Darby Industries 944 Extend-A-Truck

With a couple of bad old paddler shoulders, I needed a way to carry my 14.5' Native Ultimate, without a big lift onto roof of an already lifted Tacoma (6' bed). Looking at expensive kayak trailers until I had a "duh" moment :). The Extend-a-Truck was the perfect solution. It's a winner for a bunch of reasons - it's much simpler and has less parts to lose or fail than many other products, it's ingeniously dual purpose (you can use it for roof carries or bed carries by simply switching which end goes into receiver hitch), it's very strong with good welds, supports up to 350 lbs., and it's an American-made, family owned company. A couple of things in other reviews that I definitely disagree with and you really don't need to worry about - the square tube steel is plenty strong and the right gauge/weight for the rated load; if they made it bigger, it'd be too heavy. It's quite sturdy. Second, play/wiggle in the receiver hitch. Pretty much any extender or hitch mount that you put in ANY receiver hitch is going to wiggle a little. That's just the nature of receiver hitches and not all 2" receivers are created quite equally (some are a tighter 2" than others, for real), not a deal or a structural issue at all. If some play in the hitch bothers you, just buy a tightener kit, Amazon's got them. Installs immediately, you just stick it in the hitch and put in the clevis pins, then mount the crossbar, with either one or two more clevis pins, depending on position. Voila. Shipped quickly and their customer service is excellent. Per some other reviews, I did bond some outdoor carpet to the cross bar and put on some DOT rated reflective tape, on the upright and the crossbar.

Before I bought this, I had those big racks that went on the bed walls and were higher than the cab. It's true that the big racks hold two canoes and are extremely sturdy. But they cost over $600, and it takes 20-25 minutes to put them on, so I would leave them on for months at a time. Couldn't drive the truck in the parking garage at work with them, either. You also have to lift the canoes up over your head to get them onto the racks, then you had a rather complicated ten minutes strapping them down. Then I bought a folding bed cover, and discovered that they conflict with each other; can't both be on the truck at the same time.Extend-A-Truck can carry just one canoe, but also other things. You can put it on in about one minute and another 30 seconds to strap it down. Much easier for one man to load, and the canoe slips in under the Tonneau or folding bed cover. There isn't anything that comes with the Extend-A-Truck that holds the bow of the canoe down in the front of the bed, so you will need to buy a strap and feed it through the bow of the canoe (unless you have a bed cover). One negative with Extend-A-Truck is that sticking a 16 foot canoe in an 8 foot bed makes your truck really long, and it can be tough to maneuver in tight parking places, or even driving off road where you might need a tight turn around a tree or up a steep hill and the Extend-A-Truck can hit the ground.If I needed to go a very long distance, say, a hundred miles, or if I needed to stop over in a place where someone could steal my canoe, I would use the tall racks because it's so much tighter and more secure. But when I only need to go a short distance, it's awesome. I use my canoe twice as much now because it's so quick and easy to take it places. There's a lake just five miles from home and I wouldn't fish it after work because it was a hassle to get the canoe on the racks. Now I can.

Ordered from Amazon Warehouse Deals for a bit of a discount. Box was beat to hell but the parts were all there and in fine shape. Installs easily and works just as expected. It is a bit loose / wobbly at connections, and as others have said the single holes for hitch mount points is ridiculously shallow. At minimum they should’ve provided 2-3 holes to provide options. I’ll probably drill another hole at some point for added security, but it still works as is. I added an anti-rattle device which helped some. I’ve used it a couple of times so far to carry my 13’ 100 lb kayak in the bed of my short bed truck and it works great. At some point I’ll probably use the high option to carry the kayak on the roof for multi-day trips. Good product for a reasonable priced compared to more expensive options. Those other options may be a bit more convenient or lighter weight, but IMO not worth the 2-3x price point.

Tried it out this weekend for a camping/canoe trip. The device was very easy to put together and figure out - it's just two pieces of metal with 2 pins for affixing. It slips right in your receiver hitch, then you adjust the height to match your truck bed (or roof height if using up high). I achieved a total of 12 feet from the front of my truck bed to the extender support bar, which is great for long loads (like a 16 ft canoe, or 16 ft lumber).My canoe slipped right up there and fit perfectly. It helps that it has 2 tie-down loops on the extender. The entire assembly wobbles a little bit inside the receiver hitch, but can easily hold several hundred pounds of weight without bending, and the pins are heavy duty which also gave me assurance.The included red plastic flag lasted 1.5 trips (total of 3 hours on the freeway) before it flew off, but I use orange flagging tape anyway so I didn't mind losing it. The extender does have grey reflective tape on the pack, but your load will mostly cover it up, so it's kind of pointless. I give it 5 stars for combination of price, ease of use, quality construction, and usefulness.

We had to get 4-16’ six by sixes home for a 30 minute drive from Menards. I had this old extended truck since 2010, and we decided that it could work. However, I do not recommend to try what we did. But the thing definitely held up and held the weight for the drive on the bumpy roads. Not bent at all, even with most the weight on this thing. We did previously use it for a canoe.Would recommend.

Amazing product. Doubled the length of my 5' truck bed in minutes. Carried 3 10' long heavy timbers with no sign of weakness. Compact and easy to use, would by it again without hesitation.The one area needing attention by the seller is the packaging. by the time it arrived the box was beat up and pieces were sliding out. A bit more packing tape along the box seams would do the trick!

Rack is heavier gauge square tube steel as shown in photo. I found the receiver fit to be a bit loose so I glued a bit of rubber to the shaft end to take up the slack & reduce any vibration noise. Also I felt the pin hole was a bit close to the end creating more "downward" torque on the unit so I drilled a new hole in the shaft so it goes into the receiver farther. Works great. Shipping was free & right on time. All good !

The item arrived damaged. That phrase can lead down two paths. In my case it led me to discover that Extend a Truck is a great company that stands behind their products and will go the extra mile to help you.The box was treated terribly in transit and one of the hooks was broken off. I could have returned the item and ordered another but 1 email to the vendor had a replacement part on route.The Extend a Truck is a great product from a great company. If you need to haul oversized stuff buy this thing.

Got this to move additional kayaks when my roof rack was full, simple, strong and great value for the price. A decent range of adjustments and when not in use the two piece slid together for easy storage and take up minimal space

Packed some 12' 2x8s, no problem at all, all heavy duty, excellent, used a ratchet tie-down strapped through the end loops on either end of the T, snugged right down, no movement, extra holes for adjusting height of T so planks angle slightly back toward truck bed instead of away, extra Large L Bolts w/ heavy duty codder pins to lock in place, i can see this is going to come in v handy be it lumber/canoe/ or whathaveyou.