Custom Bed Rack

This is my first actual TW post so apologies if it’s in the wrong spot, I just am happy with how this rack turned out and I think it’s quite unique so I decided to share. I just bought this truck about two months ago and absolutely love it so far. I really wanted a softopper but wasn’t sure how to mount my rtt over the softopper. I found a 3rd gen softopper which since the 3rd gens have taller bedsides, actually made the top of the softopper below flush with the roof of the cab (I was planning this so that the bottom of the roof tent is flush with the roof of the cab). Another cool thing is that the rack has threaded mounts directly into it so I can hard mount the tepui tent straight to the rack and save some height by not using their mounting rails. One of my design requirements was I really wanted to still be able to fold down the softopper for visibility and flexibility etc.

So I got to work designing something in solidworks, and I had the idea for the entire roof rack to hinge off the side of the passenger side bedside, and when hinged up, give me room to fold The softopper and use my full bed height. (I don’t plan on ever driving unless absolutely needed with the rack not secured down)
Came up with this,





I also really wanted the ability to mount bikes and such to the side of the rack so I included some threaded mounts on the sides of the legs to mount brackets to.
A friend of mine is an incredibly good fabricator so I whipped up some 2D drawings of my cad and sent them over to him.


and here’s the rack when I got it from him

being winter time in Colorado, paint was a bit of a hassle, I didn’t wanna spend too much so I didn’t powder coat (probably should’ve, oh well) and went with steel-it black because I’ve heard good things about it and it worked pretty well.



Install,
The install was kinda a pain to get everything lined up and nice but I’m really happy with how it turned out, ESPECIALLY with the bike rack leaning in, the handlebars baredly stick out past the mirrors.



I’m working on a wakeboard style ski rack for the other side and can update with more pics when thats mounted.

I probably missed about a million things in this post but oh well, I’ll update as I remember

 

Sweeeeeeeeet!

 

That's pretty.slick!!!

 

Welcome


That looks killer. Always love seeing diy stuff.

 

Very schweet

 

Nice! That’s one heck of a first post

 

Ha thanks for all the comments guys. Loving this truck 1000x more than the Audi S4 it replaced, this thing is way more my syle... kinda missing that acceleration tho not gonna lie. Anyways, Here's a screenshot of what the side ski racks are going to look like, A friend of mine works a local waterjet shop so I am gonna have hime cuut out the plates and use a system of bungees through those holes in the base of each slot to wrap over the ski and onto the hooks on the ends of the fingers. What's that you ask? I bough a truck so why don't I just use the bed?? Well that not very bro-verlander of you......

 

Just for reference and cuz its cool, Here was the Audi in 'overland' spec. at one point it had a jerry can on the side of the roof tent and a curved 50" light bar mounted to the bottom of the roof bar using some brackets I designed but I cant find any pics right now. I had some pretty awesome trips in that car and for anyone worried about the security of Tepui tents... they 'hypothetically' dont fall off in excess of 145mph.... only hypothetical tho....



BUT ALAS, this is what happens when you own and Audi and it unfortunally happens all to often and costs an arm and a leg to fix (ie, the stealership wanting 1000$ for THERMOSTAT)

 

You do a great job.
I really like that setup. Never actually cared for a soft top. But it looks great with the RTT.
REALY GREAT LOOKING.

Welcome to TW!

 

That’s such a sweet build! I have a soft topper and have been wanting to put a rack for a RTT but can’t find any. I have a friend with a welding/fabrication shop but I personally have no experience so I might have to see if he can whip up something like this. Does your friend make anymore builds like this?

 

Yea I bet he would, I’ve also got a full fab drawing for that rack that any competent fabricator would be able to make this from. I also would be able to add/tweak the design for any other things you’d want to mount, ie max trax mounts or somethin.

 

OP

 

What’s the easiest way for you to send me the fab drawing. I could show them to my friend and maybe he’d have the tools for us to knock it out. I have a couple tweaks a max trax mounts make sense and also wanted to bring the rack over the cab a little bit so I could haul wood around a little easier.

 

Looks pretty good ... I went aluminum , built this for a truck about 8yrs ago , its been on a few Toyota’s , I did roof storage also . I have had 1500+ lbs on my rack