Brand new & building a ladder rack. Advice?

OZ,

The cab end of the rack is secured along the factory bedrail system. Some guys make up 1” hardware to slip into the track and secure their custom setups at a few adjustable tie points. But I wanted to ensure there was no singular point load along the bedrail system.

Post #17 of this thread shows my method of welding a series of threaded studs along a 1/8” by 1” piece of flat steel. The steel strips slide into the bedrail tracks along the entire length of each track. The threaded posts stick out into the bed and mate with holes in the vertical inner walls of the ¼” angle bed rim caps. There are five 3/8-16 threaded studs along each rail. This spreads the load across the entire rail system. However, the rail system is mostly doing the job of a positioner. The downward forces on the rack are spread uniformly along the bed rim via the horizontal leg of the ¼” angle.

Here’s a blurry shot of the custom bars that slide into the factory track system:


I hope that makes sense. I’m told I sound like a technical manual sometimes.

And you don’t have a bad idea about that back strut stow location. I’m thinking about making a removable mesh panel to protect my back window when hauling around debris or bulky items. I don’t want the two to interfere, and I want it to be super convenient to get it out of the way, or put it in place when needed.

My gears are still turning over the options on that one.


So I road tested the rack today to check for fit and wind noise. It has minimal wind noise at 80 mph. Nothing that a reasonable volume on the radio doesn’t mask. It doesn’t seem to have any of the horrible whistles or rumbles that come with an improper design. I’m still planning on adding some gussets for strength and added attachments / features. So I’ll keep my fingers crossed that none of them cause a whistle.





The rack feels really solid with the just the custom bedrail mounts and the four factory bolts in the upper rear. I’m seriously questioning whether I need to go to the floor with something.

And the honeymoon is over. My truck is a month old and it hasn’t even cracked 1000 miles on the odometer, but it made it to the dump for the first time today. Over 1100 pounds of masonry rubble and construction debris. This truck is going to earn its keep the old fashioned way. It finally got its bed dirty.

 

Tac ,

looks awesome , your dump pic gave me a good laugh , nice to see someone else with a " working class taco " . You confirmed what I had guessed as your way of securing the rack , good idea with the full length rail bar . I just can't see a need to go all of the way down to the bed bottom to tie in any further . Even in an emergency stop , your rack can't launch over the cab with the way that you have incorporated the 4 rear bedside bolts .

I also intend to have a cab cage , mostly for when I am hauling firewood to avoid the firewood round in the backseat program , I was also going to take that idea one step further and have two removable cage sides for firewood , would do the same job as your plywood sides in your dump pic . And you thought you were done !

I'm flip flopping on whether to make my rack as a stand alone like yours or to set it up so I can have a Leer XQ on at the same time . Either way I will keep you posted .

OZ

 

Nice build, I really enjoyed following this.

 

Nice work Tac...liked the progress.

 

The rack is back on the bench for some detail work and add-ons before I paint it. Yesterday I made 8 gussets to add strength to the four uprights. I drilled a big 1 ½” hole in each flanked by two smaller ¼” holes. This gives me a few more tie points. The ¼ inch holes will be very useful next time I make a run to the dump. The idea is that I can cut two pieces of plywood to fit inside each set of uprights and screw them in place through the ¼ holes. This way I can box in the back when needed without much effort or expense. This might be a solution for your firewood hauling, OZ.





I’m in the process of making a removable grate to protect the back window. It won’t be anything too fancy, just some flattened expanded steel mesh with an angle iron frame. 4 more gussets will go in near the back window with stainless weld nuts in place to receive hardware from the grate.

And I think I have an acceptable solution for the back spreader bar. I’ll cut a piece of 11ga 1” square tubing to span the bottom of the back uprights. I’ll weld in ½-13 stainless nuts into the openings at each end. Then I will make up two sets of tabs with 9/16” holes to get welded onto the rack. One set will be low on the rear uprights to fight spreading; the other set will be welded along the ¼” angle rail caps under the custom tie rail for storage.

 

Any new updates?

Looks great. Very heavy duty.

 

CB , just wanted to thank you for all of the pics , very helpfull ,

OZ

 

Hey Gentlemen.

I’ve finished fabricating the mesh window protector. It went in pretty much as I described in my last post. I used ¾” x 1/8” angle for the frame employing the cut and shut method. Then I welded in the #9 flattened expanded steel. They were both items I had lying around in the shop. The 3/4” angle isn’t the beefiest solution, but it will certainly be better than a smashed window. And it comes out with four ¼-20 stainless screws for those times when an unobstructed view is desired, or just for easy cleaning of the back window.



