Ladder/Lumber racks

[77crewcab]

I need some ideas for ladder/lumber racks. I have decided to make one for my Crewcab but don't really have anything to go by since I have never had one before. What I am looking at right now is a full overhang over the cab with a mesh "floor" and maybe a spare tire mount and light mounts. I know the rear and possibly middle crossbars need to be removable. My idea right now is to have 3x3 angle iron along both sides and across the front of the bed with "bed rails" between the uprights to provide tie down spots. Also plan to have sqare tubes on the underside of the angle iron to insert into the stake pockets for a little extra stability. Past that I am not sure what to include. Should I make it forklift friendly to load from the side or not. I know I will be hauling some light loads of lumber, pvc pipe etc. but mainly I am looking at the mesh floor over the cab to use as a roof rack for luggage etc while on long trips. The section over the bed I want to be able to haul a canoe, kayak, pirout type boat. The biggest reason I am looking at building one is regain some hauling capacity. I have a Cowboy sleeper, and a 30" wide tool box to install. The tool box will actually be sitting above the wheel wells and there will be an auxillary tank under the sleeper. This combination really limits the bed space available. So I am looking at building up. Anyway pics, tips, ideas would be really appreciated.

 

[dremu]

I donno what a Cowboy sleeper is, though it sounds painful and I think they have a cream for that now... but the rest sounds reasonable.

Donno that you need 3x3 angle for the bedrails, but I'd hafta go measure mine to be sure (I'm thinking it's 2x2.)

Rather than tubes into the stake pockets, I'd just drill through the angle iron and the bedrails and bolt it down. Mine has two or three bolts each side, and it's not going anyway.

Prolly the best pic of my setup:

It's got the lowered sides for forklift access, but doesn't have the middle crossmember. I've debated adding one, but haven't had a need yet.

The cleat-style tie downs are great if you only use rope, but are crap if you use ratcheting straps. I have seen tiedowns that have a loop on one end and a cleat on the other, like an upside-down J ... as long as the curved part is big enough for your ratcheting straps' hook, you'd be golden. You can also get straps that bold/weld to the rack proper, very slick.

I welded a piece of channel across the cabover to mount the spare. The cabover is a bit short, as this rack was presumably made for a single cab. (I bought it used and for the price, couldn't argue )

If I'd had a suitable piece of expanded mesh for the cabover I would do that as well as the channel, but I didn't, and thus far haven't needed it. I do need to make a crossmember for between the side boxes so I can carry e.g. plywood sheets, but otherwise I'm pretty happy with the setup; I can carry 20's sticks of pipe or whatever, small stuff, big stuff, basically anything

-- A

 

[77crewcab]

http://www.cowtownsleepers.com/images/roadrunner1.gif.

Similar to this with the tool box behind it. I plan to bolt down through the bed angle iron, just thought that the added stability of having the tube in the stake pockets would help. I can't decide if I would need the lowered sides for forklift loading or not. Probably not honestly. Something similar to yours is probably what I will go with. Might just use it as a sort of template.

 

[dremu]

Ohhh yeah. Saw one of those @ the Pick-N-Pull once, occasionally kick myself for not grabbing it.

I haven't used a forklift on mine, can't imagine that I would, but ::shrug:: You might watch Craigslist & the like; I think I gave the guy $150 for mine, cheaper to buy than make at that price.

-- A

 

[77crewcab]

Ohhh yeah. Saw one of those @ the Pick-N-Pull once, occasionally kick myself for not grabbing it.

I haven't used a forklift on mine, can't imagine that I would, but ::shrug:: You might watch Craigslist & the like; I think I gave the guy $150 for mine, cheaper to buy than make at that price.

-- A

I know it would be cheaper to buy one used, but with everything I want and having to work around the sleeper, I am definately going to have to build one to custom fit my application. The more I think about the ability to load with a forklift, the more I think it would be useless. It's not like I have a forklift at home to unload it so I would still be doing manual labor. And I don't have any reason to buy large quantities. I think the most I have gotten anytime in the past few years was 40 2x4s and 5 sheets of plywood. So no lowered side rails it is. I am thinking of making the forward edge over the cab with a built in spoiler/light mount kinda like the Nissan SUVs and the Jeep Liberty combined.

 

[77crewcab]

Anybody else have any suggestions or pics?