My next adventure vehicle build is a Chevy Colorado LT RST that I picked up last year. It’s a good platform for day trips and longer but it needs accessories. Over the coming year, I’ll be kitting it out for short overland trips to camp, bike, fish and kayak. So what does that mean for the racks?

It will need to hold a Thule roof top tent and be able to store a bunch of gear underneath. I have a tri-fold tonneau on the back to keep the gear dry and out of sight. It will need to also mount other things like a gear basket, boat or ski racks in different locations and I don’t want to drill into the bed.

With all those requirements, there only a few products out there that fit. Billie Bars kept coming up as a good option.

This is a review of the Low Profile Bed Bars from BillieBars on a 2020 Colorado LT RST.

The BillieBars Bed Bars

Bed bars are just like a roof rack you’d put on top of your vehicle but across the bed of the truck. They are smaller and lighter than a full rack that would go up the same height as the cab. There are pros and cons to this approach so it depends on how you want to mount everything. For my purposes, they fit perfect.

Billie Bars have a bracket that sits along the side of the bed and clamps under the top rail. Because the vertical part of the bracket is toward the outside, many types of tonneau covers can still fit between the brackets under the bars. My tri-fold tonneau can’t open fully but it’s easy to mount under the bars to keep all my stuff dry.

I like the clamp style bracket for a couple reasons. I can mount the brackets anywhere I want. The rooftop tent, gear basket, boat, bike and ski racks all fit best in different spots. Also, I don’t have to drill holes in the truck.

Tech Specs of the BillieBars Bed Racks

There is 3.5″ clearance under the bars with the 5″ brackets (6.5″ under the 8″ brackets). I got the 5″ brackets. All sides of the bars have t-slots (2 on the top and bottom) if you have any accessories that work with that mount. The 8″ mount gives enough space to roll up some rolling tonneau’s.

Installation

Once the bolts are through the bracket and clamps, installation is fairly quick. I can put put them on in about 20 minutes now. They have good installation instructions to walk you through it all. I found them helpful in seeing what all the parts were.

Steps to install:

• Add all clamps to the brackets with the included bolts
• Place brackets and tighten with 14mm deep socket
• (Optional) Install tonneau
• Place bars in brackets
• Screw Torx screws into bars with included Torx wrench

Tips for installation

I just keep the loosened bolts on the brackets and slide the clamps up and down.

A 14mm deep socket and T40 Torx bit for a screwdriver is faster than the hand tools.

My tri-fold tonneau has clamps at the front and the back. Its easier to put the brackets on, then the tonneau, then the bars. But if I’m putting the tent on by myself, I slide the tonneau in last so I don’t break the tonneau with the tent.

When mounting, make sure the brackets aren’t sitting where the tonneau clamps sit.

Mounting

So what can you put on these bars? Anything. They’ll hold up to 400 pounds moving, 800 not moving, so they can hold quite a bit.

I usually have a roof top tent or gear basket on mine. The Colorado doesn’t have any rails or racks on the roof (still need to get some) so the bed bars are the only place I can mount anything. The bars are 1.57 inches thick so I had to get longer bolts for the Thule roof top tent.

Roof boxes or gear boxes fit well back here too.

(These photos are from the BillieBars website)

Many bike, ski, fishing rod, boat racks fit on the bars. With the thick bars some attachments might not go all the way around and need longer bolts.

Kuat ski rack

With the racks sitting low behind the cab, there’s a riser mount for kayaks and sups if you need to clear the cab.

Kayak and SUP mount

If you just need the front tipped up, there’s a LowPro Kayak Mount Kit.

Mounting awnings is a bit awkward on the bed bars because they’re lower than a roof rack. BilleBars has adjustable awning brackets so you can mount the awning up to 19.75″ higher than the bed rack.

Awning Mount Kit

There are also the Molle Panels that you can mount just about anything to.

Mid-height Molle Panel

Pros

There a lot of things I like about bed bars and BillieBars in particular.

Easy to install

With a few bolts and screws to tighten, the bars are easy to install by yourself in 20 to 30 min.

Strong

800 pounds static load limit is enough for a roof top tent and a couple people.

Won’t rust

Anodized aluminum won’t rust even if they get scratched.

Tonneau compatible

The shape of the bracket means many tonneau types can fit under the bars.

Lots of mounting options

Between BillieBars accessories and third party racks that would fit, roof top tents, gear boxes, bikes and baskets are easy to mount.

Lower than a full roof rack

With the bars sitting at bed level, rather than roof level, they’re easier to access and mount gear. The height keeps boxes and tents out of the wind as well.

Easy to store

With only 2 bars and 4 small brackets, these fit in the garage much easier than a full canopy or bed rack.

Torx screws

The Torx screws are harder to undo than some roberts or philips so they’re harder to pop off and run away with.

