The Defender bed is a good bed, and it is still four inches too short for half the things people actually haul. Fence posts stick out. A ladder rides at an angle with the tailgate down and a ratchet strap doing work it should not have to do. Two-by-sixes go in the back of the truck instead, which defeats the point of owning the machine. The Kemimoto Heavy-Duty Bed Extender for the Can-Am Defender is the cheap answer to that, at $199.99.
Twelve more inches, which Kemimoto calls 33 percent
The headline number is simple: this extender increases the length of the bed by 12.2 inches, which Kemimoto puts at a 33% increase in bed storage space. They name long logs and ladders as the use case, and that is honest about what an extender is for — it does not make the bed wider or deeper, it makes it longer, and length is what you run out of first.
Twelve inches sounds modest until you measure what you have been fighting. An eight-foot board in a Defender bed with the gate down is a board riding on a hinge. The same board inside a framed extension is a board that is actually carried. The things that change are the things that were marginal before.
The tailgate opens, which most of them do not
This is the detail worth paying attention to. Kemimoto designed the extender with an openable tailgate — their words — for easy dumping and access.
A lot of bed extenders are a fixed cage. You get the length, and you lose the ability to drop the gate and shovel, rake or tip anything out the back. If the machine hauls gravel, feed, mulch or firewood as well as long material, a fixed extender quietly makes the bed worse at its day job. One that opens keeps both. If your Defender is a working machine rather than a hauling-lumber-once-a-year machine, this is the feature that decides it.
Built from metal, with holes already in it
- Heavy-duty material and finish — Kemimoto builds the extender from high-quality metal
- M6 rivet nuts, 35mm apart, prepared in the extender for mounting gear
That second line is more useful than it reads. Kemimoto specifically notes the rivet nuts work well with gas cans, which means you can bolt a can carrier to the extender rather than drilling your own bed or letting a full can slide around loose. On a machine that goes far from a pump, a planned mounting point for fuel is worth having.
The description stops at "high-quality metal" rather than naming a gauge or a coating, so take it at that — it is a steel extender at a two-hundred-dollar price, not a fabricated aluminum rack, and it should be judged accordingly.
Fitment
Kemimoto lists this extender across most of the Defender range. In short form:
- Defender HD5 and HD5 DPS: 2017-2021
- Defender HD7 and HD7 DPS: 2022-2024
- Defender HD8 (XT, XT CAB, DPS, DPS CAB): 2016-2021
- Defender HD9 (XT, DPS, DPS CAB): 2022-2024
- Defender HD10 (DPS, XT, XT CAB, Limited, XT-P, X MR, Mossy Oak): 2016-2024 depending on trim
- Defender PRO HD10 (XT, DPS, Limited, Lone Star): 2020-2024
- Defender 6X6 HD10 (XT, DPS, Limited): 2020-2024
- Defender MAX HD7, HD8, HD9 and HD10 in their various trims: 2017-2024
That is a wide net, but the year windows differ by trim — a base HD10 is listed 2016-2018 while an HD10 DPS runs 2016-2024. Check your exact trim against the full fitment list on the product page before ordering rather than going by model name alone.
Who it is for
The Defender owner whose machine works. If you have ever strapped something down at an angle and driven slower than you wanted to because of it, this is two hundred dollars that fixes the problem permanently. It is particularly good value on a property machine, where the same awkward load — posts, panels, a ladder, pipe — comes up every few weeks rather than once a season.
Order it at SxS Outpost
The Kemimoto Heavy-Duty Bed Extender for the Can-Am Defender HD10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 5 is $199.99. It ships direct from Kemimoto's US warehouse with Kemimoto's standard warranty; the current terms are on the product page, and they are worth reading alongside the fitment list before you order. See everything else that fits in the Can-Am Defender HD10 collection, or compare the rest of the options in Storage & Cargo.