Any Homebrewed over the truck bed - tonneau -bike racks??

[bdp1978]

So in switching to a Full size truck from an SUV I gave up my Yakima bike trays. I still have them piling dust in the corner and would love to use them again. I have a Yakima Bedhead that I have used on a 2x6 in the truck bed. However I would REALLY like to put the bikes over the bed and still be able to use my soft tonneau cover to seperate the bed into more dry storage. In doing so I could also use my ski racks again and add a skybox.


Yakima has the new for 2013 "Bedrock" that I think I could make work, but at $200 for just the towers I'm thinking I could concoct my own mounting for crossbars at the hardware store. I'm not opposed to drilling into the top of my bed rails to bolt hardware through. Anybody done anything similar and made a homebrewed setup for over the bed or tonneau cover??? Such as similar to below and still using a soft tonneau???


Thinking I could spend some time at "The Depot" and concoct something of this general variety.

 

[Flagster]

A long time ago I used to run a megawarrior on my tacoma bed rails with yakima bike trays...it worked well
The megawarrior bolted to the crossbars and then the yakima trays attached to the basket...I was still able to stow gear in the basket and below...

 

[bdp1978]

^^^^ I like that setup a lot, but I'm trying to retain my tonneau cover (Soft- not fiberglass)so I can keep that storage area out of the elements. we use the truck for family travel and with 2 kids and a dog I need the luggage space in the bed out of the snow and rain.

 

[bdp1978]

Not that anyone may care.....but I did come to a conclusion on how I'm going to do this. I'm going to fab up some brackets that will go under the tonneau cover rail and bolt directly to the bed. I plan to drill a hole opening in the tonneau rail for the bolt head. The brackets will come out and have a lip on the end allowing me to use the high clearance raingutter towers from Yakima.

This should allow me to run the full rack setup over the soft tonneau. I'll post pictures as I put it all together.

 

[Mark Harley]

I fabbed up nice brackets to hold gutter mount feet.
I can use my tonneau and the rack removes in minutes.

I will post pictures tonight after work.

 

[bdp1978]

I fabbed up nice brackets to hold gutter mount feet.
I can use my tonneau and the rack removes in minutes.

I will post pictures tonight after work.

Fantastic! Thanks! I picked up some guttermount towers off craigslist today---CHEAP. I'm going to wait to see your brackets before I start fabbing to see if I want to copy your design! :beer:

Biggest expense is going to be the crossbars, as the bigger ones (66"-78") dont seem to be popular on the re-sale market.

 

[Mark Harley]

I made these mounts that bolt to the inside lip of the bed of my 2002 GMC 2500HD Crew cab
The mounts are made from 1/16" steel and measure 6" wide, the tower mount lip is 1/2" tall and the bed mounting face is 1 1/2" high.
They mount flush to the bed rail and under the tonneau rails on both sides.
four mounts were made and I had them brake press bent at work.

The only alterations to the tonneau rails were that I cut the sealing foam from the four locations of the mounts so it would sit flat.
I bought a set of Thule 1060 gutter mount towers off craigslist for $10.00 to use they are tall enough to clear the cover with room to spare.
The 1060 mounts are not very popular in that the bar does not extend beyond the outside of the mount. It is boxed in.
Long Thule bars are expensive and I had to order them from the local bike shop. They were the longest bars and were cut down a few inches for these 1060 mounts.

I destroyed my tonneau a few weeks ago and bought a new one cheap off ebay, but did not replace the mounts as of yet.
The design is stupid simple and you can use any gutter mounted rack system as long as the bars reach across.

Hope this helps " sorry I don't have a picture of them mounted with the cover on. but you get the idea.

 

[bdp1978]

Thanks a bunch Mark, that is the EXACT design I had decided to go with as well. I racked my brain how to make this work and suddenly it popped in my head how easily it could be done.

The only thing I dont have is a press, but I do have a vise, a small anvil, torches, and a few BFH's to make the bends. I plan to use plasti dip on the brackets after I make them.

I'll post up pics when finished.

 

[Mark Harley]

Glad I could help.
Post your work when you finish.

 

[bdp1978]

Done!

Brackets:



All mounted:



Worked out perfect, I can haul bikes, snow, extra storage etc. while still having a functional soft tonneau for dry storage and a free hitch.

 

[Mark Harley]

Nice work!

Looks great!