My buddy had a ton of square tubing left over from a project and I offered to take it off his hands

So I made a rack and some steps with it

 

The bike rack is cool. I'd gusset those steps though. You aren't intending them as sliders, are you?

 

Bike rack looks cool, you need lock washers on your running board attach bolts

 

Agreed. They need some serious beefing up. OP, have you tried standing on them yet? The way they're designed they should hold as a step but I wouldn't be surprised if they start bending. Some reinforcements would be hugely beneficial.

Clearly not something that would be used as a slider. In fact, I bet you could grab that step and pull upwards by hand and it'd move a decent amount. While it's designed to hold weight from the top there's nothing to provide support for an upward force.

 

Neat idea on bike rack. Are you going to add some texture to running boards or a top plate? I would be afraid a foot would slip off and get hung.

 

Great work on the bike rack. Those rails / steps need some serious work. You catch that leading edge on a tree or sign post and you're gonna have a bad day.

 

They aren't sliders, haha. If I did any off-roading besides schlepping bikes up a fire road I'd be worried too lol.

 

Oof, good call. I'll throw some locking washers on asap.

 

Rust adds texture, right?

 

They support my buddy standing on them (about 200 lb) without much sag, I think they'll be alright. Their main purpose is to keep folks from opening doors too far in parking lots and scratching my paint.

 

Watch that bike rack when you go down steep driveways and around sharp corners. There's a reason why most racks hug the ass end of your hitch.

Nice work though.

 

Luckily, the bike holding portion of the rack can slide towards and away from the hitch as needed. So it isn't creating too much of a moment when driving along. The rack also supports my body weight without any noticeable deflection, I think it'll be ok.

 

Don't waste your time with lock washers.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/nasa-split-lock-washers-useless-roger-bogrash/
https://engineerdog.com/2015/01/11/10-tricks-engineers-need-to-know-about-fasteners/

As long as you're using quality hardware and using a good torque spec I wouldn't expect to have any issues. Personally, I'd look for a flange nut, lock nut or even just loctite.

 

I do own some Loctite Blue...

 

Nice work, if you live in the salt belt you won't need any Loctite and in fact, I'd put anti seize on them.

 

Nice projects. Making it so it slides back to open the tailgate is genius thinking ahead.

Something I did with leftovers. I made a passenger side view mirror adjuster. Imagine a F shape with a 4’ long vertical leg. Then I wrapped the horizontal legs with old torn up tshirts and rubber bands. Then I could adjust that mirror from the drivers seat. It was hilariously red neck but it worked perfectly. Of course that was for when mirrors were manual adjusted unless you had a deluxe car with the cables attached to a joy stick.

 

The rack can be twisted around 180 degrees to go from about 8" of ground clearance to a little over 12". This is, for sure, a cheap way to get the job done lmao

 

I always wondered how people rigged up inside mirror adjustments before powered mirrors were common. That's equal parts awesome and hilarious!