Ladder/ lumber rack.

[jekquistk5]

My little bro wants me to build him a lumber/ ladder rack for his truck. He said he is getting tired of dragging his enclosed trailer around so he wants a rack. I figured for 150-200 I could build him a sweet rack and be way more durable than those store bought ones. Anyone have any pictures of some you have seen or made.


Thanks,

 

[NorCal69]

Here is one that I built for my partners rig. It's built for a shell. Originally the leg landing pads were 1/4". That proved to be too weak and were later cut off and entire bed rail wrap of 3/8" was used. We just welded the 1/4" pads on top of the new 3/8" landing pads. We were going to weld in some gussets after he bought a shell to go inside of the rack. Still to this day he has never bought the shell and I've never installed the gussets. Lol We load the crap out of this thing and it's never even shifted. Someday we will weld on some gussets. Until then, it's just an inside joke.










Everything is 1.75 HREW, with 1" top bar and 2.25 caps for the rear bar removal thingy.

 

[jekquistk5]

Awesome thanks mike! Do you think 1/4 would be fine if it's just over the rails and not extended out for a cap. He doesn't have a cap and doesn't plan on buying one. He had a 16' enclosed trailer for that stuff.

 

[NorCal69]

Yep, plenty. If your going over the bed even thinner could work. But you know me.... I don't think I have ever used any 3/16". Lol

The biggest and coolest thing is to weld tie downs everywhere. Unlike any rack you buy, two over the windshield bar are awesome for tying down the long stuff. IIRC this is just under 12' from bar to bar and low as we could go over the cab. We couldn't get a mid bar over the cab roof if we wanted. It looks way cooler when you don't have 6" from top of cab to lower bar. I'll take one tomorrow when we head to work of what it looks like now.

 

[jekquistk5]

Awesome, thanks mike. You can text me you don't have to post here.

 

[blazinzuk]

No pics of it. I have built a couple. The first one I built he was worried about weight. So I did the whole thing out of 1.5" .083 wall. Looked really similar to what Mike posted. Used 3/16 angle for the bed caps. My top rail was 1" don't remember what wall thickness it was thin. I told him not to put more than 500 lbs on it. Yah he ignored me. Regularly put 1000 lbs on it. He sold the truck and kept the rack. He tried to make it fit his new truck. That was a no go so it got scrapped

It can be pretty thin stuff