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Bolting to cladding

toddash18

New Member
Joined
Jul 29, 2020
Messages
6
I have an idea to fasten one crossrail of my TracRac TracONE rack system to the top of the cladding. Has anyone tried drilling through it and mounting anything to it yet?
 
Not sure at what area you are talking about but many members have attached racks and flag mounts to the triangle shaped handles near the tailgate using the existing bolt holes and sometimes even the same bolts. Not sure i would depend on just the plastic holding a rack installed up near the rear window. Then if you are talking about the panel where the third brake light is I would be cautious about hitting electric lines inside panel. (maybe some custom mounts made to use the existing screws in that panel?).
Take a look at old threads for rack mounting ideas, info and photos.
 
I'm referring to the area on top of the 3rd brake light. I see some threads about what others have done for full roof racks. I just want to know if I can drill through the plastic without hitting anything major. I'll probably just go for it and show you all what I did.
 
The upper cladding is hallow but obviously has the break light assembly in the center with a wiring loom that I believe runs left and right. It has no real weight carrying capacity and is held on by double sided tape with basic bolts that further secure it to the body. If you want to attach at the roof line I suggest mounting it at these same bolt locations as that's directly on the metal body. If you do decide to drill into the cladding, the best place is directly along the center line (going left and right) between the bolts and the break light. Don't need to push a drill down much as the cladding is barely over 1/8" thick.
 
Roof is under that plastic.
Plastic is not structural at all and should not be used as such.

For your roof mounted rack use WELL NUTS into roof sealed well with silicone like the roof rack is installed
 
Do NOT mount to the cladding.. As already mentioned it is not structural. It is held on with 3m tape and some screws. You would be better off to remove the cladding piece (It is easy to do) make some brackets up to mount whatever you are talking about to and mount them under where the classing was. You could then snake it up around the top of the cladding and to your piece. (Thinking of a C shape for the bracket so it goes around instead of through the cladding) If you just drill through that cladding without looking you could be hitting the wiring that is there for the third brake light and the cargo lighting.
 
Thank you. That's exactly what I'll do. I did not intent to blindly drill through the upper sail piece. I just want to drill all the way through the entire section and mount the cross rail.
 
I looked at the item you are planning to use and I will suggest that it is likely the wrong tool for the job. It is designed for a standard truck bed which the Avalanche does NOT have. You have some connection points but need to build a custom rack. At a minimum those racks would need to be heavily modified if you tried to use them. Might be cheaper to have a local fab shop build one for you if you can't build one yourself.
 
I looked at the item you are planning to use and I will suggest that it is likely the wrong tool for the job. It is designed for a standard truck bed which the Avalanche does NOT have. You have some connection points but need to build a custom rack. At a minimum those racks would need to be heavily modified if you tried to use them. Might be cheaper to have a local fab shop build one for you if you can't build one yourself.

Yes I'd like to use one of the sections C clamped to the bed rail like it's supposed to be. Then the other section I can just use the cross rail if I can find a way to fasten it to the top of the horizontal wind sail. That's why I wanted to know what was underneath it. I certainly could remove that plastic piece of the sail and reinforce it then clip it back together and drill my holes. Especially if there is enough of a void between where the sail clips and the actual roof. This is all just an idea to use items I already have which is this rack system, Thule bike trays and kayak J holders.
 
search on here for BED RACKS as many peeps have added racks and show how they did it...
many interesting versions...

TXAVY had good one that used all existing threaded bolt holes on truck
 
I have a Yakima rack on my bed panels... Pretty easy to do. I used Q-towers with the Q30 clips and all associated hardware for the rack. I don't think I have any pictures of my truck with it on it but there are plenty others that have done it. If you use a different solution you should be able to compare. basically it just uses an L shaped bracket to fit under the bed panel and tighten that clamp down and it holds great. Only issue is if your bed panels are slippery. I bed coated mine and the racks grip nicely. Others on here have done it and its easy to take off when you need to.
 
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