Yakima Bed Rack

Finally got the work done I’ve been wanting to do. Was a royal pain though! Mounted Yakima tracks/towers/bars on the bed rails. Bolted through the plastic and metal bed side. If I did it again I’d use rivnuts instead of nuts/washers on the back side. It was a bitch getting inside. Tried taking out the inner fender, but didn't work too well. Ended up taking out the boxes on the inside of the bed and worked much better. Tracks are roughly 60” long and bars are 66” long. 2006 AC 6 speed.

 

I'm thinking about doing this same thing, do you have any other tips?

 

If I did it again, I would go closer to the inside of the rail. There is a seam that hangs down inside the bedside that I did not know about so I drilled through in spots. Hasn't effected anything, just needed longer bolts.

 

I love the functionality of it though. I have a yakima roof box as well and it is fantastic for holding camping gear, especially when mounted on the bars it is super easy to reach everything inside.

 

I always had wanted to do that when I had a tonneau. Nice job op!

 

REI has 20% off most Yakima gear right now, so I think IMG going to pull the trigger on this pretty soon.

 

Did you take off the caps before you drilled, or did you just drill straight through the plastic? Is there any sort of filler needed to fill the gap between the rail cap and the metal underneath?

 

Great job, looks sharp!!

 

I did take them off to see what would be a good spot to drill. There are a bunch of square holes already in the bed rails from the factory so I wanted to double check the best placement. As far as a filler, I didn't do anything along those lines. The caps have plastic supports that rest on the bed rail.

 

Check out facebook market place, craigslist, and ebay too. I got all my yakima stuff used. I got an old truck topper for free because it had the exact yakima stuff on it that I wanted. Had to drive a couple hours to get it, but it was worth it. Now I've got 8 total control towers, 8 landing pads, 4 bars, and 4 locks for less than like $200