Titan Ramps Cargo Basket Review

I bought the Titan Ramps cargo basket last October for one reason: I was tired of hauling a cooler on my lap. That is not an exaggeration. The rear rack on my 2019 Grizzly 700 carries a milk crate fine, but a milk crate does not hold a 48-quart cooler, a bag of firewood, and the tool bag I refuse to leave home without. So for years I strapped the cooler to the seat behind me with two bungee cords, and for years it slid sideways on every washboard and tried to shove me off the front.

The breaking point came on a November trip into the Panamint Valley. Eight miles of washboard with a loaded cooler behind me, and I spent the whole ride with one hand on the straps and one eye on the cooler in the mirror. By the time we made camp I had decided the next trip would be different.

A season later, the Titan basket has hauled coolers, tools, firewood, a chain saw, and once a surprisingly heavy sack of wet laundry back from a week of camping. This review covers eight months and a few hundred miles of desert riding. It is honest about the parts that annoyed me, because the parts that annoyed me are the parts you need to know about.

How I've Used It

My Grizzly spends most weekends in the washes and fire roads around Ridgecrest, and two or three times a year I load it for multi-night camping trips. That is the job this basket was built for. Since October the Titan basket has carried a 48-quart cooler on a 40-mile run into the Panamint Valley, a chain saw on a three-day trip, and more firewood than I should probably admit to stacking on a 150-pound rack.

Most weeks it does lighter duty. A bag of tools, a shovel, a couple of gallons of water in a jerry can, the straps I keep forgetting to take off. The basket has become the default place for anything I do not want bouncing around the floorboards or rubbing against the fender. It took about two weeks before I stopped reaching for the bungee cords entirely.

On the three-day trip in March we covered maybe 120 miles of mixed gravel, sand, and rock. The basket carried the chain saw and a spare tire for most of that distance. I checked the bolts at camp each night and they never moved after the first tightening.

I have also used it for the unglamorous work that keeps a ranch quad honest: hauling a bucket of fence staples and wire, a chain saw on a quick cleanup run, a bag of feed for a neighbor. The basket does not care what you put in it, and it does not complain about being loaded and unloaded a dozen times in a weekend.

The one thing I did not plan for was how often the basket would be useful for things that have nothing to do with hauling. It holds a gas can upright. It keeps muddy boots off the floorboards. It gives you a place to strap a dry bag so it does not flap against the fender all day.

What the Mounting Took

The kit comes with the basket, two mounting brackets, and the hardware: bolts, lock washers, and a few pieces I did not expect, like rubber shims that keep the metal from chewing into the factory rack tubing. On my Grizzly the brackets bolt to the rear rack tubes. Total install time was about 45 minutes, most of it spent getting the bolts started in awkward positions.

I will tell you what I got wrong the first time. I mounted the basket too far forward, so the overhang put the cooler right against my back. On the first ride I could feel every shift of the load through the seat. I loosened the four bolts, slid the whole thing back an inch and a half, and re-tightened. That fixed it. The lesson is to test the position with your actual gear before you tighten everything down.

The hardware is the part I paid attention to, because I have had cheap racks where the bolts work loose in ten miles. The Titan kit uses lock washers, and the brackets are a formed steel channel, not a flat stamped strap that flexes. I have a MIG welder in the garage and I have seen what thin steel looks like when it gives up. This is not that.

The rubber shims are worth mentioning because they are the kind of detail a cheap kit skips. They sit between the bracket and the rack tube, so metal does not wear against metal and start to squeak or corrode. Eight months in, there is no movement and no noise from the mount.

One note on fit: the mounting points are not universal. On a machine with a smaller rear rack, you may need to drill a hole or two, and the included hardware might not line up perfectly. I did not have to drill anything on mine, but I did swap one bolt for a longer one sitting in my hardware drawer. Not a complaint, just a heads up that some bikes will need a small adaptation.

How It Hauls

The rated capacity is 150 pounds, and that number is honest, which is not something you can say about every rack on the market. I have loaded it to what I would guess is close to that with a cooler full of ice, a chain saw, and a duffel, and the basket did not sag or flex. The steel mesh floor and the perimeter frame take the load without bending.

On washboard, the load stays put. That is the real test. My old bungee-cord setup let the cooler walk sideways and bang against my hip. The basket has a solid lip around the top edge, so gear does not slide off, and the straps have something real to bite against. A cooler on the rear rack still shifts a little on rough sections, but it does not try to escape.

