Thule Xsporter Pro Truck Rack 500 - learn from my mistake

Hello,

Read on and learn from my mistake.

I bought a 2015 Tacoma Access Cab so I have the longer bed. I bought a Thule Xsporter Pro Truck Rack 500. This rack has a unique feature of vertical height adjustability. As far as I know, there is no other rack on the market that offers that and that is the one reason I chose this rack. Raise the rack when I need to haul something long like a ladder or lumber. Lower the rack when I want to carry something shorter, like bicycles or a kayak.

The problem is, on the 2nd gen Taco, the bed slopes inward enough to keep the vertical stanchions from sliding downward, preventing much in the way of adjustability. In the attached photo, the rack is adjusted as low as it will go, and that was after I cut 5 inches off the stanchions. Yeah, in unmodified form, the Xsporter rack sits 5 inches higher at its lowest setting (about the height of the top of my Taco's roof).

To be fair, I would say the Thule Xsporter is well made, quite strong, looks nice and will probably hold up for a long time. But, if you're driving a Taco, don't think you're going to get the benefit of adjustability out of this rack. Won't happen.

I went ahead and cut it rather than return it because I work out of my truck. Got work to get to, can't play with racks endlessly. I cut the rack stanchions down 5 inches to make this thing work better with my truck and may cut them some more. Or I may get too ticked off about it and just get out a welder and some bar stock and make something myself. In which case this one will be for sale. At a low price. Stay tuned on that one.

And, yes, I'll warn any prospective buyer, should it come to that, that while it will haul stuff nicely, it won't adjust much. That's more than Thule offered me.

If you've been considering this rack at all, you've probably seen that you have to use an Adapter Kit (Thule Xsporter kit XK3) for use in a Tacoma. The kit doesn't have anything to do with making the adjustability feature work with a Tacoma. It just makes it work with the bed rail system. What comes in the kit is the C shaped clamp things you can see in the picture holding the rack onto my bed.