Carried a 4x8 with the tailgate locked on a angle

hitch bed extender

I just picked one of these up last week and will be using it to haul home a 10' sheet metal brake from a local rental place this weekend (and for many other things I'm sure):



~$30 from Harbor Freight.
Truck Bed Extender

I haven't used it for 8' plywood yet, but I have an idea as to how to make it work great for that; out of the box it's only really good for stuff that's 10'+. I'll be building some cornhole boards in a few weeks with some friends of mine, so I'll post pics when we go to pick up some plywood then.

Just an FYI, the one that HF actually had in the store was not identical to the one on the website (they source from all sorts of asian manufacturers)...mine only has about 7 inches of adjustment. On the lowest setting it's perfectly flush with the floor of the bed. on the highest setting it lines up pretty well with the top of the wheel wells. Yes sometimes HF stuff blows, but this looks like it'll do enough for what I need and without seeing other manufacturers stuff in person to see how thick the metal is, the design is, for all intents and purposes, identical.

Also, HF doesn't advertise it this way, but you can install the short end of the large L-shaped piece in the receiver and use it as a ladder rack in conjunction with your roof rack if you have one.

Like this:

....to answer your question

eckemoff said:

I read 350 LB capacity... Meaning it is useful for carrying long, light stuff, but 12 sheets of plywood is about 1000 LB (80lb per 3/4 piece) and about the payload capacity of the truck (considering + the weight of everything else inside the truck). The sliding bed extender (which is useless crap IMO) is only 225 LB.

The best way is really using a trailer.

I do like the heavy duty tailgate on the frontier too. It easily holds stuff at an angle without damage.

Click to expand...

No doubt I probably wouldn't haul 10 sheets of 3/4" plywood with the hitch bed extender, but while the extender is rated to 350 pounds, your bed will be supporting the majority of the 1000 lb payload....so it may not be totally out of the question...especially if you have the 6' bed.

I agree....a trailer is probably the best way to add way more load capacity and space than our beds could ever dream of....not to mention they're easier to load.

eanx32 - Sorry I kind of took this thread in a different direction, but to answer your question...If you are just hauling a couple sheet of thick stuff, or a several sheets of the thinner stuff, I don't see why you can't use the latch posts as far as strength goes. The only thing I'd be concerned about would be the clips coming off the post (I'm not looking at the ring/clip and post in person right now)....as long as they couldn't work themselves off those posts and upset the load (and royally mangle your tailgate), then they should be strong enough for what you're talking about. I know I've seen other trucks (maybe the last generation Silverados?) whose tailgate cables actually had a second ring in the middle of the cable so that you could shorten up the effective cable length by attaching this intermediate ring to the original post but achieve the same function out of the tailgate that you're talking about.