CargoSmart Ratcheting Cargo Bar - 40" to 70"

Video Transcript for CargoSmart Ratcheting Cargo Bar Review

What's up, everybody It's AJ with each etrailer.com. Today, we're gonna be checking out the CargoSmart Adjustable Cargo Bar. Now, this is gonna go in the back of your truck to hold your cargo in place. Let's check it out. So this cargo bar is gonna go across your bed. It's gonna apply pressure to the sides, keeping it tight here, which means all your cargo can't slide up or go anywhere in the back of your truck.

The nice thing is it's not permanently mounted, so you can remove it, move it towards the back if you're putting groceries back here by the tailgate, you can definitely do that. You can move it more towards the front. It works with the canister here on our tonneau cover. Even a toolbox wouldn't get in the way. You can move it and use it wherever you want.

But let's check out the footage of how the cargo would handle without the bar, and then, with the bar. Now, we're gonna drive around the parking lot. We're gonna drive a little bit aggressive. Take some sharp turns and see how that cargo handles. Clearly, it goes all over the place when we don't have the bar in place.

Now, with the bar in place, we're gonna drive around, take those same turns, and you'll see that nothing really moves at all. Everything stays in place because of that cargo bar. Back in the shop, let's see how it actually works. So we have a ratcheting mechanism, that's what's gonna apply the pressure to the sides of the bed to keep this tight. So to release it, it's much like a ratchet strap.

You can bring it all the way back here, that'll break it loose. And then, we need to slide in one of the arms to condense it and store it. Like I said, really easy to set up or take down. You can put it here to the side of the bed. It won't take up that much room. You can even store it in your cab. We got rubber pads on each side, so this is what's gonna be pushing up against the side of your bed so you don't have to worry about it scratching or damaging it. Now, that being said, when you go to set it up, be careful not to ratchet it too tight. You don't wanna overtighten this. So if you get in the right spot to bring out the arm, make sure the pads are flat against the side of the bed. Then, we'll bring this back, push this lever here, bring it back so it's able to ratchet, and you get a couple clicks on it. It gets tight pretty quick in this truck bed, so I don't wanna chance overtightening it, that is the one downside to the ratcheting mechanism. It can store here when not in use, so it won't open up while you're going down the road. But it seems like it needs some teeth in between those teeth, 'cause you don't need quite the full adjustment for it. It can go from 70 inches all the way down to 40. So just measure your truck bed and make sure it's gonna work. Overall, it worked really well. Definitely held the cargo in place. I like that it's not a permanent mount. I can move it anywhere in the truck bed I need to hold that cargo where there's groceries towards the tailgate or something up towards the front. It's gonna work great. Now, the only thing I would say is there's another version by ProGrip, and that one doesn't have the ratchet. That one you extend and you twist and lock to put in place. I like that one a little bit better just because the ratchet mechanism, it's a little aggressive, it didn't quite work as well. But, otherwise, it worked just fine. I think that does it. Thanks for hanging out, and hope this helps.