Bedrack with tonneau cover

I had searched and searched for a way to do this, because I did not want a topper and wanted the tent a little lower than roof height. Thank you ctfriel for posting yours because it helped push me to give it a go as well. I too have the RCI rack, but have a truxedo low pro cover. You could probably do this with others. It may be easier with a full rail rack (allpro, cbi, etc.) because you could mount the tonneau anywhere on that and just weather strip over, under, and around those little bits. You do definitely need a cover that mounts inboard of the bedrails.

I will say I only did this in the last couple of days, so the weather proofness of this has not been tested.

On to the (crappy phone) pictures:

I stuffed a piece of vinyl doorjam weatherstripping behind the rack brackets because it had the plastic and vinyl and because it curved the corner.



I tried multiple options to mount the cover with the rack and ultimately had to move the brackets for the cover to mount on top of the rack mounts. I put the tonneau rails up against the rack and marked the center of the rack slots. I used this to drill the new holes for the cover mounting brackets to attach to the cover rails, and to notch out the pieces of rail to allow the cover rail to slide over the rack brackets.



I added some auto and marine weatherstripping from Home Depot to the cover rails to smash a good bit of stuff in between. It could be more layers to leak, but I went opposite logic of if I smash enough in there tight enough, it should create a really tight seal. We will see.

Mounted bracket on top of bracket.


I also had to cut the front and back pieces of aluminum about 1/4", as well as remove the plastic caps from the poles in the middle of the cover. I cut both pieces from the driver side so that the cover would only bunch to that side and everything would still be straight. (Chopped piece from the front and back aluminum pieces on the cover).


I have a little extra vinyl on the driver side that I may have an upholstery shop fix at some point, but overall I am quite happy. I'll update this with weather proof status, but it should keep the large amount out and at least provides some options for keeping gear in the bed.


Hopefully this helps some of you thinking of doing this. It was no where near as easy as the post makes it seem, or not nerve racking cutting up on a perfectly good cover. Perseverance and steps back to think were the key for me. It took 3 long afternoons/nights and a couple of trips to Home Depot to finally come up with a halfway decent solution to the problems. The first rail also had a couple extra bracket mount holes drilled until I figure out the best place to put them and line the up. I would just suggest you do not make any alterations that you can't go back from unless you are 100% sure it is going to work.

Sorry there aren't more or better pictures. Picture taking fell to the wayside as I kept trying different solutions. Hopefully the write up makes enough sense. Feel free to ask questions.

 

to confirm you cannot roll up the Lo Pro cover with the rack installed? i have a lo pro too and like the design of the RCI rack as well but would love the ability to roll up the cover. as it stands i assume not so i am in the beginning stages of drawing up a rack to build that allows you to roll up the cover with the rack installed. would be similar to this job except id just have my vertical supports more outboard to the left and right

 

I acquired an All Pro bed rack third hand and it came without the bed rails for mounting. Since I had the Lund roll up cover, I didn't want to lose it. I purchased a length of 3/16 angle steel, chopped it to 10" per mount, and had a local welder weld it to the rack. I cut the plastic bedsides and mounted each base behind the bed rails where each of the bolts were. I definitely lost some waterproofing, but the benefits well outweigh that. It was a pain in the butt, however, I got the bed rack for an incredible price, so I was well under the usual budget. Everything functions as normal and I can still roll up the cover.

 

awesome your good work is dually noted, i may look into the 3/16" for my thickness

 

You can roll it up, it just takes a little more effort. The problem is where the rack bars angle in a little as they go up, you lose space to fit all the aluminum framing on the cover through. You essentially have to roll it at a bit of an angle by pulling either the passenger or driver side through a little before the opposite side as you come to the bars of the rack.

I'll edit this with some pictures to show what I mean.

 

no i totally get that, like if you started rolling from one side and leaded it alittle you then have to return to the other side and lag it through, vica versa, all in all not the worse thing with a nice rack like that and a functioning tonneau cover

 

@Dtrain00 you are my fricken hero. I have the exact same tonneau cover and thinking about this rack. I knew it would be some work, but dang that looks like a lot more than I imagined

 

Exactly what I hope to pull off. I have the SOS rack and have been pondering trying this, good to know it can be done. It would be a lot simpler if the rack had full length rails. Weather stripping between the partial rails will be a challenge, but I've surrendered to the fact that anything in the bed long term should be in a plastic bin

 

It wasn't too much work once I finally figured out how it could work.

To update as well - I still have everything in Rubbermaid bins for now, but we've had a couple good rains and it looks like the weatherstrip is working. There hasn't been any sign of water in there.

 

Exactly. I keep a bin and a waterproof travel bag in the bed permanently and that's where the suitcases/bags go on road trips. I'm sure I could put more effort into weather stripping, but I'm lazy. I did have to cut about 1-2 inches off of the tonneau cross bars so that they would fit in the bed rails, this was due to mounting the rack mounting plates behind them. The pleather cover still works fine and looks good and stays tight. Best of luck to you.

 

@Dtrain00 you just made my day. I was on the ledge last night and about to give into a camper shell. I have the exact same setup and have spent the past few months trying to figure out how to do this and I randomly popped on this thread this morning in my darkest hour. THANK YOU!!! I really don't know what I searched different this morning but this popped up out of the blue.

 

I have full length rails and it does help.

 

Ok, so because I'm a dummy with this stuff, I just want to confirm that these are the steps you took.

RCI Bed Rack / Truxedo Tonneau Cover for dummies
1) Rack off bed
2) Put weatherstripping along bed rail and then "mash" in between bed rack and bed rail.
3) Line up tonneau cover mounts with bed rack mounts, drill new holes and move mounts.
4) cut plastic piece from tonneau cover rail around bed rack mount area
5) weather strip some more
6) bolt bed rack and tonneau cover mounts together
7) drink beer and admire this work of art

Is this everything?

 

I just did similar but with the kb voodoo bed rack and the lo pro
Alittle work but it turned out pretty nice

 

Hi @Dtrain00 I am trying to do something similar with the tonneau cover that I have. However mine does not come with the aluminum L brackets that you used to mount the cover to the rails. Do you know where I could get some like that?

Thanks!!