Cons

There’s not really anything bad about the BillieBars, just different. There are benefits to mounting things on the roof or higher on a bed rack.

Tonneau hard to open

Some tonneau’s can roll up under the BillieBars. My tri-fold can be installed under them but won’t open fully with them. If the bars are over the second panel, I can still open the first panel. Most of the time I’m just opening the tailgate to get my gear.

Big bars

The big cross bars are super strong and enable more mounting with the t-slots but they are thicker than most regular roof racks. I had to get longer bolts for my roof top tent. Not a big deal though.

Blocks visibility

The bars themselves don’t block much visbility through the back window but mounting anything to them does. Putting tents and boxes on the roof or tall bed rack lets you still see out the back. If you’re packing the box full of gear then that might block it anyways.

Less space underneath

Having a full height rack lets you fit more underneath it. The bed bars are just above the sides of the box, while a full rack will be roof height or more. If you want to fit tall gear or stacking gear under it, then the full height might be worth it.

Closer to the ground

Sometimes the point of having a tent on the top of a rack or canopy is to get it higher off the ground. BillieBars sit just above the bed rails.

Conclusion

BillieBars offer a strong, durable method to mount more on your truck without taking up a lot of space. They are a bit more expensive than a cheap set of roof racks but far cheaper than many canopy and full bed rack options. I like they take up hardly any space in the garage.

Mounting gear is easier since it’s down lower, shoulder height instead of above your head. It didn’t take long to mount the bars and a 130 pound roof top tent by myself. Trying to do that before with an SUV was a 2 person job and left your shoulders burning.

I’ve been impressed with the quality and beefiness of the brackets and bars. I’m going to be sad when they start to get scratched but it won’t affect the performance at all or start to rust. The metal brackets on the roof top tent barely made a mark.

Functional requirements aside, they look amazing on the Colorado and just make it easier to haul more to the trail.

See more on the BillieBars bed bars.

Other Photos

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What I like

• Lightweight
• Cheap on gas
• Inexpensive
• Very easy to manoeuvre in the woods
• Tall for good clearance
• Fun to ride

What I don’t like

• Not comfortable at speed
• Hard to find parts
• Not the quality of big brands

Pro: Lightweight

You can’t get much more lightweight than this motorcycle is. You could use a bicycle but you total distance covered drops dramatically as soon as you go human-powered. It does have space for one person on the back but if I’m carrying a backpack that doesn’t work so it’s really only a one-person vehicle. That doesn’t work for a lot of people. The size and weight comes in when you are exploring. With a bike this size you can get almost anywhere. You can slide it under downed logs, ride it through single track trails and on roads, be it dirt roads or paved.

Pro: Cheap on Gas

Aside from scooters, which might have a tough time off-road, $8 to fill the tank is about as cheap as you can get for a vehicle. With new electric and hybrid vehicles coming out, driving will get less and less expensive but it’s hard to argue with a couple hundred kilometres on $8.

Pro: Inexpensive

I picked this bike up when it was a year old for only $1600. Models from other brands were going for at least $5000. The price was most of what sold it for me. I’ve had great luck with it so far and not had any problems. I do make sure that I’m with other people when I ride further into the woods. That might just be common sense when exploring places hours away from civilization. No matter what the brand of bike you have, there’s still a chance you could crash or something could break and you’ll be walking home.

Pro: Easy to manoeuvre

The dirtbike style of the bike and the tall frame makes it very easy to get over or around anything in the woods. If I get stuck I can pretty much just pick the bike up or work it up over the obstacle while I’m on the ground. Try some gnarly single track trail on a big adventure bike and you’ll be sticking to the dirt roads in no time. I’ve got the back spring lowered a bit so I can actually touch the ground on the road as I’m not very tall. The height of it does make it nicer for clearing obstacles in the backcountry. On a lower bike, you’d be scraping the frame on rocks and logs but I can roll right over them in the GY-250. But with all vehicles, there’s always a limit to how how you can go.

Pro: Fun to ride

The GY-250 isn’t very hard to ride at all and because it’s so small and light, I can just hop on and go through any kind of trail or dirt road. It’s nice to ride on the road at slow speeds as well so as soon as the weather is decent, I spend most of my driving time on the bike instead of the 4Runner.

Con: Not comfortable at speed

That same nimble lightness I talked about above makes it a bit of a pain to ride at highway speeds. It’s doable but it’s certainly not comfortable like a bigger bike would be. There’s not much weight to throw around so it’s unstable in the wind and doesn’t have a fairing up front to protect you from the air hitting your chest and face.When I bought the bike, it was geared quite low. I could get up to about 80 km/h but that was about the top of it’s comfortable riding speed. I had a cog with fewer teeth put on it recently to lower the gear which brought the top speed up to about 100-110 km/h. It’s not incredible comfortable but I can make it all over Vancouver Island instead of just being stuck in town here.

