Roof mount bike options

Let’s see some bikes mounted on the roofs of these trucks!

I’m looking at the Thule upright system to mount bikes on the roof.
At the moment I have a Toyota factory roof rail system on my truck along with a camper shell.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!
I won’t be using a hitch mount due to the fact I pull a camper. I won’t be able to store inside the bed due to all the camping gear and items that go along with raising young kids.

I was thinking of prinsu rack cab and cap along with Thule but I’m not sure this pairs together and it would be well over 2k Canadian.

or using the factory oem roof rails on the cab with any system that holds the bikes in place.

 

One of the problems with roof carrying is the overall height of the resulting rig. I'm 6' 6", so when one of my bikes is up top it's a TALL setup. That has issues with clearance that take care. I'll still use Thule roof mounting on my Lexus RX and sometimes on the canopy of my Gen 1, but most of the time my bikes go on the tonneau of my Gen 2.

I've been very happy with this setup for a number of years, first on a Gen 1 and now on a Gen 2.

 

My first thought was the sideride. Pretty sure a member here created these. However I am unsure if they can be used without modifying the camper shell. https://squareonecreations.com/coll.../products/sideride-bike-mounts-tacoma-version

The other thought I had (very dependent on the camper setup you’re running) is welding a 2” receiver to the front and attaching a platform rack to the camper instead of the truck.

 

https://www.max-modular.com/accessories/max-modular-outboard-bike-mounts

Contact these folks and see if you can't work out similar rig with your topper

 

I'm only 5'10" and I can get my MTB on my Yakima on the cab high shell, but it's really dicey and scared me the few times I've done it; I couldn't do it with a heavier or taller bike or bad weather since I'm already grabbing the bottom of the forks and the bottom of the seat tube. Because of that, I always carry a milk crate or one of those plastic folding stools when I have my bike up top. I'd prefer to have it on the side (which is by no means a new idea) but I'm not cutting on my shell to do it. If I had a DCU or other aluminum contractor style shell with a frame inside I'd do it in a heartbeat.

I carry some sort of stool with me when I have the boats on top as well.

Typos

 

Exactly!!

That's the very reason we started making alternate ways of carrying bikes.

 

Lots of trashed bikes and trucks when people didn't account for the extra height when they drove through low clearance areas. Drive through's, parking decks, trees, etc. I wouldn't put one on top of anything, I couldn't even get out of my driveway with a bike mounted on the cab due to trees. I could do it with a compact car, but not either truck

The way I ride at this point it is usually easier to just lay it in the bed or my truck. Otherwise, I use a rack that fits into the receiver hitch.

 

I have a kuat hitch rack but since Rhino Rack had these on clearance we added this option for our bikes. Just got back from a 800 mile round trip and they worked great.