DIY 2nd Gen Bed Rack

Just wanted to show off some pictures of the fabrication/finished product of my bed rack for my 2nd gen! Built it with a RTT in mind and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.


My Solidworks assembly:



Tac welded the rack to the bed rail mounts to ensure proper fit/squareness before bead welding:



Rack after finishing fabrication and paint prep:



Primer coat!



Finished product on truck with my RTT:



Camping last weekend at High Rock Bay near Copper Harbor, MI:

 

Nice job on that! Very rewarding it doing it yourself. Did you use a bolt and washer combo to grab onto the stock bed rails? Now I want to make something too.

 

I used these. You could totally machine some yourself if you have the skills and access to a machine shop but for $18 you can't go wrong.

 

Did you plan size/angles based on the Tent or did you have room form adjustment? Also just curious why you chose SQ vs Round where you did? Did you use Solidworks to get any weight load estimates? Nice work!

 

Thanks! The size of tubing I used was based on what I had access to in scrap from work. As for the angles of the supports, I tried to match the angle of the cab just for cosmetics. I chose SQ for the main structure for looks and round for areas where I'd like to mount accessories (RTT, recovery boards, etc) as typically it's easier to secure/mount items on round tubing (more surface area for a strap) than SQ tubing. I did do some simple FEA in Solidworks just to double check the crossbar deflection when 450lbs is placed on them with a RTT and two people but otherwise the rack is pretty overbuilt. For fun in the future I might use FEA to optimize the structure for material cost as if I was designing it with production in mind.

 

Thanks! I’m gonna order some. The price is too good.