6 Best Truck Bed Cargo Nets For Motorcycles That Keep Gear Locked Down
Secure your motorcycle gear in the truck bed. Our guide covers the 6 best cargo nets, focusing on durability, hook quality, and elasticity for a safe haul.
You’ve got the bike strapped down tight, ready for a weekend of singletrack or a long-haul trip to a new riding area. But what about the rest of it—the helmets, the ramp, the coolers, the duffel bags full of gear? A few loose items rattling around the truck bed can turn a dream trip into a roadside nightmare.
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Why a Quality Net is Crucial for Hauling Bikes
Picture this: you’re cruising down the highway and hit an unexpected series of bumps. In the rearview mirror, you see your favorite riding helmet bounce out of the bed and shatter across three lanes of traffic. It’s a gut-wrenching, dangerous, and entirely preventable scenario.
This is where a dedicated cargo net earns its keep. A quality net isn’t just a web of bungee cords; it’s a safety system designed to contain and compress your load. It prevents gear from shifting, getting damaged, or becoming a projectile. While your primary tie-downs secure the motorcycle, the net is what locks down everything else, from fuel cans to camping chairs.
Many folks think a cheap, spider-style bungee net is good enough. For a light load on a short, smooth trip, maybe. But for serious hauling over unpredictable roads, those thin cords can stretch out, lose their elasticity, or snap. A purpose-built truck bed net provides even pressure across the entire load, creating a secure blanket of protection that a handful of individual straps just can’t replicate.
Gladiator Cargo Net: Ultimate Heavy-Duty Security
When your load is heavy, valuable, or you’re heading deep into the backcountry on washboard roads, you need absolute confidence. The Gladiator Cargo Net is built for exactly that. This isn’t a bungee net; it’s a grid of heavy-duty webbing with integrated straps and grommets, essentially a safety harness for your gear.
The design distributes force evenly, preventing the "squeeze-out" effect you get with bungees, where items can pop out between the cords. This makes it ideal for securing rigid items like loading ramps, tool boxes, and hard-sided coolers alongside your bike. It’s overkill for a quick trip across town, but essential for long-distance travel or off-road excursions where load shift is a constant threat.
The tradeoff here is cost and convenience. These nets are significantly more expensive and take a few more minutes to cinch down properly than a simple stretch net. But for peace of mind, knowing that a thousand dollars worth of riding gear is completely locked down, it’s a price many serious riders are willing to pay. This is the choice for maximum security over minimal weight or cost.
PowerTye 50152: Maximum Coverage for Long Beds
Hauling a full-size adventure bike in an eight-foot bed leaves a lot of extra real estate. The challenge then becomes securing not just the bike, but a weekend’s worth of camping equipment, spare parts, and riding apparel. The PowerTye 50152 is designed for these massive loads, offering expansive coverage that smaller nets can’t match.
Made from high-strength, small-mesh webbing, this net excels at containing both large and small items. The tight grid prevents smaller things like boots or tool rolls from slipping through the cracks. It’s a fantastic solution for the rider who is also the designated camp gear hauler, turning the entire truck bed into one securely contained unit.
Think of it as the perfect companion for a multi-day desert trip or a week-long rally. You can load your bike, then pile in tents, chairs, and supplies, and throw this one giant net over everything. It simplifies the loading process, replacing a dozen different bungee cords and straps with a single, comprehensive system.
Grit Performance Net for All-Weather Durability
If your truck lives outside and is frequently loaded, environmental wear-and-tear is a real enemy. Sun, rain, and humidity can degrade standard bungee cords and nylon webbing in a single season. The Grit Performance Net is built with longevity in mind, using materials specifically treated for UV and weather resistance.
This is the net for the rider in the scorching sun of the Southwest or the damp, salty air of the coast. The webbing is designed to resist fading, fraying, and losing its strength when exposed to the elements day after day. It ensures that your net has the same holding power on its hundredth trip as it did on its first.
