Swagman Paramount Tailgate Pad for Full-Size Trucks - Up to 7 Bikes - 61" Wide

Video Transcript for Swagman Truck Bed Bike Racks Review - 2019 Ram 1500 Classic S74FR

Hey everybody, welcome to etrailer.com. I'm Bobby, and today we're taking a look at the Swagman Paramount Tailgate pad for your bikes to go ahead and start throwing them in here in the bed of your truck on our 2019 Ram 1500 classic. So really, really nice way of just getting a lot of bikes up to your guys' destination. Obviously, this is excellent for your mountain bikers looking up there just to go ahead and run your truck from the base of the hill to the top. That way we can start having way more fun, but it's still just a nice way, guys if you are kind of getting into the realm of getting your bikes where you wanna go, this can be a very nice way to do it. What's great about it.

You're getting a great hold of course, on your bikes and still leaving you a little bit of room here in the bed of your truck. Definitely offers you some distinct advantages. If your comparing things like a hitch-mounted accessory or a roof mounted accessory, the big ones, how many we can fit on here. Now we do have seven spacings available or spaces available for bikes. Now it does say on Swagman their box that carries that the five bikes, and think the reason that is you are gonna have to kind of position them all right, and get them on there.

So yes, you have the capabilities of putting seven bikes on here. However, I think a lot of us are gonna be hard pressed to actually get all seven bikes spinning on here, but that will be a little dependent on our bikes at home. So let's go ahead and start just breaking this down, shall we So are we looking for, with the tailgate pad, right Well, the big one is gonna be how are we securing our bikes We're making sure that they're not having contact with each other because the big thing is we could just be throwing our bikes in the bed of our truck, right But then they're rubbing up against each other, bouncing around. We really want something to go ahead and reduce that movement that our bikes are gonna have. And therefore that contact that they're gonna have with each other.

Secondly, we want something to go ahead and actually start protecting our tailgate, right We want someone with good padding to make sure that any of the contact that our bikes is gonna have is gonna be wearing to the underneath and damaging it. And thirdly, we want something that's gonna last us for the time to come. So let's go ahead and start taking a closer look. So the cradle system on here works pretty well. You do have a kind of a fixed amount.

So if you're comparing this to something like the Swagman Tailwhip actually has a Daisy chain setup, unless you take these camels up Campbell cars off and kind of change them where they're at. Now, this guy, you can't do that. So you are gonna get a pretty nice secure hold on there. Now, obviously your buckle can shift a little bit, but a lot of times our bikes are gonna sit just like this and they're gonna wedge in, which is great aid for that back, but really what's happening here in the front. You guys can see where we have our pads hanging right here in the middle. That becomes excellent to go ahead, get our forks in there. And that way have a lot less movement in the spacer is gonna do a great job of making sure that our bikes aren't gonna making contact with each other. Now you do have some felt here on the front, going towards the paint of your tailgate would be. So that's gonna be excellent to go ahead and make sure we're not scratching it or damaging the front of our tailgate at the top. And the back here though, you don't actually have any felt. So on the inside of this. It's actually just the, kind of the top layer that you're seeing here as well, replicated on the inside of that tarp lean. And basically that's just because we only have our plastic and our metal frame here in the back for sale gates. So it'll make Swagman was too concern. Really good job seeing that felt on the front though, we don't want me scratching that paint. We want it to look good, even when we are taking the pat off. So I'm glad to see that it is nice and protected. Now you are seeing just a little bit of loss of padding here, where your stitches are happening here in the front. Again, probably not the biggest of deal, but things I am concerned about, right We have our fork mount right here, if we we're keeping it. And this we're to shift itself just a little bit, that might be just a little bit of a hesitation for me there of just how we have in that setup. So when you are getting it set up, let's make sure that our forks here are doing a great job getting over that ridge. And that way they're staying right in here when we do have good padding. Of course, these guys do a great job, making sure that your forks aren't even making contact as we said earlier, but as do like to see that they're there for ourselves. Now talking about one last little thing here, too, of how it's protecting us, we do have this front flap available. So that's gonna be excellent to make sure that we have that full protection. We have all our bikes on there, but if we do need quick access to it, we have this right to open this up for our backup camera. That's excellent. And then secondly, of course, just when we don't have our bikes on there, we're gonna go ahead and hook this up and then we can actually start accessing it. You do have just a little cam buckle system here. All you gotta do walk that back plug it right in over here. And then you have that out of the way, which is really nice. So then we are backing up and keep that locked in no matter if wind or if I hit a bump or anything, it's gonna stay there. And I have full view of the entire time. One thing I really like about it too, is you do have these nice little cargo bags here in the back that becomes the excellence and maybe even put like a full size by a comment in here, water bottles, snacks, and anything you want quick access to when you guys are kind of just loading up and getting to the trail. So do you like to see that. And it's just nice to have a little bit of extra storage. It goes a long way, especially when you're losing a lot of your bed space because we have all his tires in here, right So that can be very helpful just to give yourself a little bit of a manageable system to start storing your cargo. Now, unloading and loading your bikes is really straightforward. Again, we just have a little hook and loop here. That's actually holding onto us. Then I just have to do, undo that. That's, my strip hanging just like so, and then I just have to support my bike, lift it up and walk it away. Of course, just be careful of your side walls. So we don't wanna be scraping anything. So how does this install Well, it's really straightforward. We just have three little straps here, one of the middle, two going towards the sides. And those get simply ran through the opening here of our tailgate. Now we get to keep it at an angle like so, it's gonna be a little easier to fit it through. And then you just simply pull it up through your cam-buckle system, tightened it up. And then we're nice and secure as long as we are repeating that process. So that makes it really easy just to sense down, have it installed and makes it real easy to pop up when we don't want it. Overall, I think the paramount is still just a very nice way of giving yourself a really, really good carrier to get in a multitude of bikes to wherever that destination might have taken you. Now again, I think the big thing is going to be how wide and how thick is our bikes. And by that, I mean, those frames are gonna be sitting inside there and just having to make us kind of work. Like I said, you could probably fit seven on here if you guys have smaller bikes, but I think it's gonna quickly fill up. You guys really don't have too much space in here. And seven is asking for quite a lot on the back of a tailgate in my mind, but do you like that we have that capability. Again, I really like how we have the cargo management system. Everything just seems to be in good working order. Now this seems to be a little bit up there in price-wise for you guys. I might recommend also just looking at the Swagman Tailwhip. You're basically getting almost the exact same thing you're seeing here today. You're missing these front pads and you're missing the cargo nets, but you're basically getting the same holder and it actually does add just a little bit more versatility. So that's one thing too, if you guys are having trouble getting Altra bikes to work on here in good working order. One thing I might suggest too is because of that Daisy chain that they have set up on the tailwhip, you can actually change where all of your positions might be for your bikes which can be really nice. So that is a huge advantage. The only other one that I would really compare this to in my considered kind of getting instead is gonna be that Thule GateMate, I would recommend that this is pretty much perfect for what you guys are probably wanting. I just think it'll do a great job just getting your bikes to and fro and protect your tailgate while it does it, right I mean, what more can you really ask for. Other than that though, I think that about does it for our look here today at the Swagman Paramount Tailgate pad on our 2019 Ram 1500 classic. I'm Bobby, thank you for watching..