Sport Today

I'm thinking about a short box pickup for my next vehicle.

Seems to me like with some stainless steel tubing and a little heliarching, one
could make up a slide-in-slide out framework that carries a couple of boards, a
half-dozen sails, a few booms, a couple of masts, a surf ski, and assorted
hardware along with the wet and the sandy.

Sort of a trailer that doesn't trail.

Time to go sailing: slide that sucker in and go.

Workdays: Just leave it in the garage, driveway, or back yard.

Anybody got any ideas/experience along this line?
-----------------------
Pete Cresswell

Yeah....  I have an idea...  Get a long bed truck.  Short bed truck
is gonna leave a lot of stuff*** about 3-4 feet out the back of
the truck.  Unless of course you put it way up high and hang it over
the cab.  

Plus stainless is a bear to work with, expensive as gold and heavy
to boot.  I'd do it out of soft steel, then have it powder coated
at a race shop.  Even with the expense of the powder coating, you'll
come out way ahead.

As for slide-in, if you're talking about a free standing unit I think
you need to consider what this thing is gonna weigh.  How are you
gonna get it off the truck.  Hoist from the garage ceiling?  Not
unless you have a seriously re-inforced ceiling.  Swing down jacks?
Have you priced those?  Plus, if you set it up to have gear***
over the cab, it's not even going to clear the standard height
garage door.

I used Gorge racks on Thules that attached to the bed rails for about
4 years.  Worked good.  Most of the gear was slip streamed behind
the cab.  I could get at stuff in the bed of the truck without
moving boards (very much at least).  Downside was I had to unload
everything each day.  And that was on a long bed.

I got lots of other comments, but I gotta go vote before work.

Ping me if you want to see pictures of what I had.  I've got them
around here someplace.

Laterrrrr....
The Dog

--
    Brian "The Dog" Cunningham  
 http://SportToday.org/

    Some days you're the dog,
and some days you're the hydrant.

Peter
It really does not have to be real complicated.  I have build racks for
long and short bed trucks.  As stated, long beds work a lot better.

I build the frame of the rack out of 2x2 and 1x2.  It attaches to the
truck with tie downs and I can put it on or take it off in just a few
minutes.   I carry 4 boards, 6 mast on the rack.  I use a shelf under
the rack for the booms and the sails, wet suites, parts etc go into the
bed.

Tom

And what exactly is wrong with a big truck (he says polishing the
chrome on the behemoth in the driveway)?  ;-)

So you're looking at one of the 1/2 or 3/4 ton crew cab, short beds.

Wow!  Hmmmmm....  This is getting serious.  And you're gonna put your
boards up there too?  How many boards?

I did that too for a long time.

Stake holes will not support those kinds of stresses long term.
Trust me on this one.  I've seen the stuff spread all along the
highway.  

Could work.  But you'd probably want to have a U-channel on the bed rail
that the lower fore/aft rail of your rack would drop into.  That way,
you're
latching mechanism only has to hold the rack down.  Understand?

Hmmmm...  Gimme a second with the math...  That looks like about...
Well, at least a bare minimum 60 feet.  That does not include U-channel
for the truck rails.  Soft steel, 1" sq tubing, 14 awg is about 1 lb
a linear foot.  Stainless is slightly high.  So you're close on the
weight.
But I don't think the engineering is heavy enough to support a surf ski
and boards.  But then I may not have the same mental picture.

It can be done, I just can't picture it at the moment.  And the dolly
would probably cost more than the rack.  

Seems that the easiest thing to do is unload the rack, then just lift
it off by hand.  Trying to store all your gear on it *AND* be able
to lift it on/off the truck....  I think that's a whole lot more
difficult than is worth doing.  

What about just buying a factory ladder rack?  Or is that too
ugly for the wife?

Now you're talking!!!  But don't make Mike \m/ angry.  ;-)  

The Dog
--
    Brian "The Dog" Cunningham  
 http://SportToday.org/

    Some days you're the dog,
and some days you're the hydrant.

RE/

Family considerations mandate the four-passenger cab.   With a long bed, the
vehicle LOA  becomes too much for me...even with the short bed, the thing is
eight inches longer than my 'burb.

Yes, putting it up high was the idea.   The surf ski is 19' long, so it *has* to
go up high....  

OTOH a guy where I sail just dumps his boards in his short bed, nose forward,
skeg down and throws the sails & masts in likewise....stuff hangs over, but not
far enough to require a flag... and besides, it's easier to grab that way...-)

This guy is local and I doubt that his way would work at 70 mph... but maybe
with a couple of tiedowns....

Since there has to be some rack space above for the surf ski,  even if I did
wind up finding a way to be comfortable with the boards/sails sitting in the
bed,  I'd also have an alternative for when we go on vacation....windsurfing
stuff secured on the racks, luggage in the bed...

As far as sliding in and out goes, I was thinking about putting rails about 4
inches high on the sides of the bed.   Seen it on a few trucks
already...anchored into the stake side holes.

The framework could rest on the rails and be locked into place with  four
cam-action turnbuckles: one in each corner of the bed where the cargo rings are.

I'm guessing the framework I have in mind wouldn't weigh over fifty pounds: a
couple of concave skids to ride on the bed rails, an upright in each corner,
maybe a few x-braces, a tube running fore-and-aft on each side of the top, a
tube running across on each end at the  bottom, and a tub running across at each
end on top - overhanging and doubling as a roof rack bar equivalent.

The hardest part would seem to be crafting a dolly that takes it off and on and
lowers it about three feet  for garage storage.   I can think of a few of ways
to approach that, but haven't actually done any of them...so it would probably
be a good time killer during the winter months...if I had time to kill, that
is....

And then.....maybe I need a trailer......-))
-----------------------
Pete Cresswell

I guy around here has a rack mounted on  top of a hard top locking bed cover.
Boards on top, sails and stuff locked in the bed. Guess that would be easier to
load than a topper or racks on the suburban.  I guess you could combine that
with a  rack for the wave ski.  
bs

I turned my Tule racks upside down and mounted them under the
bed rail in my shortbed pickup. Left the tailgate down and for a
9'6" slalom it worked fine. I tied my gear on the racks just
like they were on top of the car. It won't help much for longer
boards though.

* Sent from RemarQ http://www.remarq.com The Internet's Discussion Network *
The fastest and easiest way to search and participate in Usenet - Free!

You can get a rack that mounts on the bed and looks like a rail when not in use. When
using it raises above the cab and is rated at 500#.. Cost around $320  depending on
the truck... Killer deal...

We install in Houston... can also ship, might be someone close to you that will
help??

Company is called "Rail n Rack"//

Charlie

RE/

Just found http://www.tracrac.com  and they're looking pretty good to me.
-----------------------
Pete Cresswell

You can make about any shape racks with conduit. It bends SO nice, and mine
kept a huge pile of boards and sails and masts on top of my 280Z for years at
speeds which, these days, would get me arrested on the spot. The side rails of
the rack started on the rear bumper, went straight up, bent smoothly forward to
the front of the roof where they mated nicely with gutter clamps. That part
looked quite professional. Then I added oak crossbars padded with boat trailer
padding for uv resistance, painted the conduit to match the car and stained the
oak to a nice matching coolor. Looked as neat as a superstructure could look on
a sports car, matched well, carried a ton of gear, and never budged. The same
concept could work great on a pickup or any little car with insufficient
roofline length to hold a rack well.

Mike \m/