Bed Rack Hack

So, I wanted a bed rack system that allowed for full use of my roll-up tonneau, but was also easily removable. The Mobtown bars are nice, but not quite high enough for my purposes. I have seen very usable DIY racks made from Unistrut/Superstrut - so here's my hybrid of the 2 approaches.

I basically created parallel bed rails out of the Superstrut to hold the bed rack, while still letting the tonneau function as-is. I driled holes through the top of the bed rack supports and bought 3/8" fluted knobs from scamazon which happen to be the exact thread size for the Superstrut nuts. The bed rails a AA-Racks aluminum low profile in 'sandy black'. They are a very nice kit and incredibly strong.

I used 14 gauge Superstrut along with 90º Simpson Strongtie brackets to tie into the bed rails system. The Superstrut was cleaned with a degreaser, primed, and coated with bedliner - though these steps didn't totally prevent chipping/scratches as soon as I went to attach the rack. However, they do look sharp and blend in nicely. The nice part is the racks are easily removable as I won't be using them year round, and they can be positioned anywhere along the rails.

The catalyst behind this was kayak transportation since I live 3 miles from the largest freshwater body system in the world, along with around a 1/2 dozen rivers that lead to it within a 30 minute drive.

 

Very nice work there.

 

Reviving an old thread. Just got a Taco after passing down the 4Runner to my son. Poking around for ideas on combo tonneau and rack set ups and came across this. Super clean set up - Great job!!

 

Thank you @Triplem - it's worked out great and have had no issues in the year+ since I put them on. They are also very easy to remove if you want to for the winter.

 

This looks like a pretty sweet setup, I think I am going to try to replicate it! Wanted to know what's the max load you have put on the bars?

 

@KornfedJr I haven't put more than 100lbs or so on them up to this point since I really only use them for 2 kayaks. However, I wouldn't hesitate to put much more - the are very stable. Also, the vertical section of the mount plate for the bars slides past the superstrut and actually just touches the top of the bed rail. So the superstrut is not holding 100% of the weight. The majority of the weight rests on the top of the bed sides.

 

Sorry to yet again revive this old thread, but this is great work! I have the same tonneau cover and am looking to replicate this, yet feeling a bit daft this morning as to how things are put together. I drew up a quick diagram of how I am envisioning this (below). Is this close to how it's put together? Would you say the vertical section of the mount plate (pillar A in the diagram) is strong enough to hold decent weight? Many thanks!

 

Damn! That's an absolutely perfect diagram of how I mounted it.

A couple things I'll mention...

1. I stacked 2 strong-ties on top of each for the rear mounts. This is due to the contour of the rear fender making the rear ones stick out a little further from the truck bed. 2 stacked on top of each other was a bit more rigid.
2. The bed rail system is not the full length of the bed, but the unistrut is. The further back you mount the rack bars on the unistrut the more flex you might see. I currently have mine all the way to the end of the unistrut and they still feel very strong. If you mount the bars directly over the strong-ties, they are rock solid. I currently only have 2 strong-tie mount points per side... I suppose you could add a third in the middle (or a 4th) and things would only get more and more rigid.
3. The base of the bars for the AA-Racks that I purchased is 14" long. This helps distribute the weight across the unistrut so it's not all focused on one point. Most rack bar systems have a long base plate, so this shouldn't be a problem with any of them.

Sorry if any of my notes are vague - let me know, and I can try to send some pictures explaining things better.

As for weight, how much are you planning to put on there? I've sat on both bars individually as a test (I'm 185 lbs) and they both felt solid. Total across the 2 rack bars I wouldn't hesitate to put 400+ lbs if it's distributed evenly - though I'm not sure when I would ever do this. I don't currently own a RTT, and primarily use them for kayaks or bikes. Regarding the vertical pillar specifically, it's very thick and incredibly strong - the racks themselves are rated for 800 lbs per AA Racks when mounted directly to the bed.

Keep the questions coming if you have them.