Bed Mounted Cargo Basket

I want to add a cargo basket over the bed instead of on top of my roof (gas mileage is already bad enough). I've found a handful of older posts from guys that have done this, but they're all old enough that I doubt people are still surfing those strings.

Can anyone get me started in the right direction? I'm looking for something all inclusive, a kit that comes with mounting brackets, cross bars, and a basket. Anyone have something they love that they'd recommend, or something they hate and can advise me to avoid?

No all in one kit exists.

Most members use and mount a roof rack cross members to the bed covers. Some have modified the clamp like fixture to clamp onto the bed covers edge.

At one time a member made and sold cross bars with  brackets. So you can mount whatever item you might have in mind. I have one of those with a Surco basket installed on it.

Yakima 48" bars with Q-tower and Q-30 clips. You need 4 total clips and towers. You will also need the locks.

If you use longer bars they will conflict with the saddle bags in the rear. You may be able to use longer ones in the front but only slightly longer.

Once you have that system you can use any Yakima compatible components with it.


If you don't  mind drilling holes into your covers Yakima has a setup for installing on top of a "topper" that should work as well. Same 48" bars though.

I had issues with my q-tower bases not sticking well to the covers on my truck but after spraying them with bedliner oh my do they grab now...  Bolting through the covers won't have that issue.

Rodney

As usual, it didn't take long for the CAFCNA gang to provide me tons of guidance and feedback. I truly appreciate it. So, now that I have the way to mount crossbars and a pretty sizeable majority of people that prefer the Yakima mounts and crossbars, the next questions is what brand/size basket.

The Yakima is the obvious choice, but Rhino Rack has a good product that has a little heavier weight rating. Both are roughly the same (expensive) price. It appears as if the Rhino basket will mount to round Yakima crossbars, so compatibility doesn't look to be a problem unless you all know something from personal experience. I'm also not opposed to a lesser-known brand cargo basket, especially if it saves me some cash, so please feel free to share your success stories of no-name cargo baskets that suit your needs. I care about function and quality, couldn't possibly care less about name brand, so lets not waste money that I can keep for further mods (gps, MaxxTraxx, etc.).

You guys/gals are the best. Always appreciate and respect you and your work.

redheadedrod said:

Yakima 48" bars with Q-tower and Q-30 clips. You need 4 total clips and towers. You will also need the locks.

If you use longer bars they will conflict with the saddle bags in the rear. You may be able to use longer ones in the front but only slightly longer.

Once you have that system you can use any Yakima compatible components with it.


If you don't  mind drilling holes into your covers Yakima has a setup for installing on top of a "topper" that should work as well. Same 48" bars though.

I had issues with my q-tower bases not sticking well to the covers on my truck but after spraying them with bedliner oh my do they grab now...  Bolting through the covers won't have that issue.

Rodney

Click to expand...

I actually dug a little deeper and found a thread on this topic from a while back that you were a big part of. I picked up some ideas on how to handle the slippage if it should occur.

Thanks for the follow-up. Long live the creators of bedliner!

I'm looking at doing this as well.  I have the bars,so I only need the towers and clips.