AMP
Bed X-Tender
If there is one thing on my truck that I can't live without, it's my AMP Bed X-Tender. OK, I need my loading ramp, too, but the Bed X-Tender makes it a cinch to fit two or three dirt bikes, a cooler, gas cans, chairs and overloaded gear bags into my truck as if I had a long bed, without worries about having things fall out the back. AMP (www.amp-research.com; 888.983.2206) makes them to fit about every truck known to man, and it's not only functional in the bed, either. It is lightweight and sturdy, and in years of use we haven't seen a failure from it yet. Mine has seen plenty of service as a make-shift chair or a bench. I have a small sheet of plywood in the back of the truck at all times, and the bed extender can safely play the legs of my plywood table. Often it is used as a step into the bed of the truck. And when I'm running errands with the tailgate closed, it is a nice partition to keep stuff from tumbling around the bed of the truck, especially during spirited driving.
The extender takes about an hour or so to install, and the standard latching method involves dropping in the X-Tender into its pivot points and clipping a retaining strap into the tailgate latch. One of the new improvements is a lever release at the pivot point attachments at the side of the bed that allows installation or removal from any angle, unlike the older version that had to be at nearly 90 degrees to slide into the catch. Now the side posts will drop and clip in easily, especially handy if the bike's rear fender or license plate is in the way of getting the X-Tender up to 90 degrees to install. In reality, $374.03 isn't much to pay for an upgrade to a long-bed truck ($415.64 for Ford applications that use a special bracket kit), especially when it can be shortened back up to a regular bed instantly. -Jimmy Lewis