Con: Hard to find parts

Initially I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to find any replacement parts. Saga isn’t a mainstream brand and the closest location was a few hours away that might have what I needed. Initially, I got the few parts that I needed by matching them up with other brands. I bent my clutch handle and broke a chain so those needed to be replaced. Last year a new bike and scooter shop opened up where I live and just happened to carry Saga scooters and could get the parts of the bikes as well. I was definitely lucky with that one. I went from hardly being able to find parts to having a shop within walking distance of my house. Maybe someone was listening when I was thinking about a new bike shop!

Con: Not the quality of big brands

This con is more from what I’ve heard about Saga bikes compared to other ones. There is usually a reason they are cheaper than the other big brands of motorcycles. When I heard people talk about them initially, I was worried I had bought some second-rate piece of junk. So far everything has run very smoothly and I’ve been very happy with the bike and the cost to maintain it. If everything keeps going this smoothly, I’ll be very happy with the fact that the bike was a quarter of the price of similar models.

There have only been a couple issues with it and nothing major. The pegs that hold the headlight assembly in have broken. They were brittle plastic that couldn’t stand all the bumps of riding off road. I could just get a new assembly to replace it but it was easier and probably stronger just to wire it in myself. A few of the plastic covers on the sides and the front fork have cracks in them after I’ve run into things. The plastic isn’t quite as strong as it should be. Again, I could replace these with new higher quality parts but they’re just plastic and don’t serve a purpose when I’m riding so I’m going to leave them for now.

2 other pieces I’ve replaced have been the clutch handle and the chain. I bent the clutch handle falling over one day so that was my fault. I believe the chain breaking was also my fault after putting it on wrong when it slipped off. I was on a steep hill and all that torque applied to a chain that wasn’t lined up properly broke one of the links. Luckily I was travelling with another truck that day and just threw it in the back and drove back home.

Recommendation

Just the fact that the Saga GY-250 was a quarter of the price of other similar bikes is enough to make me love it. I’ve had no major problems with it (knock on wood) and it continues to be an awesome way to get around during the drier weather. I don’t have any thick waterproof gear with armor for riding yet so I’ve been hesitant to ride in terrible weather. Once I get a jacket, pants and boots, I’ll be set for riding all year!

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***

Early last year I was stuck. I wanted to get out further and further into the woods but all I had was a Honda Civic. I was getting a ride with friends that had trucks or more robust cars every time we went for an adventure. I didn’t want to wait on anybody else any longer and started to look into my own AdventureMobile.

I knew there were many options available. Any truck or SUV could pass as a pretty good AdventureMobile. Heck, even a 4 wheel drive car could do the job on a lot of adventures that I go on. I wanted to something that could handle as many different situations and conditions as I could throw at it and still keep truckin’. Maybe that should be SUVin’? I ended up going with a Toyota 4Runner. Here’s why.

The Requirements for my AdventureMobile

The vehicle that I ended up with needed to be able to do a bunch of different things. First the basics. It needed to get me to where I wanted to hike and mountain bike. It needed to carry the gear that’s required for those sports and it needed to carry the people that I would be doing those things with. I also wanted to be able to sleep in it. Having a place to sleep on wheels gives you a lot of flexibility with where you go and what time you do your travelling. That was really all I wanted it to do. Not a tall order at all.

The Options

Initially I was looking at a Toyota Tacoma’s. The Tacoma’s are beautiful trucks and would do almost exactly what I wanted to do save for one problem. The long box I wanted to use for sleeping and carrying gear was only available on trucks with a short cab on them. So I could get small seats and the long box or I could get nice seats and 4 doors but a short box. That just wasn’t going to do.I was almost sold on the Mitsubishi Delica. An import vehicle from Japan, the Delica is like a raised van, perfect for the outdoorsy traveller that takes a lot of gear or people wherever they are going. The have a ton of space inside like vans do and are raised a bit. There are videos galore on youtube of Delica’s going through some pretty crazy 4×4 areas. They’re a little top heavy but as long as they don’t get too high angle, they’re ok. The downsides to the Delica’s is that they’re imports. On Vancouver Island where I live there is really just one importer who can service them as well. If you’re here and you schedule your maintenance often then there shouldn’t be a problem. Leave the island and then where do you get your parts? Who does the servicing? How expensive is it going to be to service a 15 year old vehicle imported from Japan? No idea. Not the best route for me.

The Final Decision

I ended up on the 4Runner because it was a combination of both the 4×4 capabilities and reliability of the Toyota trucks but the interior space of an SUV.

