Rack for a pickup truck

outdoorsman
Mine looks like it’s going downhill a little too. I always attributed it to the fact that I have only one rack in the bed, attached about a foot behind the cab when hauling most of my boats. The front of the cab has a standard bar, clamped on at the front doorframes. I like that I can fairly easily adjust the distance between the two bars for transporting different boats. They stay on pretty much all year with 4 J cradles unless I’ve got to take a long drive without a boat along. Then it’s about 5 minutes and no more wind noise. When taking lots of boats, I’ll even put another on foam blocks between the J’s so I can carry 3 on top without sacrificing any bed space. With 8 on the trailer it looks a lot like a carnival on the highway.

Thule XSporter
I highly recomend the thule xporter. I Looked at the yakima outdoorsman and didn’t like it as much. The Thule you can raise and lower when not in use to get it out of the wind. It is extremely sturdy. I can shake my whole truck by grabbing the racks with no play; It is easy to install. I combined it with yakima bow downs as my J-saddles to hold my kayaks. It is a great combo that I have not been disappointed in! I used to have an extendabed that when into my receiver in the back of my truck but it requires set up everytime i use it, it isn’t as sturdy, and lets face it, it looks like a$$. Anyways, thats my opinion. I recommend looking at both the outdoorsman by Yakima and the Thule Xsporter in stores and figure out what suits your individual needs and styles. Hope this was helpful.