Yakima GateKeeper Tailgate Pad for Compact and Mid-SizeTrucks - 5 Bikes - 53" Wide - Blue

Video Transcript for Yakima GateKeeper Tailgate Pad Review - 2021 Toyota Tacoma

What's up, everybody It's AJ with etrailer.com. Today, we're been checking out the Yakima GateKeeper on this 2021 Toyota Tacoma. Tailgate bed's a good option, especially if you don't wanna mess with putting anything in your hitch. You don't need any tools to install this. This also stores easier than your bike racks that go and hitch. If you we're to get one that wanted to carry four bikes, that gets pretty big, and then you have to find somewhere to put that, this is gonna be easy to store when you're done with it.

Easy to put on there when you need it. The five bikes is pretty impressive for this. Holding them upright and keeping them protected. So it's got a nice amount of padding in here. That's gonna protect the frame and the tailgate itself.

Take you a closer look at how it holds the bikes. You see this bike over here. We got the hook that's put into that loop. It's gonna be a aluminum hook there with padding on this side and this side. Let's take a better look at it here, sliding that off.

There's quite a bit of padding here for that frame or that down tube on your bike, along with the padding underneath. So you don't have to worry about anything getting damaged at all, and I like how much tighter this is than the old version that just had the hook and loop fastener. This one, you can get way tighter by pulling on that, and you know it's gonna stay there because of that hook. Security is something, too, you might wanna think about with these tailgate pads. It's got a loop that's reinforced here so you can run a cable lock through and go through the frames of all five bikes to lock 'em up.

Looking at the Tacoma we are dealing with today, we have a tunnel cover that has a canister in here and it's only a 5-foot bed, but it still can fit that bike in there. So even with this extra space taken up, the tire is touching the canister on our tunnel cover,, but if we didn't have that there'd be plenty of room in here for this back tire. Another way to carry your bikes in a truck is gonna be a ladder rack. You can see there's two bike racks up here on top. That's a little cumbersome to get to. It's kind of a big reach to get up there and set your bike in place. So between that option or a hitch-mounted option, where you have to have tools to install that or somewhere to store it when you take it out. I really like the tailgate pad. It's far easier, especially for me to put this bike in here. This is a bigger bike. This has got like an XL frame. So getting that to fit in here or just lifting it up and setting it in a place was far easier to do it here than would be to try and go up there. Even with the XL frame and the ladder rack on here, it wasn't too bad to get this put on. You might have to tilt it just a little bit to avoid that ladder rack. If you didn't have that in the way you wouldn't probably have to do that, but it's that easy to take the bike off. Now, we can take a closer look at the pad itself. First thing, I can show you with the bike removed is the flap here. We have a hook and loop that helped keep this attached and then snap buttons here at the bottom that keeps it in place. Now, this is the better look at what's underneath the tailgate pad. It's this felt material here. It's gonna be easy on your tailgate, but as long as it's clean, so it can only protect it as clean as it is. So what I'm saying is there's dirt in there. That felt can still rub that back and forth and cause issues, but as long as the tailgate's clean, what's on there, it should be just fine. One other thing with the flap is it can come all the way back here to show your backup camera. However, the only complaint is there's not really a way to attach this here on the backside. There's nothing to attach it and keep it back here, folded over. The outside material has a texture on it. It's got a lot of padding here, too. I like the blue and gray design. You can get it in black as well, but I think the blue and gray actually looks good on this Tacoma The logo itself, the Yakima logo is gonna be reflective. So at night when the light hits it, it's gonna shine. How to attach it to your tailgate is really easy, too. You just set it in place and you're gonna run a strap up through the bottom side of the tailgate through here and it comes up and you run it through this buckle to tighten it down so I can loosen this one, kinda show you, this is what you will loosen to take it off there, and then you can just pull on it to tighten it down, too. I like the straps have reinforcement here. That's a really good improvement from the old ones because the old ones that had a smaller strap, it was harder to feet up than in there. This one's easier because it keeps it rigid. So it's easier to feed it up and grab it and pull it through. Another tailgate pad I've worked with is gonna be the Swagman Paramount. That one has a couple other things going for it. It's got two mash bags on the back for extra cargo. So if you just wanna throw your helmet back there, you don't wanna put it in the cab or anything. You can store it back here, but you got a truck bed. So that's not that big a deal. The one feature I do like on that one is that it has a way to fasten the flap when it's folded backwards. So maybe you're not fully loading it with bikes. You can just put a bike on each side, and if you really use that backup camera all the time, you can secure this flap and then have that open. So you can use that backup camera, even with the tailgate pad on there. Otherwise though, I do like this one, too. I like how it's holds the bikes really secure, no more hook and loop. I like that the straps we're easy to feed in there and get attached because I want this to be on there. Put this on there quick and take it off easily, too. I'm not gonna leave it on my truck all the time, and then security, too, with those loops here for that cable lock. If I do leave it unattended, I don't have to worry about anything either. Well, I think that does it. Thanks for hanging out. Hope this helps..