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Yakima Overhaul HD Truck Rack Review

Overlanding is growing exponentially, and over the last couple of years the growth in overlanding is surprising even those who have been off-roading for many years.  The desire to bring quality gear with you into hard-to-reach places and the ability to camp where you want is attractive to today’s adventure enthusiasts.  We have been off-roading and using our Tacoma to haul gear into hard to-get-locations for years.  This year, we jumped at the chance to get our hands on the Yakima OverHaul HD Rack and the SkyRise HD Tent.  We got the setup in February and installed it within a week of it coming in.  In this review, we cover the Yakima OverHaul HD Rack system. 

What you first notice with the OverHaul HD is that the rack, built for daily use, is as solid as can be.  Having a quality rack to haul ladders, kayaks, lumber or your rooftop tent, you want to know that the rack is solidly mounted.  The bases mount onto the bed whether you have a standard bed and you are using an adaptation kit like the BedGrip clamp design like we are, the Track Kit 1, or the Tonneau Kit 1.  Regardless of what method is used, once the rack is mounted on the bed, the rack is solidly locked in.  The patent-pending QuickChange Rack Attachment allows you to quickly remove the rack from the truck without removing the BedGrip bases.

The OverHaul HD was built with utility and versatility in mind.  It has an adjustable height from 19 to 30 inches in height.  This allows you to keep the rooftop tent or racks down out of the wind or, if you are hauling kayaks, lumbers or ladders, you have the option to have everything mounted up and over the cab of your truck.  The OverHaul HD comes with a variety of tie downs and T-Slot options.  This makes it easy to create all kinds of ways to mount gear and haul loads.  The SKS (Same Key System) protects your rack from being removed from your truck from thieves looking to capitalize on your gear.  The Yakima HD Bar crossbars come in 60/68 and 78 inch lengths allowing this rack to fit a wide variety of trucks and different uses.  The riser even has a built in bottle opener so you can be the life of the party.

Yakima has a wide variety of accessories to allow you to mount just about any combination of things to your rack including Rotopax, Recovery Track Mounts, Eye Bolts for tie downs, Ladder rollers, wear Strips, HD Hook Straps and the integrated SideBar which we have mounted on both sides of our racks.  We have seen a set up with the SideBar mounted on only one side of the rack and hope to test that on a future trip to get easy access to coolers and gear boxes.  You can get everything from cargo racks, rod holders, boat mounts, ski mounts, surf or stand up board racks, and even rooftop fishing rod boxes to hold your fly rods or topwater rigs. You have options within the Yakima system.  We are still trying to figure out how best to use the T-Lock System to mount lights off the rack but we are sure we will find a way to make it happen to we can light up the bed when camping overnight.

As this was the first truck rack we had tried to install, the initial mounting took a bit of time for us to figure out.  The mounting was not all that complicated once we learned that the bars on the truck needed to be pretty close to an exact distance to fit the SkyRise HD tent.  Without the rooftop tent you can mount the system just about any way you like as long as each side is mounted equal distances from the cab.  We have talked to a few individuals who have used the Bed Track Kit 1 (Nissan & Toyota), and it was a little more complicated than they bargained for.  All things considered, once it is mounted the system is as solid as could be. Yakima created the OverHaul HD to be the flagship line for their entry into the truck rack and overlanding market. 

Yakima has years of experience in the rack business, and they really took their time when creating the OverHaul HD Rack and listened to the needs and concerns of their consumers.  The ability to adjust the height of this rack and the ability to haul up to 500 pounds of weight on the road and 300 pounds of weight off-road is what sold us on this particular rack for our overland build.  We also like how easy it is to remove the SkyRise HD tent on and off the rack and the ease of removing the OverHaul HD and leaving the BedGrip bases on the truck so we can use the truck as a truck and haul gear or the occasional couch for friends.  This is a quality system and, while there may be cheaper racks on the market, we have not found any that are anywhere near as versatile as this system.

Kevin Paulson

Kevin Paulson is the Founder and CEO of HuntingLife.com. His passion for Hunting began at the age of 5 hunting alongside of his father. Kevin has followed his dreams through outfitting, conservation work, videography and hunting trips around the world.

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