DIY OverCab bed rack build

What’s up everybody! I’ve been working on building myself an over cab rack to haul all my over size items either working or on the weekends camping or hunting! I started a bit late into the build taking pictures, and I didn’t take as many as I’d have liked but hey c’est la vie!

I started out looking at some racks that I could buy from the store pre made and bolt on to my truck. It didn’t take long to realize there was no way I was going to find something that would fit my use, and something I would be able to add on to later.

I had zero experience in fabrication before this project.

This long process began with a scrap sheet of paper and a few drawings until I came up with something I thought would work for me. With a measuring tape and some determination I managed to get “most” of the steel in one trip, hanging a mile out the bed of my short bed truck. (Wish I had a rack for that).

i ended up with about 60ft of 2” square tubing 14g, 10ft 2” 14g round tube, 60ft 1” square tubing, 15ft 3x3 angle, and two sheets of 4x8 expanded steel.

 

Here is that main frame of the rack laid out on the floor. I knew I wanted the middle support to be in the same area as the headache rack I would build in later on. I also wanted the rack to hang over the front windshield About 6”.

 

After welding the frame together I flipped the rack over and starting piecing together how I would mount the rack to the truck itself.
I landed on some 3”x3” angle. I set it in the bed rails where it would provide the most secure mounting points and sketched out the pieces i would remove to fit the curvature of the truck bed rails.

The antenna fin on the roof is about 22” high off the bed so I decided to put the rack right around 24” high. After a bit of trial and error I was able to get the legs cut to mount the 50” wide rack, to the ~61” wide bed rails.

Now that the legs are good I went ahead and cut and welded the headache rack together.

Just about threw out my back flipping this beast over and setting it down on the angle iron base, and welded together.

 

Now that I had it right side up, and with something to set it on the truck I had to get this thing on the truck!

With a helper the rack went on with only slight rubbing where the bed tapers, (nothing a little elbow grease couldn’t fix).

 

Now that I confirmed fit we took the rack off and began the install of the expanded steel. I wanted the steel to go over the entirety of the rack (including the front slope). Then added the rails up top for additional cargo.

From there began the tedious work. I will be installing a light bar on the front of the rack so I welded a short piece of angle iron to mount my bar to, as well as mounting locations for aux back up lights. I added gussets to help beef things up. And also added d rings to the four corners to make up for the rail space the rack will take up in the bed.


this is as she sits now, I am waiting for a couple days of clear weather so I can bed liner this baby up and complete the install.

I will be using the factory side rails, as well as the front rail to attach the rack to the truck, using t nuts, washers/lock washers, 3/8-16 1.25” bolts.

 

Good lord does that max out your payload once you install? The angle iron bed supports are interesting, I have not seen that trick before. I have considered using the frame from the DIY wedge build thread as a base, which is a lot less steel.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-diy-wedge-camper.604686/

 

It is a good chunk of weight I am adding back there but i would say closer to the 250lb mark, will confirm once the bed liner dries and I get a chance to plug this thing in.

 

Also, I will be looking at upgrading my suspension for other reasons anyways, so it will help with the weight of the rack as well. Just have to pay for a wedding first.

 

Looks awesome! How much does that thing weigh? You'll be hauling all kinds of stuff!

 

Here’s the finished product, finally got her mounted last night. Went to the dump today to find out the weight on this thing and it is a bit heavier than i had planned but it’s right around 350lbs.