My $65 Bed Bar/Rack Build!!!

**Okay so had I actually paid for the cost of metal this wouldn’t have been 60 bucks, but hey, it was still a ton of fun and I really like the way it turned out.

We live on a 2000 acre farm and this year we “retired” our Kawasaki Mule 1000 sideXside. It actually retired itself. I got to looking at the roll cage on it the other day and thought with a little creativity I could turn it into something cool. So here’s the build:

A 1990 Kawasaki Mule 1000:



Got the rack unbolted from the Mule and sized it up in the truck (definitely in need of some cutting):





I cut the feet off and ground them down to be welded later:



Measured many times and cut 18” off the main bar, which put the bar in the back level on top:





Then I welded the feet back on, got some bolts, painted it, and voila:






I plan on getting a LED flood/spot combo bar for the top and have some 18w LED flood lights going out the back, my amber directional bar will be mounted on the bar just at my bed line. And just for the hell of it I may put some lights out the side (zombies). One thing to note is that I could mount a cage to the top of it just by using U bolts. As far as mounting it in the bed, I was only able to get 8 out of 12 bolts in due to the bed cross bar and the front of the bed being angled like it is, I did however make myself some drain holes up front and a wire hole to run out of the bed and into the firewall on the back of the cab for lights and stuff. The rack is really solid, no vibrations or anything. Hope you guys enjoyed, and if you see an old Mule for sale, something to consider.
Total cost was $45 for paint, $20 for the weld, and about three hours total time.

 

Kinda hard to toss a 4x8 piece of plywood in there, I think I would have made it a bit wider. Good job of recycling though.

 

Yeah had I had some more time I would have done some other things to it. That back section that mounts behind the wheel wells unbolts right out thankfully so I also can just have a "normal" bed rack if needed.

 

I like it, very resourceful. Reminds me of the roof rack I just built for my x-cab