Yakima MegaWarrior

The Cargo Carrier

Quality - 3/5 stars

I gave this cargo basket setup a quality rating of 3 stars for good reason. There are two pieces at play here. The basket and the bed mounts. Neither of these two products met my expectations in full. I had the bed mounts already break due to the use of inferior pot metal in the construction of the clamps. The MegaWarrior basket itself is losing its finish and is showing signs of rust. All of this within the first years of ownership. It's not a bad system but I would recommend other bed clamps than the Yakima branded ones. The basket is acceptable but you should consider putting your own rust prevention on it for long term use.

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Usefulness - 5/5 stars

Obviously the bed mounting clamps and bars belong on a truck bed. For that, I am largely limited in what vehicles can reuse this setup. Fortunately, I am a truck guy so reusability is not as much of a concern with me! Of course, the crossmembers can do more than carry the basket as I frequently have my hi-lift jack and traction pads stored there as well. The MegaWarrior basket is a little more reusable as it can be mounted on any vehicle with some kind of roof or bed rack capable of holding weight. For keeping my gear above the truck bed, which is usually filthy and full of bug infested firewood on my trips, it gets the highest rating of 5 stars for usefulness!

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Cost - 1/5 stars

I feel like this is one of those products with an already high price that has an equally high markup for profit. If I knew how to weld, I would have attempted making my own before buying this setup. After all, I opted to buy galvanized steel pipes for the crossmembers rather than the rubberized, fancy crossmembers offered by Yakima. The price difference was staggering... Despite the high marks in usefulness, the cost is pretty unimpressive to me and for that, 3 stars.

UPDATE: Upon researching the cost of this cargo basket today, the price has gone UP astronomically! I dropped the rating from 3 stars to 1 because the price nearly doubled since I purchased this for myself.

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Overall - 2/5 stars

Again, as useful as this setup has been to me, it has been just as much if not more of a headache to me. It does limit the height of objects you can squeeze under the crossmembers in the bed. Surprisingly or not, there are plenty more things that do not squeeze under the basket than those that do or so it seemed to me. The quality issues and the cost were the major deciding factors here as I just couldn't believe how quickly the bed clamps broke and how soon the basket started showing signs of rust. There are certainly alternatives to the Yakima brand that I would offer for consideration due to cost or quality improvements. Now, if no other alternatives existed, I would buy this setup again for sure due to utility when a trailer is not an option.