I can comfortably fit 4 people and a whole bunch of gear or a weekend camping or a weeklong road trip. In a pinch, there are seatbelts for 5. For an even better setup, the 4Runner came with a Thule roof box for skis which fits even more gear or a bunch of skis and snowboards. I was never really sold on the idea of attaching a box to the roof to put more stuff in it but after using it for a year, I can tell you that I’m completely sold on the idea and won’t give mine up!The seats in the 4Runner fold forward and flat to let 2 people sleep comfortably inside. The disclaimer here is that the space isn’t very long and it’s not great for taller people. I’m 5 foot 7 and have a great night sleep. Anyone taller would feel a bit cramped. I’m working on a solution for this including raising the sleeping surface up a bit which will create a bit more length over the bottom of the folded seats. I’m hoping to figure something out that’s not permanent so the option to drive with 4 people still exists. 2 could sleep in the truck with 2 outside in a tent.In terms of 4×4 capability, the 4Runner is unmatched. In its stock form, it can take a lot and keep on ticking. Want to make a 4×4 Monster? No problem (just a little bit of money). Some of the gnarliest 4×4 machines I’ve ever seen have been Toyota 4Runners. They’re able to rip through and over anything from mud pits to rock walls to fallen trees. For the more practical, slightly larger tires and a winch kit can go a long way.

Downsides

Although the best vehicle I’ve ever had as been the 4Runner, it does have it’s downsides. The 6 cylinder engine isn’t the most fuel efficient and while I would have opted for a 4 banger if given the choice, it is certainly nice to feel that power under the hood when the truck is full of gear and people. I certainly haven’t had any problems heading up hills full loaded.

The 4Runner is an SUV and not a truck which limits the hauling capabilities. The open box of a truck allows for many more possibilities when carrying gear and things in the back. I haven’t run into anything I haven’t been able to carry but I know stuff like dirt, bark-mulch and gravel are going to pose problems. If you’re not doing any gardening and are just hauling gear then it’s all good!

Final Word

The Toyota 4Runner is one of the best AdventureMobiles I’ve adventured with so far and I’m extremely happy with mine. It has no problems going wherever I want to take it and it hauls friends and gear with ease. There’s a bonus of being able to carry all those people and gear and still be able to sleep inside if you need to!In the coming months, we’ll be looking how it stacks up to a few other types of vehicles including the Toyota Tacoma and the Mitsubishi Delica.

The post AdventureMobile: Toyota 4Runner first appeared on Pack & Trail.

We can’t have you getting stuck before the adventure has even begun!

A new series on Pack and Trail, AdventureMobile will focus on the best transportation to your adventure launch points. Whether it be skiing, hiking, running, biking or whatever else you fancy doing, you’ve got to get there before you can do any of it. We’ll give you a hand with that. There are reviews out the ying yang for every kind of car and truck on the market but there are a few that stand out again and again as being trusted and reliable but still getting you to those hard to reach places.

Each of the vehicles has it’s pros and cons and which one you choose depends entirely on what you’d like to do with it. A few examples are in order.

The Toyota 4runner is a very capable 4×4 machine. Sometimes they offer enough room in the back if you can fold the seats down to sleep comfortable. That depends how bit the vehicle is, how tall you are and how the seats fold down. It easily seats 4 people, maybe 5, plus gear. Parts are easy to find and there’s huge market for bigger, better offroad parts.The Mitsubishi Delica is relatively a relatively unknown AdventureMobile. It can easily handle most offroad situations but is a little top-heavy so you have to take that into consideration when you get into the gnarly stuff. There is tons of room in the back for a bed or lots of people and gear. Parts can be a little hard to find so make sure you have a good source before going out and picking one of these up.

The Toyota Tacoma is an offroad beast. Held by some as the greatest offroad truck in history, these things will stand up to anything you throw at them. You do have some decisions to make. You can go with V4 or V6, 2 door or 4, standard or automatic. All of these things will affect what you can do with your truck and when. If you go with a 4 door, some models only get a short box. If you get a V4 you’ll get better gas mileage but may not have the power to haul much up steep hills. Then you have to decide whether you want a canopy or not. It’s nice to have a secure, covered area for great but it’s another expense.

The Subaru Impreza is a mean little machine that can rally any smooth offroad area. It gets better gas mileage than most trucks, seats 4 people comfortable and still has room for gear. Throw a roof rack on it and you got space for more. The all-wheel drive gives you great traction on slippery surfaces, letting you get out in wet, snowy conditions. Downsides? Don’t put any sort of big rut or tank trap in the road, Impreza’s don’t have much clearance. Little bumps in the road can put big bumps into your great adventure plans.

These are just a few of the great choices for AdventureMobiles out there. Every manufacturer has a few good choices but there are always pros and cons to each. Stay tuned each week as we add the AdventureMobile series to the regular lineup here on Pack and Trail.

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