1997 Exploder spruce up

Thanks! Not done yet, gonna have a 1"square tube upper rail so the whole rack is 6" tall.

So, the roof rack is coming along in fits and starts. I got the bottom frame and the feet all finish welded and the welds ground down. My theory on welding is that you can make a strong ugly weld pretty with a grinder, but there's no way to make a weak, pretty weld into a strong one.

I was planning on bolting in the wire pallet rack for the floor of the rack, but after much drilling and bolting it still wanted to rattle and make a godawful racket, so it looks like I'll have to tack weld it in to keep it quiet. Oh well.

This weekend I started working on the top rail for the frame. It's all 16ga 1" sq tube. Everywhere thubes meet there's a 1/2" hole drilled so that I might be able to run accessory wiring inside in the future with luck and a good fish tape. The exposed ends of the square tube will be capped with removable plastic plugs for that reason.

Here's the basics all tacked in place:

Then I test fit the rack on the truck:

And put the mountain bike on top to check general height. Big surprise, not going in the garage loaded:

My plan is to make removable brackets that mount the bike just outboard of the lower frame rail. this will keep the bikes as low as possible and allow cargo use of the entire basket on the roof. The handlebar on my mountain bike should fall even with the outer edge of the mirror if it's planned correctly. Lofting the bikes there is a last resort for special trips. Usually they'll be on a hitch rack or in the truck but I want the option of hauling 2 up if need be.

I can't decide about adding a front top rail around the rack. It's a little more aero without it, and I dont think I'll have any issues with escaping cargo - anything that goes up there will be strapped down. Any opinions?

It couldn't hurt, I suppose.

What else besides bikes are going up on the rack?

On my emt tubing basket any extra spots to hook straps to come in handy. There are always things I never planned on going up there.

As for "paint" I went with truck bed coating, sticks way better than paint.

Great work BTW nice re-purposing of the bed frame too

Oh and you might try driving around with everything to test for noise anomalies. EMT howled like a banshee at 45 and up

mostly camping type crap - a 10x10 EZ-Up gazebo, maybe a folding table, maybe water bags or totes depending on the trip. Stuff too funky to ride home inside the truck. It's hard to see but there are 3/4" holes drilled all arounf the perimeter of the frame for tie-down anchoring. Also a benefit to using the welded-wire floor, you can hook a strap to it damn near anywhere.

Yeah, if I ever get my truck back from my mom I intend to bolt it on and drive it around before painting in case I need to make alterations for wind noise.

Oh, and the bikes will actually sit outside the rack itself, even with the bottom level, on removable stubs with fork traps. This keeps the bikes lower and outboard for easier mounting and leaves the center open for cargo. If my measurements are correct the handlebars on the mountain bike won't extend quite as far as the mirrors on the truck, and the road bike will be even tighter in.