Malone CrossBed Truck Bed Rack - Aluminum - 500 lbs - 72" Crossbars

Video Transcript for Malone CrossBed Truck Bed Rack Installation - 2013 Ram 2500

Hi everyone, Aiden here with etrailer. Today we're gonna be taking a look at the Malone Crossbed Truck Bed Rack. It's gonna be a good solution to mount up some accessories over your bed, especially if you don't want it to be super up tall, like a tent or a bike rack where it's easier to reach, while still leaving your bed below accessible. And we're gonna be showing you how to install it on your 2013 RAM 2500. So the big thing you probably notice right away, is it's pretty low profile, from the bedrail to the top of the crossbar here, only adding about eight inches. So this isn't gonna be a ladder rack, it's not gonna be for your elongated loads of two by fours, conduit, ladders, even kayaks I wouldn't put on here because they probably just won't fit.

You've got the cab in the way. But for something like a rooftop tent or maybe a bike rack, I really like this solution because it makes them lower to the ground and easier to reach. Plus it's just going to be a bit more capable than a roof rack. So something like this can hold more weight than a roof rack would. So not only does it make it easier to reach, but you can load more on it safely.

So talking about capability, how much can it hold It can support up to 500 pounds evenly distributed throughout the whole carrier, so that's going to be pretty capable. More than enough again, for maybe some bike racks, maybe a tent, maybe even a box. I've seen people put boxes over their truck beds like this before, so you certainly got the room for it if you've got a longer bed and it could give you some extra space up top. Now depending on what you plan on putting up here, a couple things to think about is the overall size of the crossbars. They're three and a half inches wide and an inch and a half tall.

So if you've got clamp around accessories, I think you might run into issues with the width here. A lot of accessories, those clamps will maybe only open up to about three, three and a quarter inches, maybe three and a half at their max. So it's something to be aware of and look out for. And if you're planning on purchasing new accessories, just check it before you get this together. But you do have the option to channel mount accessories on this top channel here.

That's where the included load stops come in. But then there's also channels on the back of the bar. So if you wanted to add maybe some tie-down rings, this would be a great spot because it's not conflicting with anything up top. But there's still free to move at the back here. So as you can see with the fit on our RAM here, we are cutting it a little bit close with the crossbar length. We're almost out of room to adjust these out any further, which could be a bad thing if you're getting this for a different truck. But for this one it's fine because we're left with very little overhang and that means really nothing is sticking out past the edges of our truck. So especially if we're walking by, this isn't a risk for maybe me hitting my shoulder as I walk by or running into, but it still comes close enough that again, if I've got a bike rack or something here, it's easy enough to reach. Plus with how tall it comes up off the bed rails, it's not really blocking our back window at all. We'll only have to worry about that if we have something loaded up here like a box that would be big and bulky. Overall construction is gonna be mostly aluminum, so it keeps things light and corrosion resistant. There are a few plastic components on there like the end caps, the tower covers, and the hand nobs on the load stops there. But again, should be just fine. The main parts that need the strength have it, and I think it'll last really long. Now, if you choose to, you can add weather stripping to the top channels, you'll just have to cut it to length yourself and it's not the kind of style where you can compress it and get an accessory in the channel on top of it. I think you could probably force it, but it's gonna be a really tight fit and I think it's really more meant to be trimmed to length and fit around your accessories if you choose to slide them in. So for me, I probably just wouldn't put it in if I had these load stops in because these are the type of thing you're gonna be moving around all the time and you want it to be easy. But if you maybe just have something like a fishing rod carrier or a channel-mounted bike rack that's in the same spot every time, then this could be a good addition to help reduce the wind noise. Installation is just a simple clamp on application, so you can adjust these however it fits your bed rails the best. Now the first thing you wanna do when installing your crossbars is measure some things out. It's gonna be easier to measure the bed rails about where you want it so that you know exactly where to put these uprights. So all I'm gonna do is just go take my tape measure and measure between the bed rails, inside edge to inside edge, approximately where I want it. Then all I get have to do is take that measurement and transfer it over to the uprights here, measuring from the inside of that lip to the inside of the other and making sure it matches up. And if it doesn't, then just loosen up the hardware and slide these back and forth until it does. Then tighten it down when you have it where you want it. Now that bolt to adjust this is down here, kind of hard to see and also kind of hard to reach. So just keep that in mind when you're checking this out. And there's really only enough room to get about a quarter turn out of your Allen key whenever you are adjusting this. So if you've got a ratcheting set or a set of bits that can attach to a ratchet that is, that's gonna be your friend here, it'll help speed things up. But doing it manual is not too bad. Once you've adjusted things to your liking, take it up to the bed rails and turn it over, setting it in place and just make sure that those pads are making contact with the side of the bed rails and there's not any side to side movement because the fitment isn't quite right. Right here's looking perfect, so the only thing I want to do now is take a measurement from my front crossbar to the rear one and just make sure it's the same on both sides, that way we know these are running parallel to one another. If you're doing this just for the first crossbar, use some stationary point on your truck like the cab or maybe the start of the bed rail. Now the clamps here are gonna have an L shape and a U shape. The U shape is the bottom part and the L will be on top. And you wanna make sure that the teeth on both of these are facing in towards one another. When you've got that all set up, just slide the bottom portion under your bed rail and the top will line up on this inside edge here with the teeth and just run the hardware down by hand. And once you can't anymore because of the lock washer, you can grab the Allen key provided and tighten it down fully on both sides. If the teeth are biting down properly, then you shouldn't have any issues with this skipping or turning on you as you tighten it down. So if you're having problems, just make sure you check those teeth and make sure they're aligned With the crossbar in place, you wanna slide in your load stops if you're choosing to use them, and then you can install the end cap behind it 'cause this will cover up all the channels. Your kit's gonna include a small nut and a Phillips head screw. The nut will slide into this rectangular channel right here. And to get it to align properly, it's helpful if you've got a really tiny Allen key to sort of push it in and get it to line up with that hole right there. That's looking perfect. So we'll take this to our crossbar with our screw and a stubby screwdriver and get it installed. We can tighten down the load stop later. There's really no specific place I want it yet and you can hopefully see pretty well what we're doing, but I'm kind of going in blind just because it's inset under there. But just do your best to line it up and you should feel that screw catch and eventually tighten up. Just like that, right there. Make sure that it's all fully secured, tighten down your load stop and you're good. So overall, pretty simple and straightforward install process. There's a few things that I think maybe could be a little bit quicker, but for the price I think it's gonna be be perfectly fine. The one complaint is just really the accessibility of the bolts that control that side to side spread on the uprights. But if you've got a set of bits that can speed that process up with an Allen wrench or sorry, with a ratchet instead of just the Allen wrench, then I think it's going to be really helpful. But otherwise, once it's on, it's a solid fit and I think it's gonna be a really great addition to your 2013 RAM 2500. Thanks for watching.