home built rear rack project

[1meanz]

Hey guys, I'm a new face here. I've got a '98 Tahoe that I've begun outfitting for camping and some minor trail and off road work. My typical winter projects involve hotrod cars, normally I'd be building an engine, swapping a transmission, fabbing an exhaust or installing suspension and brake upgrades. I'm a newer dad now and both of my cars are "done" and enjoyable now. This winter has not included any major projects which is nice, but I still wanted to tinker, so I decided to build a rack for the rear of my Tahoe. I wanted a place to mount my jack, 33" spare tire, and a shovel. I really didnt want to spend a fortune on something that I'd end up modifying anyway so I decided to reinforce my stock bumper and build a rack for it. I'm also not a hardcore wheeler like some on here, so I couldn't justify spending huge money on a bumper. Anyway, here is what I did.

I started with a weld-on stub axle and bearing kit for a light trailer I got from my local farm supply store. I drilled my bumper and welded a sleeve to the stub axle, then welded the sleeve to the bumper and to the bumper support bracket shown further below.

Here is the reinforcement work I did on the bumper to keep it from flexing.

To eliminate the rest of the flex I had with the rack loaded, I had to add tubing across the top and bottom of the bumper. They go all the way over to the bumper/frame mounts. It's not pretty but it's pretty stiff now. The mud splash from my romp through the snow in the woods isn't helping either.

Then I made the spool to house the outer bearing races out of roll bar tubing and some exhaust tubing.

Destaco toggle clamp I got from MSC.

this is a picture of the lock pin that keeps the rack locked open so I don't bash my tailgate or the side of the truck.

Here it is with my current ugly spare mounted

Only thing left to do is fasten the feet for my HiLift inside the spare and get a spare tire cover.

I know most guys don't go to the extra work to keep the stock bumper, but I didnt really need a monster rear bumper, so I took a different path than most.

 

[Atticus_1354]

I like it. It looks clean and only has what you need with no extra bulk. Good work.

 

[jeep-N-montero]

Ooh, I love it, can you post a complete parts list? I have a k2500 and would be very interested in duplicating your setup.

 

[jps4jeep]

Thats a slick set up, looks great!

 

[bat]

X2 Looks great

 

[arveetek]

Looks great! I've been trying to decide how to approach the same issue with my 95 Tahoe, and I like your solution!

Casey

 

[Mark Harley]

Looks good, light weight and has a low center of gravity.

 

[BigTex]

1meanz-
This is exactly what I've been contemplating only on a 00 - 06 style suburban rear bumper. It's awesome to see it executed, and executed well! Great job. Now, I can see what it'd look like. I gotta say, i like it.

 

[arveetek]

Another question:

Do you have to open the carrier to pop open the rear hatch? I was concerned with having to unlatch and swing the carrier around every time I wanted to open the rear hatch.

Thanks,

Casey

 

[BurbanAZ]

good work, do u have much flex with the tire on it?

 

[1meanz]

Thanks for all the comments guys. I appreciate the positive feedback. I honestly wasn't sure how this would be received. I view this as a middle of the road "half way" type of solution that I thought some guys would think was stupid. The fact is, I still use this truck to pull my car trailer quite frequently, so the hitch is never coming off, so I don't need super heavy duty pickup points on my rear bumper. That being the case, I just needed somewhere to put a spare and some equipment, and didn't need to throw the baby out with the bath water on a truck thats only going to be off-roaded a couple times per year. It appears there are more of you looking for a "half way" solution than I thought.

Ooh, I love it, can you post a complete parts list? I have a k2500 and would be very interested in duplicating your setup.

Hah, well I don't really have a complete parts list. The latch is a DeStaCo toggle clamp that you can buy at MSC or McMaster Carr. The pivot is a 1" stub axle for a trailer with trailer wheel bearings, wheel seal and cover. I got it at my local farm supply store. Otherwise I just used 1.5x1.5x.075"wall box tubing for most of the rack itself. The pivot is made of exhaust tubing and some 1.75x.09" wall roll bar tubing. Unloaded I bet the whole thing only weighs 15lbs or so. In my opinion, strong doesn't have to equal heavy and I saw no reason to use bulky material for this application.

Another question:

Do you have to open the carrier to pop open the rear hatch? I was concerned with having to unlatch and swing the carrier around every time I wanted to open the rear hatch.

Thanks,

Casey

Your concern was one of my main goals. From the pic you can see that I've still got some room to go bigger on the tire(my spare shown is only a 265). And if I have to I'll cut the tire mount off and re-weld it lower on the rack. Right now it's close but it will clear a 33" tire, which is the biggest I ever plan on having on the truck.

good work, do u have much flex with the tire on it?

I kept the load as low and close to the tailgate and as close to the pivot as possible to minimize the bending moment applied to the rack pivot and the rack itself.(didnt want the tire too low though because I still have to hook up a trailer) However I did have quite a bit of flex after it was all tacked together once I mounted the tire on for the first time. The first place it came from was the rear bumper twisting. So I welded tubing across the top and bottom of the bumper and then tied it in to the stub axle, this eliminated the bumper flex. The rest of the flex appeared to be a result of torsional deflection of the main tube along the bottom. I've got the jack so close to the tailgate that you can barely get your fingers through. With a solid thump on the tire I couldn't make the jack hit the tail gate, but it was close. So when I finish welded the whole assembly I capped all the open tubes, and added a 10" support tube under the main tube out by the latch which added tons of torsional rigidity. When I bolted it back on after the full welding and extra support tube, it is very solid. If you give the tire a good whack you can make the jack rattle, but there is no way it will move far enough to put the jack into the tailgate at only a finger width away. I'm confident that it's as solid as an OEM installation would be. A friend that saw it this weekend said that with the bumper cap and all back on it looks like the truck came this way.

 

[highdesertranger]

good job, good engineering, and nice clean welds. highdesertranger

 

[arveetek]

Your concern was one of my main goals. From the pic you can see that I've still got some room to go bigger on the tire(my spare shown is only a 265). And if I have to I'll cut the tire mount off and re-weld it lower on the rack. Right now it's close but it will clear a 33" tire, which is the biggest I ever plan on having on the truck.

Thank you for the pic! That's exactly what I was looking for. Now I know how to build my own!

Good work.

Casey

 

[1meanz]

had the truck out last weekend. here is a pic of the rack on the truck with me standing farther than the garage wall away. This gives some perspective of how it looks on the truck. I'll whore some other pics of the truck here becasue I've never posted pix of it before.

 

[Mark Harley]

Looks great!
The rack is purpose built, a simple design and works well.
Like the stance of the truck too!