Kuat Huk Tailgate Bike Pad for Full-Size Trucks - 6 Bikes - 61" Wide

Video Transcript for Kuat Truck Bed Bike Racks Review - 2017 Nissan Titan

Hey guys, it's Jake here with etrailer. Today, we have a 2017 Nissan Titan, and we're gonna be taking a look at, I'm gonna show you some of the cool features on the Kuat Huck Tailgate Bike Pad. Now, this is going to be an alternative way to haul bikes rather than having a hitch bike rack, or a rooftop bike rack. With both of those options, you are limited to the amount of bikes that you can haul. If you've got a truck, you've got a lot of extra space. If you're going on a trip, this might not be a great option for you because you're going to lose pretty much all your bed depending on the size of the bikes that you're putting in here.

But this bike rack is designed to, or this bike pad is designed to tow six bikes. You can line 'em up along the back. What I like about this one is it's going to have, it's gonna be made out of a TPU material, which if you've ever used like a standup paddle board that's an inflatable standup paddle board, or an inflatable kayak, that's the same material as this. It's gonna have all these welded seams, so that all of this is going to stay nice and together for the life that you have, this bike pad. What I really like about it is that they're gonna have a one-inch pad here on the front for where your tires and your forks potentially hit.

You'll have one on the top and one on the back. And you can see here, here's a great example. A lot of bike pads do not have the top pad because they try to get it to fit form around the top of the tailgate. But you can see, we're using all three pads around this. A lot of 'em will only have a pad, one singular pad back here, and they'll have six of 'em all along here which kind of limits the customization of what bikes you fit in here.

And you can see all the different mounting locations on the back. This kit's gonna come with six of these cam-buckle straps in order to get your bike attached to it and to get it in place, you simply lift it up over your tailgate. If your bike is too heavy, what you can do is you can drop your tailgate, push 'em in there, lean 'em against the side of your truck, and then just lift them over the tailgate. But to remove the bike, it's as simple as removing that cam-buckle strap. You can leave it there, then we'll grab the front fork, so it doesn't spin, and then lift our bike up.

Set it down to the side. In this material, what it's designed to do is if you put a muddy or dirty bike up here, you can see we've got some dirt on here. It wipes off really easily. Now, we're not sure how it'll do with age to come, but definitely with this bike pad being brand new, you can wipe that stuff right off. When you get home from a trip, if you're driving through a do-it-yourself car wash, you can go through it, hose it off, and you'll know that the bike pad is gonna stay nice and clean. On the inside, you might worry about it touching your paint. On the inside, you're gonna have this very, very nice, soft material that is not going to scratch your paint. What I will suggest is if you plan on using this, the rest of your vehicle can be dirty, but at least clean your tailgate really well, so that when you put this on here, this will not scratch your tailgate, But this on top of dirt will scratch your tailgate, and it'll get this pad dirty, so just keep that in mind. When you're wanting to get to your tailgate handle, you can put this pad up like this, (velcro rips) and if you're wanting to haul one more bike right here in the center, you can pull this down. And it'll stick to the hook-and-loop strap right there in the middle. Just keep in mind, this has a little bit of padding, essentially only as thick as that softer material underneath. But this will be a great place for some kids' bikes. Throw 'em in the middle. What I like about those mounting places all along the back is that you could have say, two adult bikes here, here and here, here and here, and then you can throw the kids' bikes in between even if they're not over top of your tailgate because newer trucks now are having really, really thick tailgates. They're not anything like the three-inch thick tailgates that they used to be. This tailgate's about six inches wide on the top. So you have to have a pretty substantial fork to be able to fit over top of it. So just something to keep in mind. But with that in mind, the kids' bikes, you can throw 'em between your bikes. You can throw 'em in front of them. Depending on where your space is at or wherever you're going, you can throw 'em in the backseat, wherever you have it. But all of those different spots on the back is gonna give you the option to move and place your bikes wherever you want them. But all in all, I think it's gonna be a great design. You've got some G-hooks here on the bottom which are really nice because with the flip of a simple strap on the back, you undo this, reach back, pull it up and through, and the bike pad will come right off. And then when you're ready to hook it back up, you drop that G-hook back down to the bottom, reach around, hook it through, and then pull that strap to tighten it back to your tailgate. Now we have access to a lot of different tailgate pads and I think one of my favorite features about this one is this material. I like that it's so easy to clean, so that I don't have to worry about it being dirty 'cause if you put a clean bike on a dirty pad, it's gonna get your bike dirty. I also like that it's an all-matte black design, so that it's kind of hidden. I personally, I drive a black truck, so I would really like this over say, a colored option. But most importantly, the straps, there's gonna be four, So the even distribution of pulling on the bottom of this will not allow for any crinkles or anything to be in the bike pad itself. Some of 'em will have three and the center one tends to always pull a little bit harder than the outside ones, or you have to loosen 'em all to get that crinkle out. With this one, you go through, and you can tighten all your straps, get 'em all nice and tight. And you don't have to worry about this thing coming loose at all when you're headed down the highway. With this pad, there are several other types available for different amounts of bikes. We have half pads that if you wanna put all your camping gear and anything like that over there, and you and a friend of yours wanna put your two bikes over here, you don't have to get the whole pad. We also have bike pads available if you have a tailgate topper, which have the curved look, kinda looks like a spoiler for the top of a tailgate, you'll wanna pick up a curved pad. But you can use our fit guide to find whatever pad is right to fit yours. But I think this pad is gonna fit the 2017 Nissan Titan very well, and it's gonna be put to good use.