Vantech Universal Pickup Topper M1000 Ladder Rack w/ 60" Bar Steel Black

I was skeptical about these roof bars at first because of the price difference between well known brands and this one, and these are legit. I’ve had them on my truck for years now with no drip staining, corrosion, rust, chipping, etc. they are hard mounted into my camper shell and haven’t needed any manipulation since the day they went on. Super impressed by the durability and easy of install. If you don’t normally do these kinds of install projects, dont attempt alone. You could destroy a perfectly good truck shell. Find some help from a handy friend and make an afternoon out of it. With a little handy experience, they take about and hour to do right.

I recently (Oct 2021) purchased a ROOFNEST 'Sparrow' roof-top tent for my 1995 Chevy K1500 Extended Cab pickup and tried to order a Thule, Yakima and Rhino Rack system upon which to install it. "Sorry, but they're all back ordered with no restock date available!" (Thanks a heap, Mr. President, for taking such QUICk action to resolve the container cargo bottleneck problem at the ports...which is where all three of those popular systems are waiting for unloading!). Frustrated, I grabbed whatever was available NOW and that turned out to be the Vantech Universal Pickup Topper M1000 Ladder Rack w/ 60" Bar Steel Black assembly. It actually arrived a day early (a miracle?) and today I installed it on my pickup's camper cap (a LEER fiberglass type). This I did very quickly and with absolutely no problems with any of the components whatsoever! The fact that installation was such an easy 'snap' is a testament both to VANTECH and to the fact that any system that can be quickly installed by a hopeless clutz like me (with no inherent handyman skills to speak of) HAS to be great! Thank you, VANTECH, for providing a system that may not be THE status rack system (like Thule, Yakima and Rhino), nevertheless it is solid, well designed, well fabricated and very economical! In fact it's probably a good illustration of Occam's Razor applied...whatever gets you there satisfactorily and simply is usually the best (and wisest) approach to take!

The Vantech Universal Pickup Topper M1000 Ladder rack w/ 60" bar is a perfect fit over my Chevy Silverado 2500 HD long bed truck cap. I was impressed with the thickness of the steel and the workmanship quality and finish. But for a area of the spray finish, about the size of a thumb print on one of the small brackets that attaches the cross bars to the bracket that attaches the whole assembly to the top of my truck cap., the White finish was perfect, and looked to be of very high quality. But for that one defect this is a five star product. It is obviously very strong. There were no instructions but it was intuitively obvious enough for any experienced DIY person to figure out how to install. My truck cap has a double layer of fiberglas with insulation in the roof, so I bought mounting bolts that matched the OEM bolts in everything, but 1/2" longer. I got my wife to help tighten the nuts in side while I put the out side together and held the carriage head bolts down so they would not pop up and rotate while she was tightening them with a socket wrench. Measuring and Marking the holes you need to drill in the truck cap for mounting, needs to be precise, and because there are out side brackets and inside load spreading backing plates, each with slotted holes that overlap but do not match exactly, I measured and located the assembled rack and marked the top of the cap with a felt tip pen by making a single line in each of the mounting bracket slots that was the full length of each slot I then layed the in side backing plate centered over those lines, and drew a cross line near the inner ends of the slots in the backing plate. That locates the center of your mounting holes as close together as the backing plate will allow. The next step is to cut a cross shaped opening for the bolts to pass through the gasket material that matches the bolt locations you've laid out. I did that using a skinny paring knife and the backing plate as a template. I installed the bolts into the mounting brackets and pushed the gasket sticky side down onto the bolts before removing the paper tape from the adhesive side. and once it was all the way on I peeled the tape and inserted both bolts into my predrilled holes. I used a woodworking bit for the fiberglass top because it has a centering pin on the bit that assures it drills right where you start it and it has cutters that carve a groove at the edge of the hole before it starts gouging out the meat of what is being removed. So you get a get neat hole, right where you want it. Two people could do the whole job in a less than an hour. with a bit of practice maybe in half an hour. I am very happy with this product.

All of the materials were well packaged and seem to be quality parts. The install itself is easy. The install was time consuming because I measured, measured, MEASURED!! This was installed on an '06 Ram 2500. I also had to bend my brackets a little since they were not perfectly horizontal since the top of my cap has a little bow to it. A rubber mallet did not work as somebody else had mentioned, but I did put it in the vice and use a bar clamp to bend it. I put the bracket in the vice and put one clamp end on the bracket and the other end on the bottom of the vice, and cranked the clamp. I only probably needed fifteen degrees or so. In terms of measurements, placement is personal preference. I put my bars about 48" apart from each other, and positioned my brackets so the bars extend about 8" beyond the brackets. MEASURING TIPS: You need to find a front to rear centerline, and a line across the cap which you can accurately measure off of, The windows on my cap have side slider windows, so I pulled a string from the center "bar" of one slider over to the same position on the other side. I also pulled a string from the center of my high mounted stop light on the cap to the radio antenna (which is mounted in the rear/center of the truck cab). Once you have your strings pulled, measure your spacing off them. As others have mentioned, USE YOUR INTERIOR BACKING BRACKET AS A DRILL TEMPLATE. If you mark your holes centered on those (slightly ovaled) holes, the exterior brackets will align perfectly. I'm very happy so far. This is easy enough that if your holes were pre-drilled for you (no measuring required), it would probably be a 30 minute install.

Installed on my ARE Z series on my 1999 f250. Straightforward assembly. They seem to be thick and sturdy. The paint also appears to be high quality. I used my own hardware. I used grade 8. The flat metal pieces used to mount on the inside of the cap were not great. The holes aren't drilled far enough apart so I couldn't get the bolts on the inside of the cap thru them. It took alot of measuring and marking out with masking tape to drill the holes straight and even. Take your time and measure twice and you won't have any problems. I used marine grade sealant around the mounting bolts to prevent leaks. I plan on mounting my roof top tent on the racks. The racks high weight limit should be perfect for it. No experience yet but I have confidence in how sturdy these are. I will probably end up making a metal brace/frame on the inside of the cap to support the weight of the tent. The weak point wouldn't be in the racks but in the fiberglass shell.

I got this so I could haul my canoe and put a rocket box on my topper, and it works great. Install took me about 1 1/2 hours, most of which was devoted to making sure I had the holes marked correctly. Once installed, it was/is super-solid. Simple, solid, well designed and a good deal.

I installed a set of these today on my fiberglass canopy and I will say most of these reviews are spot on. The racks are high quality, durable materials, with nice finishes. I have no doubt they will last a long time, and the canopy is more likely to come off than the racks are. That said, I did have to bend the brackets to get the correct angle, which was easy enough with a vise and rubber mallet. Doesn't take much, just a few taps and it matched the roof angle perfectly. I do agree with others that the bolts are a pain to put through, as it first seems like you have to drill the holes bigger or use a different size bolt. But after fiddling with them for a bit I found that it's really quite easy with the right technique. Just put the bolts in as far as they can go from underneath the bracket, not from the front/back edge (see photos). The head of the bolt will be touching the curve of the bracket and it won't go any further. Then just start threading it by hand. Only a 1/4" or so and then it will fit right through, very easy. So if you're comfortable fiddling around with them a bit, they are nice racks for $150. Just don't expect a custom fit for that price.

This a is heavy duty, nice rack. Installed it on my F150 fiberglass cap and use it for canoes and kayaks. No issues. Works great

Heavy gage steel very strong

Great

Installed in 1 hour, easy instruction

None of the carriage bolts worked that came with the rack so had to use different hardware. Rack itself seems sturdy.