Custom Roof Basket Build

Well, I just fab'ed up the first piece of my basket and am putting the finishing touches on the drawings. I looked at some of the aftermarket ones, and at some of the custom ones members have made on here and adjusted it all for my needs. So now comes the fun part.

My idea is to make a basket that will go from where my access cab door meets my front door, and extend all the way back to the end of the bed of the truck. I know I know, this monstrosity is going to be eight feet long, and about 4 feet wide.

Now, not only am I making this is a cargo basket, but it will also need to be able to carry a canoe, which is where the strange design ideas really come in, and also the reason for it being eight damn feet long.

The base is going to be continous around the perimeter, and each side vertical will be one piece, but the back will have an opening about 34" wide, and the front about 26" wide. This will let me load my canoe on from the back, slide it all the way forward, give me a ton of places to tie it down, and still leave room for storage up there.

For mounting this I will be using a couple Yakima j-hook style mounts with a cross bar up front, and a mount off the trailer hitch in back (field goal post style) I decided to go this way because I have an access tonneau cover that I want to be able to use regardless of whether or not I have the rack on top.

My only real drawback to this design is that I can not open my tailgate with the rack mounted, which is probably going to be a pain in the ass. I'm planning on getting around this by having two adjustable legs coming off the back corners of the rack. This way, when parked, I can support the rear of the rack from the two corners, remove the vertical hitch post, and be able to get into the rear of the truck.

Also, added bonus, when camping all I have to do is tie a tarp down over the basket, and bam! instant tent.

The base of the rack will be made out of angle iron running around the 4x8 perimter for strength, and all the rest will be EMT conduit, bent and mechanically fastened together. This will save me a hell of a lot weight and time, since I don't own a welder and can bend EMT on my own.

So that's the plan, If anyone has tried anthing like this, or has any ideas about what would/would not work I'd be glad to hear them.

I got my front cross bar finished up today (cannibalized an old yakima rack from a camry I used to have, bought and painted up some 3/4" plumbing pipe)

Tomorrow I'm planning on buying home depot out of EMT conduit and beginning to bend up the sides. Wish me luck.

 

wow. thanks.
no pics...

 

heard that

 

waiting patiently for pics of the finished product

 

Won't the angle iron be a pain to drill through for the bolts? If not, this may be a good way to build one for us non-welders.