RangerEh!
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As a Gen 6 Ranger owner, if you are like me, the one thing you wish you had, sometimes, is a bigger box. Yes, size does matter!
The five-foot box is just fine for daily runs around town and most small jobs; I can even fit my five-foot little Giant ladder in my fiver and still close the tailgate and tuck it safely under my tonneau cover. But . . .
Every now and then, you need that extra length, especially if it’s a work truck or you need to take grandma to the cemetery, save on the funeral. And, thankfully, there is a bed extender out there to turn your five-foot box into a six-footer, sort of.
My original plan was to order the Ford OEM bed extender, but to my chagrin this bed extender was not available ANYWHERE in Canada, not from Ford and not from aftermarket sellers. Luckily, this is not the case for our southern neighbours (neighbors). Being American has advantages.
So, no biggie, I’ll just order one of them American bed extenders, I do live in the 51st state after all. But no go. I was stymied. I even tried name-dropping, said I would have voted for Trump, but the answer was still no. Ford dealers will not ship to Canada. Must be Ford’s way of protecting dealerships on both sides of the border.
Anyhow, I am not close enough to the border to cross and buy, so I had to find another option.
Trumgeta Upgraded Truck Bed Extender
Enter Trumgeta. They have an ‘upgraded’ bed extender that fits 2019 to 2025 Rangers. Frankly, the width of this thing is adjustable, so it might fit other Rangers too.
So, I got on the puter and ordered one from my favourite supplier, MoneysGone.
The rails are good quality, aluminum, and the legs are hard plastic. I put it together loosely as I did not want to lock everything down until I fit it in the truck bed.
Good weather finally arrived, snow be gone, so I took my loosely assembled unit out to the driveway and my excitement was hit in the face with a snowball. It was then he knew he “fu_ck_ed up”. I did not have the template to mark out the holes. Must have thrown it out with the packaging. Or, maybe, the template was never there, like my wallet when it is my turn to pay for wings on boys night.
So, I contacted Trumgeta. They could not see my sad face, but I am sure they could feel it. The nice folks at Trumgeta sent me a copy of the template, which I printed out and I was now back in action, sort of. It snowed again, there is no such thing as spring in Canada, just an extension of winter.
Finally, the sun came out and I had my template taped to the left and right sides of the Ranger’s box, pilot holes were drilled, and self-tapping screws tacked the hinges down nicely.
I laid my loosely pre-assembled rack between the new hinges and tugged the rails apart until I found a perfect fit. All that was left was to line up the hinge and knobs and lift the rack up to about a 30-degree angle and the rail snapped into place and bam, I was in business.
Tested it out, it fit very nicely to the very end of the tailgate, increasing my usual 60 inches of cargo space to a whopping 82 inches (in the centre area) with the bed extender in place.
Adjusted the hold-down straps and they fit very firmly in the tailgate locking mechanism, creating a pretty sturdy tie-down to keep the extender from jumping up off the tailgate.
So, here’s what I like:
Ford OEM Ranger Bed Extender (Part # VR1WZ-99286A40-A)
Enjoy your Ranger!
The five-foot box is just fine for daily runs around town and most small jobs; I can even fit my five-foot little Giant ladder in my fiver and still close the tailgate and tuck it safely under my tonneau cover. But . . .
Every now and then, you need that extra length, especially if it’s a work truck or you need to take grandma to the cemetery, save on the funeral. And, thankfully, there is a bed extender out there to turn your five-foot box into a six-footer, sort of.
My original plan was to order the Ford OEM bed extender, but to my chagrin this bed extender was not available ANYWHERE in Canada, not from Ford and not from aftermarket sellers. Luckily, this is not the case for our southern neighbours (neighbors). Being American has advantages.
So, no biggie, I’ll just order one of them American bed extenders, I do live in the 51st state after all. But no go. I was stymied. I even tried name-dropping, said I would have voted for Trump, but the answer was still no. Ford dealers will not ship to Canada. Must be Ford’s way of protecting dealerships on both sides of the border.
Anyhow, I am not close enough to the border to cross and buy, so I had to find another option.
Trumgeta Upgraded Truck Bed Extender
Enter Trumgeta. They have an ‘upgraded’ bed extender that fits 2019 to 2025 Rangers. Frankly, the width of this thing is adjustable, so it might fit other Rangers too.
