Your rack wish-list (bed rack that is)

I am a licensed professional mechanical engineer. My business partner and I have extensive design experience as well as hands-on fabrication experience with our own small metal shop. We are currently developing a rack system for my Tacoma and his Not Toyota (poor fella'). The long term goal is to possibly market and produce these racks.

If you had a wish-list for inclusions, mounts, features, etc. of these bed racks, what would it be? What do you love and hate about the current products on the market? Do you prefer bullet-proof or minimal weight? Thanks in advance!

I'll post some pics of our prototypes here as they get fab'd. We are engineers, so we are still geeking out over CAD models right now. Plus, we have "real job" commitments at the present we are are wrapping up before we can really play.

 

What's your location?

 

The internet. ;-)
I'm in northwest Arkansas.

 

Some random thoughts:
- “stowable” crossbars that swing out of the way like the OEM roof rack, as suggested by someone here recently.
- height adjustment, especially the forward crossbar so you could easily raise it above the cab to carry long lumber or pipe at an angle, with the back end of the load on the bed floor at the tailgate end. This would need to be compatible with the shortbed wheelwells that come all the way up to the front bed wall.
- useful adjustable (tool-less sliding?) side brackets to retain narrow loads like lumber or pipe.
- useful tie down points.

In summary, a rack setup that enhances the capability of the short Tacoma bed, especially the five footer, to carry long loads, but gets out of the way easily to allow use of the bed for hauling bulky, tall loads and/or provide access for dumping in bulk dirt/gravel. Oh, and keep it light ... maybe some combination of extruded alu crossbars with fabbed steel supports.

 

Thanks!