Bed Rack idea...

I had the idea come to me to use the Yakima tracks and control towers along the top of the bed sides to mount accessories to. I am wondering how easy it is to access the underside of the bed sides in order to mount the tracks.

Here is a picture of the rack system.


I haven't looked too closely at the bed sides but here is a picture of someone getting under the plastic.


Anyone think its possible? Do I need to remove the whole composite bed liner, or the liner inside the wheelwell?

thanks in advance for any input.

 

Buy the channel mounts and bolt them to the bed rails, then use the rain gutter brackets.

Like this http://www.rackwarehouse.com/y8001.html

 

thought about those as well. I don't like them as much, not as strong/stable as the Q-towers. A good choice if #1 fails.

 

Someone beat me to it. Now I just need to know how he secured it to the bed.

 

Ok so I finally got the rack on. I removed the bed rail caps completely and mounted directly to the bed sides. I used plusnuts, 5 on each side. It seemed that in order to get a solid mount to the bed the plastic rail caps had to be removed. They would become deformed with the weight of the rack and gear, and also be a PITA to line up the holes for the plusnuts. I also put bed liner on the exposed painted surface after removing the bed rail caps.
My rack setup includes: 54" Tracks, Control Towers, Landing Pads, 72" Cross Bars, 2 Vipers, 2 Boas, and a Load Warrior.
I plan on cutting down the bars some. I envision catching a tree on one while offroading and causing some serious damage to the whole system.

 

thanks for the thread jack

 

Great pics!

 

Your kidding I hope??

Lmao

 

Wow that's pretty good, looks like it works out well. Great idea there, I bet others will follow your lead!

Nice job!

 

Thanks, I'm always looking at ways to make the most out of the short bed.

 

The rack is working out great so far. I chopped 4.5" off the ends of the bars so I wouldn't be grabbin trees. Also tested the ease of removal/install today. I can pick the whole rack up and off the truck by myself. Its nice to be able to get it off quick so I can still use the truck bed like a truck bed sometimes.

 

Hi,

I am thinking about doing this also. Which model landing pads do I need?

 

LP 1

 

What about water getting in those exposed holes where plastic bed rail caps were? might speed up rust from the inside-out?

 

Its possible I'm sure. I honestly didn't care to look inside the bed sides to see if there was any paint in there. If it is a concern there are products that you can spray in there that will coat everything and create a rust proof barrier. http://www.eastwood.com/internal-frame-coating-w-spray-nozzle.html

 

Nate, thanks for the write-up and pics. I'd been thinking of this same set-up and took several hours of searching before I stumbled onto your thread. What do you think about tracing the track onto to plastic covers and cutting to fit over and around track. Probably be tough to make it look nice however and with your method would be easy to return to stock. I'll be copy-cat'n this setup! thanks again! This will over a BakFlip eventually.

 

really cool idea! I like how you guys mounted those.

 

My friends cousin had a roll bar and it saved his life. But he does a lot of off-roading.
So those people making fun of you have never been in a rolled vehicle and it could be bad. If you guys like to go off-roading on dirt or whatever, I would highly recommend it! you never know what could happen

 

Great job! Looks really good. Maybe Toyota will start offering this option.

 

Great idea for sure. I'm thinking of mounting something similar on my hard tonneau cover for my 02 stepside. Will be able to mount the bikes, the thule box and I've got a plan to build fishing rod carrier (my rods are 13 foot 2pieces and 15 foot 3pc's). Anyway, thanks for the idea.