev 2500 HD long box. Rails worked out but Chev truck boxes are tapered, cambered and out-sloped which made for a tricky installation. Rails came with wedges and everything else needed though.

Am giving 4 out of 5 stars due to Thule’s web site which had several glitches and vague information. It was not clear that the rails fit a 2500 HD longbox until I got them out of the box and started to install them.

Was a bit stressful ordering then waiting for them to arrive and then find out. Thule Canada employees were not able to confirm fit at time of ordering.

The rails and instructions are generic, which are made specific by using exactly the correct orientation and set of holes, this means a clear understanding of the instructions before you begin. I recommend reading the instructions and all supplement instructions, then re read them taking closer note of minor details.

I’d rate the instructions 5/10 for clarity. For instance the instructions claim there is a sticker on the rear end of the each rail needed to orient them, but the only sticker is a code for production and not clearly related to installation or usefully labeled as, oh I don’t know, maybe, “REAR”.

Once done it works beautifully. Just don’t think you’ll install the rack and cantilever in an hour.

Very happy with this product, easy to install, had all the correct parts and extra pieces if needed, would recommend them to anyone, great product! 🙂