Cheap camper shell roof racks

[Black_Blade]

I recently picked up a used camper shell for my Dakota short box. It had the mounting brackets for what turned out to be the Yakima Rain gutter style towers. $240 for the towers and then another $80 for bars...not gonna happen! I had a piece of metal laying around I had snagged at a scrap yard a few years back, planned on using it in some bicycle building projects I had in mind (AtomicZombie kinda stuff).Well, never did use it for that but it sure solved my roof rack tower problem. I cut the four pieces I needed out of the length of metal, bent one side in the vise to the proper angle and drilled the holes in it to match up with the holes that held the yakima brackets.

Will be some tweaking, and some paint. I am thinking to weld caps on the ends of the cross bars. At some point, funds allowing, will be sanding down the camper shell and giving it a paint job as well, either white or color matched with the truck. But ya, why spend so much $$ on fancy roof rack system? I had some of these pieces but even if had to buy all the materials, it would be way cheaper than $320.

 

[riccasey]

Good Job :bowdown:

Plastic caps for standard size round and square tubing can be found at most lumber yards. They'll give it that 'Yakima' look.

 

[rayra]

Why? Because most folks can't fabricate anything. no dad, no garage full of tools, no shop class, no hobbies. They can work a Playstation or XBox controller like a fiend though. Add cosmetic appearance, brand-consciousness, etc etc.

/and I properly clean and set to dry my good broad brushes, too.


A good prep and an application of white bedliner on that shell would do wonders. or colormatch it to your vehicle while you are at it. Good time to look at insulating paints, too.

If that tubing is a common size, you can find plastic end caps same as the big-name rack sellers use.