And the back spreader bar went together smoothly. It’s a bit of a pain to get to the head of the bolts where I placed it, but the hardware is all stainless so they shouldn’t seize on me. And I knew I would be kicking myself on a daily basis if the bar was in the way or subject to rattling around.


My photos are a bit behind my progress. I shot a coat of black enamel on it the other night with the spray gun, and it looks ok – nicer than the brush and roller job I did on my old one. But it’s going to get knocked about and scratched anyway so I’m not too picky about the finish. Just has to keep the rust off.

I’ve let it set over the weekend to cure a little before I wrestle it on the truck. I’ll be sure to take more photos with it attached early in the week.

 

Tac ,

awesome work , cab screen will definitely keep stray lumber out of the back seat .

What was your final idea for a stash point for the rear cross bar ?

OZ

 

OZ,
The red line is the storage location. The green line is the in use position. Two ½”-13 SS nuts can be treaded into the ends of the bar, and there are tabs with holes at each end of both locations.
Do you have any metal fab skills? Or are you planning on sourcing your rack out to a shop?

 

Tac ,

I'm a carpenter and not a metal worker , but I have a fabricator friend that does all of my metal and aluminium work for me and he will be building it for me . I am the design team , ( with everyone here's help ) , and he is the build team . Having said that I do possess the abilities to build , but don't think a wooden or concrete rack would be the best for my truck ,

OZ

 

You are a true Craftsman for building that rack............with its weight and the weight of all the stuff to the dump how did your rear suspension feel?.......Did it bottom out?

mike

 

OZ,

As much as I’d love to see a wood and concrete rack for laughs, it would make for an awfully heavy ride.

Flintstone style.

I flirted with the idea of aluminum for mine. But two things kept me away. One was the square tube tends to have sharper corners. Makes wind noise and drag a bit more of a factor. And two, I live and work in a part of the city where junkies steel industrial metals like it’s gold. They have to chain down the manhole covers here. I could just imagine finding $1000 worth of aluminum rack cut off the back of my truck so a drug addict can score an extra $75 at the scrap yard.

But if your friend can work round tube without a problem and your town isn’t plagued with prowling scrappers, you might have both bases covered. There are some beautiful anodized aluminum rack builders out there. They often make custom boat fixtures too. They have the really fancy tools and skills to match.

Mike,

The ride to the dump felt super stable. It was only in town driving and I took it slow to keep debris from flying out the back. I’m not sure exactly how much material I had on the truck, they weighed both me and my friend’s truck at the same time. We lost over a ton after scaling out, and my truck was piled higher and had about 10 five gallon buckets filled with brick rubble at the bottom that my buddy in his 1st Gen didn’t have. So I had at least 1200 or better in the bed, plus another 150 or more in the rack. I think the payload for my truck is about 1500-1600 pounds. So I was either right at it, or just under the limit. The suspension felt fine.

But those 1st gens can really take a beating. I know for a fact I had over a ton on my old one and took it on the highway (the photo with all the wood in the first post). It had a rotten frame with some scary holes in it. I never want to do that again. The ass swayed when I went over 45mph. But the suspension and the compromised frame held. Proof that they can take a beating; it’s just not recommended.

 

Ok, here it is all saddled up.









I was relieved to discover no whistling after adding the gussets and the cab screen. What minor wind noise I get on the highway is probably from cheating the front bar a little closer than I would have liked. But this 2010 model is a little longer than my 1st gen, and it was important that the rack be short enough to safely support a 10’ length. An airfoil would probably eliminate any turbulence off the front bar. The last rack I built had a sideways teardrop cross section in the front and it was very quiet.

But all things considered, it’s an improvement on the old one, and I’m looking forward to getting several years of service out of it.

Thanks to everyone for the input and photos. I hope my documentation helps out future rack builds.

 

Tac ,

great job start to finish , looks like you can start overloading ! This has been a great thread , hope to add a pic of my set up when I have it done .

Your metal skills make me jealous that I can't knock it out myself .

Happy hauling ,

OZ

 

That is a great looking rack. WELL DONE!!!

 

awesome work!

 

That is a beautiful piece of fabrication. It's been fun watching your progress. Definitely one of a kind. What's next?

 

That is one of the nicest non-flesh racks I've seen in a long time!
Seriously awesome attention to detail...if only I had the skills and tools to do something like that, my rig would be unstoppable.

Fink

 

Take a look here:

http://www.**********.com/toyota.php

Corrected:

http://www.ryder racks.com/toyota.php

But you will have to manually take out the space between ryder and rack
I wonder why that link came up with *******s? I have no idea why it won't allow that simple link?