DIY prinsu style shell rack

Man I am so happy i found this thread. Was just about to order off McMaster Carr and attempt this. Never knew about Tnutz.

 

Sweet lookin rack bud! Yea, I have a cab rack I built and a camper shell rack and the wind noise is pretty loud. Only solution I've found is to turn up the radio.

 

Is that a double cab rack setup I see you've got going on?

Look like an OEM roof rack with a cab rack on top?

Double cab rack POWER!!!

PS - Sweet ride by the way, I've got a white DCLB too. I love it!

 

What was the length of your bars after cut? Also what's your cut angle on the front and back? I need to grab a blade for my miter saw that can cut aluminum

 

Yea haha I built both racks and they’ve been super helpful. I had the oem rack and figured I would just bolt a diy rack to that.

thanks! I love the truck. Can’t imagine driving anything else haha

 

Might I ask who did the CNC work?

 

So I finally finished up, I need to get a few more coats of bed liner on them.

If you go for the 4 inch, you need to know that the prinsu feet are going to be about an inch short, you can rectify this with the 1" square tubing and it will match the victory 4x4 perfectly. I have the tubing but haven't cut it or drilled just yet as I didnt know this would be an issue until I put it all together.

I opted to match victory 4x4 almost exactly, with just a couple small changes.

I got 4" x 60" just in case then I examined victory 4x4 version and measured and marked.

I started with a planer/router initially for the holes and decided that was a bad idea and went with the jig saw and metal blade.

After cutting holes and drilling I used the planer to clean edges and round out.

Next I cleaned with people power and used truck bed liner which matches really really well

 

Somehow all the pictures came up out of order but I'm rocking my son to sleep so whatever

 

I'll get better pictures when it's fully finished

 

Also.... Primer, I think I should have primed........

 

Looks really good

 

Finished



I think I would have gone with the 3" if I had to do it again because I had to use the prinsu feet plus a 1" aluminum bar stock spacer to make it work. It's about a .25 inch above the front can rack but that's ok.

Lastly I'm going to move the back piece of the cab rack to the back of the shell rack. Instead of having another bar on the far back, I'll have a nice piece to look as if it was intentional. Don't mind the wiring job. Gonna use it for my roof lights on the shell rack.

 

I gave this a shot and am pretty happy with the results.

I had originally planned to draft plans on paper then transfer that design to a 1/4" hardboard template, then I was going use that template to make all the cuts with a flush trim bit on the router... And that went right out the window as soon as I got the materials home. I ended up basically just sketching out an idea on one of the side rails then stuck them together with double sided tape and got to work. I wanted something that looked... a little different from anything else mass produced. I started with two pieces of 1/4" x 4" x 60" and for the feet I used 3" x 1/4" aluminum angle and bent them to match the angle for the roof rails & rack side rails. My only real regret is that I cut them too short, I ended up cutting off about 5" and should've only cut off 2 or 3. The cross bars could've been 1 or 2 inches shorter too but I made it work. For the actual plans/sketch/doodle I had a rough idea on how I wanted it to look and measured for where I wanted the feet to go. Once I had that I marked out the angles taking a speed square and sliding it around until I found something that looked decent. Then marked it and kept repeating that same angle. After I had the basic shape marked out I randomly decided that 12" spacing was good for the cross bars and marked them out. I used then those measurements to symmetrically space out the holes 4" from the center of each cross bar. I measured a ratchet strap to determine the width of each hole and use a 1/2" drill bit and jig saw to cut them out after I made a template for the shape so it would be easily repeatable. Unfortunately I didn't get as many pics of the actual build process.

 

Bringing this forward for a member a I ran into today in Fairbanks AK

 

Thank You Sir!

 

Great write up and can’t wait to get started on this! That being said I’ve gone through more pages than I wanted too and still haven’t found the answer to my question lol. I already have some Thule track on my topper, what mounting feet should get to use my already installed tracks?

 

Nice works.

 

Check out the Smittybilt ones listed in the ‘products discussed’ section at the bottom of the page. Others have used aluminum square tubing.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/diy-prinsu-style-shell-rack.521186/page-52#post-23075162
^^Here is a post from a few pages back ^^
I have the Thule tracks also. I made some feet out of aluminum channel, slightly bent it with my vice to allow for the angled track. 3/4" x1/8" flat bar and some carriage bolts for the portion that slides into the track.


Here is a link to my entire rack build if you are interested.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/diy-prinsu-top-rack-made-on-wood-router.653420/

I have had it on for about 2 years now with frequent off-roading and have had no issues.


These feet from Sherpa Equipment Co. are also a really good option if you don't want to DIY.
https://sherpaequipmentco.com/products/adjustable-track-mounting-feet

 

Anyone have some prints or drawings of the side bars they’d want to share with me? I’d like to take em to a local shop to have them cut….