Elevate Racks with Bakflip MX-4

Can't speak for his, but when I bought my Elevate racks, they only came drilled for Hi or Low settings.

Low would be for stuff like running a RTT down low, and wouldn't work for me, since I need to be able to have surfboards, SUP's, etc. go over the cab.

And the high setting just looked goofy to me.





I wanted mine to be as low as possible, but high enough to open my tri-fold cover, and boards clear the cab.

I drilled my own set of holes for a Med. height setting.

My understanding is that Elevate racks now come pre-drilled for Lo/Med/Hi

Because I wanted them low, I made the choice to not be able to fold the third panel up against the back window, which I don't really want to do anyway. If I need the full bed it's 2 knobs and 5 minutes to just take the whole cover off. I prefer being able to see my load.

Front panel would clear if I raised the racks 3" higher.

Again, not gonna' speak for @4x4Remedy but I would guess that his are in the Medium setting.

The pic below is in the medium height holes I drilled and looks pretty similar.

 

Just noticed this link shows 3 height levels… maybe they realized what u did and fixed it… https://realtruck.com/p/elevate-rack-system/v/toyota/tundra/2023/
“The height on this rack is adjustable and can be set at 18, 23 or 28 inches.“

 

That pic is at the mid height. Even the low isn’t very low. I am looking to get some low bars that attach to the rails for my skis, as well as a place to attach the kids Kayaks below mine and my wife’s Kayaks. Here’s a pic of the rack in the low position. It is still too high for

 

Lol, maybe. I should probably receive some compensation for product development.

I had some Yakima racks from my last Tundra, so I drilled the tie-down cleats that come with the Elevate system and bolted the Yakima landing pads to them, so I can run the Yakima bars down low if I ever needed to go two levels like you're describing.

Not a great picture, but you can see the landing pads on the Elevate cleats.

 

Nice, Thanks! I still have my old exsporter rack. I wonder if I could use the landing pads to attach those? They are attached via T bolt and nut. I’ll have to go check out the landing pads and see.

 

If they're T-bolts could they just go directly into the Elevate T-slot rails?

 

Unfortunately the X-sporter cross bars have the T slot rails as well so the T head goes in the cross bar and the bolt sticks down to go through a verticle support and attach via nut on the bottom side.

 

You can make it work!

 

Just for better visual...

 

Awesome, thank you!

 

My pleasure!

The thing I like about the Yakimas if I run them down low is they're quick and easy on/off since I can't open the tonneau with them on.

 

Same. Unfortunately they want over $750 for those and the crossbars.

 

That's a large part of the reason I found a way to use my leftover Yakima stuff on the new truck!

I spent so much on it before I didn't wanna' just put it in the garage. Even if I never use it on this truck, knowing that I can makes it feel like it's not just being wasted.

 

The Rhino Rack quick release base works! Just had to get some different size T-nuts!

 

Hell yeah, that's awesome!!

 

Need yalls opinion

good news is, it works

bad news is, it looks dorky

I can run the box forward when bars are at highest setting, and have it overhang on my cab, but it looks like a sail

at the low setting, the box works in reverse but hangs a few inches off the back… almost wish i had some lowerheight bars so it didnt ride so high

 

Yeah, that’s a little tall for sure. You could use some low bars. Then I don’t think it would matter if it was forward or backwards to be honest. It might even look better backwards on bars this tall.

 

assume your low bars use the same rail system as the elevate bars? Can you swap out easy without uninstalling the whole rail / cover?

 

Yes! The rhino are quick release. Very easy. I have the elevate as well.

 

Any chance you can tell me the distance between the two t bolts that connect the rack to the track? Tryin to see if I can do a custom fit with this onto my syneticUSA cover. Thanks!

 

Sure, BRB

Okay, looks like uprights to T-slot rail is 8 3/4" center to center, and the tie down cleats are 6 1/4"

 

Thanks, this helps a ton!

 

My pleasure, happy to help!

I'm interested to see what you're MacGyvering.

 

Been driving around with my Yakima on the Elevate lowest setting. Gotten used to the look (new shoes help) + i can see out my backwindow with no issues. Its been great, increases my haul capacity and i can even strap extra skis on the other side of the bar if needed. Cant open the tonneau on lowest setting but thats ok. Left Southern Cal, heading to Utah for a few months to put her to the test

 

I was sold on the elevate rack. Now I’m thinking about adding just their rails and the rhino quick release rails.

I typically use the rack for ski gear or my kids kiyaks when camping. I don’t need the height, and if I can quickly take the the rails and open the cover that would probably be easier. Especially since I don’t want a rack on when I’m not using it. What exactly do I need for the rhino?

 

I'm not really familiar with Rhino stuff, but basically anything you attach to the Elevate rails will use the T-Bolts.

The rails come with some T-Bolts, but I can't recall how many.

The rails come with tie down cleats, I drilled the cleats and bolted my old Yakima landing pads to them so it I ever wanted to I can run my Yakima round bars down low.

I had the Yakimas from my old Tundra and mostly just didn't want to waste 'em after all the money I spent on them.

But the landing pads are quick release so it's a easy on/off deal. Not sure how your Rhino stuff mounts, they could either mount directly to the Elevate rails (if they're a through bolt mounting) or if not maybe you could MacGyver a similar deal to the cleats.

You can see the Yakima landing pads mounted on the cleats in this first shot.

 

What exactly would I need from Yakima to achieve this set up?

I think landing pads (https://yakima.com/products/landing-pad-base)

skyline towers (https://yakima.com/products/skyline...42832&pr_ref_pid=7257225789488&pr_seq=uniform)

and bars (https://yakima.com/products/jetstre...53648&pr_ref_pid=4178949537840&pr_seq=uniform)

also, sorry new to this type of stuff, are the bars compatible with Thule racks (ski and kiyak)

 

Oooohh, I'm honestly not quite sure and I'd hate to give you bad information.

The Yakima stuff I used is from the old round-bar stuff and I think has been discontinued, as everything is now moving to Aero Bars.

Whatever brand you use (Yakima, Rhino, Thule, etc.) you would just need to figure out how to attach their Towers or Landing Pads to the T-Slot rails. Could be very simple or may need some MacGyvering.

There's a place here in San Diego called Rack-It that I've used for a few vehicles now, or if you have a similar rack, camper shell type shop they might be able to offer some guidance on what would be compatible with the Elevate rails.

Not "Quick Release" but quick... 2 nuts per corner, probably 5 minutes. Check these out.

https://realtruck.com/p/realtruck-hd-universal-cross-bars/

 

Parked a few spaces from this guy surfing this morning...
Low Rhino bars, looks to be quick release and locking.
Not familiar with this brand tonneau but T-Slot rails appear the same as Elevate.
*Edit* I'm an idiot... in the bright sun I thought this said "Etrax". Looking at the pictures now I see it's a Retrax

 

Does this heigh allow you to retract the cover and does it block the rear view camera?