Choosing a net like this is an investment in reliability. While it might cost a bit more upfront than a standard-duty net, you won’t find yourself replacing it every year. When your gear’s security depends on the integrity of the material, choosing one built for harsh conditions is a smart move.
ROK Straps Stretch Net for Versatile Load Shapes
Not all cargo is square. Helmets, oddly shaped duffel bags, and firewood create lumpy, unpredictable piles that can be tough to secure. The ROK Straps Stretch Net shines in these situations, using its signature flat, solid-core elastic to conform to and grip unconventional loads.
Unlike round bungee cords that can roll or slip off edges, the flat straps on this net provide a wider contact patch, holding gear more securely. The design is less about extreme compression and more about adaptable containment. It’s perfect for the weekend warrior heading to the local trails with a bike and a jumble of personal gear thrown in the back.
This net is a master of convenience. It’s quick to deploy and easily adapts to whatever you happen to be hauling that day. It may not have the brute holding force of a heavy-duty webbing net, but for securing moderately weighted, irregularly shaped items, its flexibility is unmatched.
ToolWRX Bungee Net: A Classic, Affordable Option
Sometimes, you just need something simple that works. The ToolWRX Bungee Net is that classic, no-frills option that gets the job done for light-duty tasks without breaking the bank. It’s an essential piece of kit to keep stashed behind the seat for those unexpected hauling needs.
This type of net is perfect for containing lighter, bulkier items that won’t cause a disaster if they shift slightly. Think empty fuel jugs, a muddy gear bag, or a folded-up canopy for a day at the track. It’s an excellent secondary net, used in conjunction with primary tie-downs, to keep loose items from blowing out of the bed on the highway.
It’s crucial to understand the limitations. A standard bungee net doesn’t provide the same lockdown security as a webbing net and shouldn’t be trusted with heavy or critical equipment on a long or bumpy journey. But for its price and convenience, it’s an incredibly useful tool for casual, everyday hauling.
SpiderWebShade GrabBag for Unconventional Loads
What about all the small, loose stuff? Gloves, tie-downs, rags, and small tools have a way of disappearing in a truck bed. The SpiderWebShade GrabBag offers a clever, hybrid solution—it’s part cargo net, part heavy-duty storage bag.
This isn’t meant to hold down your entire load. Instead, it’s designed to contain and compress loose items into a single, manageable package. You can throw all your dirty post-ride gear inside, cinch it down, and keep your truck bed organized and your gear from flying out. It’s a fantastic problem-solver for the clutter that inevitably accompanies a day of riding.
Consider it a supplemental tool. Use your primary tie-downs for the bike and a larger net for big gear, then use the GrabBag to police all the small, miscellaneous items. It’s a simple, effective way to ensure everything you left with is still there when you get home.
Choosing the Right Net Size and Anchor Points
A great net is useless if it doesn’t fit your truck or if you have nowhere to hook it. Before you buy, take a moment to assess your setup. The process is simple but critical for safety and performance.
First, measure the interior dimensions of your truck bed. Don’t guess. Get the length and width, and note whether you have a short, standard, or long bed. Net manufacturers provide dimensions, so match the net to your bed size, allowing for some stretch if it’s a bungee style. A net that’s too small will be over-stretched and weak, while one that’s too large won’t provide enough tension.
Next, identify your anchor points. Most trucks have factory-installed D-rings or tie-down points in the corners of the bed. Are they sufficient? Are they in the right places for how you load your bike and gear? If not, consider adding aftermarket anchor points. They are inexpensive, easy to install, and dramatically increase the versatility and security of your cargo management system. Having strong, well-placed anchors is just as important as the net itself.
Ultimately, the best cargo net is the one that fits your truck, your gear, and your type of adventure. Don’t get bogged down in finding the "perfect" solution. Get a reliable system that gives you confidence, load up, and go get some miles in—because the whole point of the gear is to get you to the trailhead safely so the real fun can start.