The tradeoff is that you are putting weight higher and further back. A loaded basket changes how the quad handles, especially in sand or on a sidehill. The front end gets light. I learned to keep the heavy stuff low in the basket and the lighter stuff on top, and to ease off the throttle on loose climbs. That is just physics, and it is the same with any rear rack, but it is worth knowing.

I also learned to strap the load down, not just set it in. Even with the lip, a hard hit will bounce gear. I use two cam straps, one across the top and one down the side. With those in place I have not lost anything in eight months, and I have hit some sections that rattled my teeth.

The worst test was a gravel road outside Trona that had not been graded in years. I was running about 15 miles an hour and the whole machine was shaking hard enough that the mirrors blurred. The basket took it. The straps held. The cooler stayed put. That was the ride that convinced me the mounting was done right.

What Eight Months Did to It

The basket has now done a full season of desert riding: heat, dust, vibration, and the occasional cactus branch that I did not see until it was too late. The steel mesh shows some scuffs and a few small scrapes where straps have worn the finish, but there is no rust and no bent mesh. The powder coat is doing its job.

The bolts are the thing I checked, because vibration is what kills racks. After the first couple of rides I re-torqued all four bolts and found two that had loosened maybe a quarter turn. I put a drop of thread locker on them early on and that has been the end of it. I have checked them a few times since and they have not moved.

The heat test came in July, when we ran a 60-mile loop and the air temperature was past 105. The basket sat in direct sun all day, and the mesh was hot enough that I would not grab it bare-handed. That did not bother the metal at all, and the finish did not blister or fade, which is more than I can say for some of the cheap accessories I have owned.

I should also mention the dust. Everything on this quad gets a coat of it, and the basket is no exception. The good news is the mesh does not hold it. A blast from the air hose and it is clean. No hidden pockets where grit packs in and starts to rust.

One thing I did not expect: the basket makes a decent drying rack. Wet laundry, muddy boots, a wet tent footprint, all of it airs out on the way home instead of mildewing in a bag. That turned out to be one of the most useful features, and it is one I would not have guessed at when I bought it.

Eight months and a few hundred miles of washboard later, every bolt is still tight, and the mesh has not bent, rusted, or shed a single strap.

What Annoyed Me

Now the honest part. The basket sits up high, and it adds wind drag. At any speed over about 30 it makes a constant whistle, and with a cooler loaded it is worse. It is not loud enough to be a problem on a ride, but it is there, and if you are used to a quiet rack you will notice it.

It also blocks the factory taillight on my machine. The basket is wide enough that from directly behind, the light is partially covered. I fixed it with a small LED light bar mounted to the back of the basket, wired to the taillight circuit. It is a ten-minute job and cheap parts, but it is not included, and if you ride on roads at night you need to plan for it.

The finish, while good, is not bulletproof. Where a strap has rubbed for hundreds of miles, the powder coat has worn through to bare metal in a couple of small spots. I touched them up with rattle can paint and moved on. Not a big deal, but I would be lying if I said it looked brand new after a season.

The last annoyance is the least fair to blame on the basket. With a full load, the rack is high enough that loading and unloading takes a little care. You cannot just drop a cooler on from ground level; you lift it up and over the lip. My back noticed. That is the nature of a rear rack, and it is not a defect, but it is a thing you will feel on every trip.

Who This Is For

If you haul a cooler, tools, firewood, or camp gear on your quad more than once a month, this basket earns its place. It is for the rider who is tired of gear sliding around and who wants a place to strap things down that does not fight back. It is for the guy who would rather bolt something on once and trust it for years than buy a cheaper rack and re-tighten it every ride.

It is also for the rider who has already been through a cheap rack. If you have had a basket flex, crack, or shed bolts on the trail, you know exactly why the steel mesh and the formed brackets on this one matter. That is the crowd I would point at this basket first.

Who Should Skip It

If your riding is mostly tight single track or dune work, the added height and width will be more of a liability than a help. And if you only carry a water bottle and a spare tube, a simple bag on the rack is lighter and quieter. This basket is for people who actually need a load bed, not for people who just want a place to strap a jacket.

And if you need to lock up valuables, get a locking box instead. A mesh basket is open to view and open to the weather. It keeps gear from sliding, but it does not hide anything and it does not keep anything dry. Know what it is before you buy it.