ERMB's D-I-Y Rack System Build

whats stopping you, this is certainly in your wheelhouse!

 

One day! Last time I poked around in here the cab rack wasn't a thing.. now that it is, it's a super cost effective way to get the rack setup that I want.

Stopping me? Space, welding inexperience, and the cash for now.

Hopefully next year I can do this and sell my Thule bars off to help fund. @PHTaco gave me wood.

 

My cab rack is 100% Bolt on no welding needed. Like I mentioned above until I learn to weld, this system still works.

 

Do you have any bolts that protrude into the rack surface or all they all below where any materials might contact them?

I'd just want to make sure the loading surface was flat.

 

I mount most of the tracks upside down so that all the hardware is below the surface of the channel.

 

i like your cab rack... but i can't think of a way to extend it all the way forward, down the curve of the roof, with out welding... i want to make one but can't seem to find a solution. @PHTaco is nice. but the mounts are welded. any ideas for making a base that extends all the way forward that is bolt on???

 

Well, I encountered a similar problem. My solution was copper pipe. Which I coated with a rubberized coating. Essentially used the pipe like a long spacer. Then found a long threaded bolt long enough to fit through it and into the roof.

 

into the roof? like you drilled a new hole? or into the furthest forward mounting holes under the weather strip?

 

Not drilling I meant the forward most mounting holes.

 

So you used a piece of pipe as a spacer to the rack. Makes sense, but how did you connect it to the rack? Isn't it at an angle?

 

No, it's in the line with the cap rack on the back too, similar to the way PHtaco did his only I uses a 4 ft level to mark my posts. I put a washer at the bottom and a washer at the top and the bolt sandwiches everything in between. I'm sure there are many ways this can be done, but with no welding skills yet for me this seemed to be the most plausible and efficient I could come up with. It's rock solid too, I grab hold and pull myself up when I need to get up there and it's rock solid. After work I'll snap some photos that show it better, I don't think I have any closeups of the post on hand.

 

No I get what you're saying. But what I'm saying is the very front mounting holes will be at an angle compared to the flat rack on the cab.
Like... this picture shows the spacer would be perfectly vertical, even with the rack.

This picture shows how the front spacer would be angled forward slightly. The rack would still be parallel, so bolting this spacer to the rack, and into the truck wouldn't line up right?

 

unless you think the side rails will flex with the curve of the truck as i tighten it all down...

 

They don't flex much at all.
I think that is too much stress on the threads of the bolts and bolt holes.

 

Well if you use the copper you can transfer that angle to the bottom of the spacer and use a chop saw with a metal blade to set the angle so both of the sides will be the same, unless you trust your skills with a hand saw. Once you have the angle cut then you can go back to the top and cut those to the appropriate height using a level like we mentioned earlier.

 

Sorry for the terrible picture.
But assuming I can't weld. And the only way to mount the rack to the roof of my truck is to use a tube like spacer that goes through the weather strip, and bolts to the rack/ truck.
Okay so now we do what you just said, cut the mounts at an angle so they sit flush with the rack system... the bolts and shims are still going in at an angle. You don't think that would be a problem.

 

You laugh, but all the guys running Prinsu and Frontrunnersee, on an access cab have had to drill and add rivnuts. That would make me for sure, lol!

 

That's what I thought too. But the bolt holes in the roof are at an angle. So if the pipe is cut at the bottom to make it strait... the bolt still has to go in at an angle

 

Why? I want to make this so bad. So now I'm just going to go outside and drill about a hundred holes... one thems gotta be strait enough to mount the system

 

Like this....