Homemade Truck Racks?

[jwhop3]

I made the version in the first photo exactly as pictured for my Chevy Colorado Crewcab, which has the shortest bed in the midsize truck market. I strap a Pelican 116 on top of it, and it is stable at speeds and in turns. The only mistake I made in it was not gluing, or bolting as in the picture, the diagonal braces, and the rack started to collapse. Luckily I caught it happening, it happened when I was loading the kayak after my float trip was over. Since then, I have remedied the problem and it works for my needs.

[JohnE]

For a yak over 13 or 14' and a regular 6' or 6.5' bed, I highly recommend just getting the Tracrac Tracone rack and a couple of foam blocks. It is only $300 or less, and easy to remove when you don't need. Well worth the investment. There are a couple other brands that are basically the same thing and even some cheaper versions with less carrying capacity. The other option I would consider is one of those bed extenders that allows you to flip it and have it the same height as the roof, rather than same height as bed. One end on the extender and the on the other on the roof with a foam block.

When I had a 8' bed, I used a homemade rack with an iron pipe through a couple 2x4s resting in my stake pockets in the back and the front of the kayak resting on a foam block on top of my cross bed tool box. I think people are pretty nutty putting their long kayaks in their 6' or 5' bed on one of those extenders with like 6' or 7' of yak hanging out the back.

[CAGE RATTLER]

I know this an old thread but for this price why build one.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/650-LB-2-BAR...7a24d4&vxp=mtr

[JohnE]

Exactly my point. I knew they had even cheaper ones out there, but that is really cheap. I doubt you could even buy the materials to build one for that much.

The Tracone is very nice for $300. I need something sturdy because I actually use mine to haul stuff for work.

[jwhop3]

Total cost for my rig was less than $30, a lot of the pvc came from my scrap bin from leftover plumbing jobs. The best thing about building instead of buying is it is custom fit to my truck and my kayak. That $80 rig is a great deal, but looks like on a mid-size truck the yak would sit a foot above the roof, and I dont trust that load to being clamped to just the lip of my bed rails.

[JohnE]

My tracrac is rated up to 800 pounds just clamped to the bed rails. It handles kayaks great, even at 70 mph on the highway. I have even put up to 5 or 600 pounds of wet pressure treated lumber up on it for short trips and it was fine. The $80 rack on ebay is a cheap, lighter duty version of what I have. By looking at the design, I'm positive it would haul 1 or 2 kayaks very well with just some foam blocks and straps on it.

[magnan man]

Plans

I searched for the plans for the PVC one with no success. Can you share the link? It looks pretty simple but it would be nice to see some plans.

Thanks

I've got a regular cab Ford Ranger and a 15' Scupper Pro. I feel weird having 9' of the kayak sticking out of the back of my 6' truck bed. I was thinking about a rack for the bed and was wondering if anyone's made their own. I've found a few "designs" online but can't decide on exactly how I should make it. Wood vs PVC? Square frame or something with crossmembers? Any and all advice is appreciated. It's getting cooler and I still haven't gotten this kayak wet...

I found plans for this online and it looks pretty slick, plus it's gotta be lighter than the wood equivalent.

[HawkGT]

I bought the hitch-based bed extender and use that to support my proangler 12 out the back of a Nissan short bed pickup. It worked okay and don't have to pick up the boat any higher than absolutely necessary. The kayak is also inside the slipstream of the truck cab and bed walls, which probably saves on the gas.

I added a couple of 2x4s to make "rails" that support and lock the hull in position and now it works great. With your 8' bed plus 4' of hitch extender, that only leaves 3' of hull hanging in the breeze.

The nice thing about the hitch extender is that it disassembles into two small 4' bars that hang on the garage wall. Storing my proangler is the bigger problem....


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[JohnE]

I just took my old bed extender and flipped it the other way and cut it down to get height even with my toolbox. Wrapped pool noodle on it. Back goes on extender and front sits on foam blocks on top of cross bed toolbox. Works great for the outback. Can still use the bed and save fuel over my laddder rack system. And ladder rack can still stay in place for work or hauling additional kayaks and stuff.

[S.S.BadIdea]

IMG_20140815_150723.jpg
This is back when I had to haul the ol S.S. Bad Idea in my dad's rig with an 8" bed. Only having half the boat in the bed made me nervous plus it sucked to have to borrow my dad's truck every time I wanted to take it out so we built this rack for my s10.
IMG_20140806_202732.jpg
Much safer in my opinion, still isn't hard to load even by myself with my cart and it looks pretty bad ass if I must say so myself.
IMG_20140919_142404.jpg
It also couldn't be any more solid. With 4 ratchet straps tying it from up high to the tie down hooks, there is no wobble it twist at all. And it also still allows me to open my toolbox all the way.