So, I got on the puter and ordered one from my favourite supplier, MoneysGone.
- Canada Amazon — Buy it here: $414.80 Cdn ($372.69 plus import fees, $42.11)
- US Amazon — Buy it here: $209 US
- Trumgeta.com: Check it out here
The rails are good quality, aluminum, and the legs are hard plastic. I put it together loosely as I did not want to lock everything down until I fit it in the truck bed.
Good weather finally arrived, snow be gone, so I took my loosely assembled unit out to the driveway and my excitement was hit in the face with a snowball. It was then he knew he “fu_ck_ed up”. I did not have the template to mark out the holes. Must have thrown it out with the packaging. Or, maybe, the template was never there, like my wallet when it is my turn to pay for wings on boys night.
So, I contacted Trumgeta. They could not see my sad face, but I am sure they could feel it. The nice folks at Trumgeta sent me a copy of the template, which I printed out and I was now back in action, sort of. It snowed again, there is no such thing as spring in Canada, just an extension of winter.
Finally, the sun came out and I had my template taped to the left and right sides of the Ranger’s box, pilot holes were drilled, and self-tapping screws tacked the hinges down nicely.
I laid my loosely pre-assembled rack between the new hinges and tugged the rails apart until I found a perfect fit. All that was left was to line up the hinge and knobs and lift the rack up to about a 30-degree angle and the rail snapped into place and bam, I was in business.
Tested it out, it fit very nicely to the very end of the tailgate, increasing my usual 60 inches of cargo space to a whopping 82 inches (in the centre area) with the bed extender in place.
Adjusted the hold-down straps and they fit very firmly in the tailgate locking mechanism, creating a pretty sturdy tie-down to keep the extender from jumping up off the tailgate.
So, here’s what I like:
- Decent build: Once I had the screws all locked in, if was solid.
- Molle panels: I think this feature sets this bed extender apart from the Ford OEM bed extender. These aluminum panels, mounted with threaded bolts (nice touch) help to fill in the open areas so you will have less likelihood of smaller items sliding through the back of the bed extender and onto the road. But really, you should still be using straps when hauling. Also, talking about straps, a huge bonus is the openings in the panels make it easy to attach bungy or tie-down straps as smaller hooks will not fit around the fat horizontal panel beams. Plus, the molle pans just look cool!
Flag pole holder: The Ford OEM wishes it had this feature. This is for Patriots, I know, but heck you can fly any flag you want in that holder, your favourite team, your spouse’s photo (thanks for letting me buy a Ranger), your PIN number for your bank card, your dirty underwear. Heck, knock yourself out. - Maximized cargo space: I believe the Trumgeta offers more cargo space as it reaches to the edge of the tailgate. I never had the chance to install the Ford OEM bed extender, but somebody can chime in to confirm how much space they have with that model.
Price: When you are a cheap SOB like me, price matters! The Ford OEM extender is nearly 60% more and the Trumgeta comes with free shipping. Thank you MoneysGone! - Customer service: It’s always a good sign when somebody responds to your call, message or email and acts upon it to make things right. Kudos to Trumgeta!
- Mounting bracket: It would be great if Trumgeta pulled a China and “borrowed” the OEM extender’s slick bracket that screws directly into the threaded screw holes in the back of the box on both sides.
- Plastic: They already made about 60% of this beast using aluminum, so it would be great to have the plastic leg assemblies built out of aluminum.
- Screws in plastic: Whenever you drive a thread into plastic there is a high risk of over-tightening, stripping and having the plastic fail. Having metal into metal is much better, which would be solved by making legs out of aluminum or, even better, having threaded holes to drive metal threaded bolts into.
- Tailgate straps: The extender rails have two straps that click directly into the mechanism of your open tailgate. A brilliant idea, but the straps are a wee bit short. There is not much loose strap left over once you get the straps to length to hold your extender in place on the open tailgate. About three or four inches more of strap would be ideal.
Ford OEM Ranger Bed Extender (Part # VR1WZ-99286A40-A)
- The Ranger Bed Extender, made by AMP Research, part number: VR1WZ-99286A40-A
- Ford OEM Parts Online — Buy it here (or order from your local Ford dealer): $329.09
Enjoy your Ranger!
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