• If you currently own, previously owned or want to own an Avalanche, we welcome you to become a member today. Membership is FREE, register now!

Bike Rack

A

Avalancher

GUEST
Has anyone installed anything on the rear deck?

I'm thinking about a bikerack installed there. It would provide nice protection to the bike while travelling and would be significantly easier to reach than on th roof. I dislike the rear hitch thing, with several thousand in bikes, I don't like them down where they can get bumped by me or someone else.

I was thinking of an installation that would still allow removal of the panels separately, and such that it could be easily removed from the panels.

Ideas?
 
The consensus the last time that this discussed was that the panel attachment levers might not be strong enough to take the wind load that they might see with something tall like bikes mounted on the covers. Skis or boards would probably be fine, but bikes seemed questionable.
 
I know there are bed racks available for trucks. My only concern would be the width of our beds for those racks.

A friend of mine took a 2x4 and made some bars that the front forks could attach to. The 2x4 was screwed to the bed with Stainless Steel bolts and then the bikes used the quick clips to attach to the 2x4.

He has been using it for a couple of years now and seems to be holding up just fine.


 
I have a hitch mounted bike rack and love it

Though I have a don't try this at home story.

Went for a ride on Wed and decided to come back to the truck, pack the bikes and drive up a 4 wheel drive road to ride near a mtn lake. (this was not part of the org plan)

Well when we took off on the 1st ride, I had left the pin out of the bike rack, becuase I assumed when we were done with the ride, I would need back in the bed to throw my gear in.

Well, at the end of the 1st ride I loaded the bikes up and took off up a 4 wheel drive road - 3 miles in I look back and notice I don't have bikes.

Well, without a pin latched, the bikes dropped and were dragged down the road - they snapped the straps and were laying at different places on the road.

It cost about $125 to get them tuned and fixed back up.

My friends new bike has a huge dent in one of the tubes where the bike landed on something :(

So don't try this at home or on the road :)
 
I have a Yakima roof rack with bike holders. It's a little hard to reach, but no different than putting a kyack up there.

You just have to remember that it up there when you get home or if you decide to park in an underground parking of some sort.
 
I just installed a rack that goes over the bed. I made the brackets myself using 1 1/2" wide by 1/8" thick weldable iron, bought from Home Depot. I bent the brackets to accomodate the "step" along the edge of the bedrail. In the front of the bed I attached the brackets using the two existing bolts that are under the triangular drain pieces - the one near the wing is hard to get at, I had to use a torx bit and a wrench to turn it. For the rear brackets I had to drill into the rail at the corner hand holds. To make it more tamper proof I made sure one of the self tapping screws was under the hand hold and you have to remove the handhold to get to it. On top of the brackets I bolted a length of
1 1/2" x 1/8" aluminum angle. With the aluminum "rails" in place I simply bolted Yakima towers w/ crossbars. The pros of this set up is I can still access the tool boxes and can easily put my bikes on. The con is I have to slide the bed covers down the length of the bed one at a time to take them off because the "shelf" of the angle aluminum does not allow me to lift the covers straight up. Kind of an inconvenience but I think it's worth it to get my bikes in a more accessible location than the roof. The whole set up is very solid and stable. Email me and I'll try to get some digital pictures of the set up.

 
I Made a panel out of 3/4" Plywood to replace bed cover # 3
and but 4 bike tights on it. I would also like to get pictures of spyderbs brackets on the front .
 
Hi,

For those of you that are interested I'm still trying to get pics of my bed rack. I'll try and post them when I get them.

Thanks!
 
Hey spyderb, I'm also interested in pics of your and Ted's install.
Thanks guys,
Damon
 
Hello everyone!

Finally got some digital pics of my bed rack. I'll put what space allows. Email me for more. I'm really happy with how it turned out. Very user friendly, especially for short people like me!

 
Can't seem to get the pics loaded. Email for the whole set.

Ronnie
 
Talk to goo and see if he can host them on his site...or get you a yahoo briefcase thingy and store them there and then give us the site bookmark so we can see....
 
I'll try loading a pic again. The are under 250k so I don't know why at least one won't load. Here goes...

[attachment deleted by admin larger then 100KB]
 
Looks like it worked, here is a view of the front bracket with the drain piece removed.

[attachment deleted by admin larger then 100KB]
 
Here is one of the rear bracket as bolted near the corner hand hold.

[attachment deleted by admin larger then 100KB]
 
Here is a driverside corner view

[attachment deleted by admin larger then 100KB]
 
Hey,

Looks better than I envisioned! Good job! Are you still able to put the bed panels off?
 
Thanks for the compliment. I'm rather proud of how it came out. I can still take the bed covers off but I need to slide them off the back one at a time. But I can still open the side tool boxes. Also thanks to Goo you can view all the photos at
http://www.PictureTrail.com/spyderb

Hope these help!
 
Looks good.....And Goo can be helpful....I bet he is thinking of ways to install neon on that rack as I type. >:D
 
ygmn said:
Looks good.....And Goo can be helpful....I bet he is thinking of ways to install neon on that rack as I type. >:D
Click to expand...
Actually, I was getting ideas on how to mount my flag bracket to display my Texas Flag on cruises ;D

goo929
 
Great job Spyderb and way to help Goo!!!! :D

:0: I had an idea.....What if we mount the track that normally attaches to the roof for the rack onto the the 90 degree aluminum angle iron. That way we have a universal track that we can interchange post and accessories from Thule or Yakima. My thought is to put a basket over the panel. Many bakets now accomodate bike racks or bars for bike racks. I think this may create a flexible system.

Comments!?!?!

It would be great if you could share your bracket templates with the group
 
Snowlep, good idea.

I had an unused Yakima system laying around so I used it to save money. I did go to the Gear On The Go, which specializes in rack systems, and looked at a track system too. That would give you a greater flexibility. They cost about $250 just for the tracks though.

I also looked at some Thule towers. I think they are called sport tracs or fast tracs II. Anyway, you can mount the base on the rails but the towers easily click off the bases in case you want to remove them. The towers have a lock and cover the bolts of the base when in place for a very secure system. They cost about $100. But than you have to buy the Thule crossbars for another $50 or so. If you already have a Thule system that may be the way to go. I may still go that direction in the near future as I've had to unbolt the cross bars to haul some taller stuff in the bed. It's not too much of a hassle if you use a cordless drill.

One of the things I had a hard time with was deciding the height of the brackets.

I don't have a template for the backets. I just measured the "step" and bent the metal to fit. I left the "legs" of the bracket long then cut them to fit where I wanted them. I left the height length of the brackets uncut until I made all four brackets and installed them. Than I used clamps to position the rails to the height that worked for me by setting the Yakima towers and bars on top of the rails. I wanted a height that I could reach but also something that wouldn't obstruct my view out the rear window too much. It took some compromises but I got to where I liked it. Than I simply marked the lengths to cut them and drilled the holes to bolt the rails to the brackets.

I also thought about getting a buddy to weld a small plate to the upright part of the brackets - to make a T if you looked from above the bracket - to further strengthen the bracket from swaying. But once I got everything mounted I found that it was very, very solid as is. If you desire a higher bracket length than sway may be more a issue, but I kind of doubt it since you have four points of contact, each one adding to the overall strength.

That's about all the tips I have.
 
spyderb


Love the mount - I see you have Rockymounts trays - are you in CO?

They are my favorite shop and it is great to be able to drive 10 min to go see them.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top