Bed rack with tonneau cover

[frumpy]

Anyone doing it? I occasionally use my tonneau so don't want to get rid of it (came with the truck and is pretty much new). I was wondering about maybe putting a piece of angle iron under the bed rail Velcro stuff and bolting a rack, that could be removed, to that. My only concern is the weight of the rack would be pushing beside the bolting point possibly putting extra stress the attachment point.

Thoughts, ideas, pictures? Post them up

not the best pic but here's what I'm working with

 

[frumpy]

this is kind of what I'm going for

another

 

[Haggis]

this is kind of what I'm going for

I have that rack and tonneau system on my Tundra, but I went with the tall stanchions as to haul ladders for work and to throw boats up on top . Here's a snippet from my Tundra Build thread....

So after alot of searching and digging around I settled on a Agri-Cover Access Cover and Rack System. This sytem has a bed-top mounted extruded rail which supports the two uprights and has provisions for the cover. The upright stanchions come in two heights, the shorter one for mounting a basket rack or ski and bike racks at bed rail height or the taller more tradition over cab height. I chose the taller ones. The stanchions are powdercoated aluminum, like the rails, and mount on sliding hardware that travel in a channel. The stanchions bottoms rest on the rail and spread the load along the rails.

Though I wasn't sure of the racks rigidity because of their thinness I have found them to be surprising stiff with little to no flex. Once you strap some ladders or whatever up there everything is really rock solid. The crossrails are rated at 200 lbs each which is more than enough for my needs. I've been using them pretty heavily the last month and am really happy with this set-up. The stanchions can be set anywhere along the support rails and really easy to move, adjust or take off entirely. Here's a shot of the system from the rear...

And an open shot...

The cover is totaly watertight, even in driving rains the bed stays dry. So far it's been a good investment and does it's job well.

I've had it now for almost two years and couldn't be happier with it. While I was at it a fabbed up my own secondary lower rack....

Well, I had an extra set of Thule artificial rain gutters laying in the garage and the Yakima load bars off from the cap....all I need is to fab some brackets to get the load bars high enough for the tonneau to roll up under. A quick run down to Warren Steel (our local metal depot) and I picked up some aluminum plate drops for cheap. They were a little thicker than the factory uprights...

but with some creative redneck milling techniques...

...I got them to fit in the rail's slot. I had to notch the brackets to allow the Yakima clamping system to work as the angle of the plates cause the clamps to hit the brackets when tighten. I mounted the Thule load plates on to the backside to hide the notches and so I had spare metal stock on hand if I need some for trail repairs. Here's some bracket shots...

And the finished racks mounted. You'll notice that I didn't bolt the brackets to the rail as I was just going to set them in the garage anyway when I was done today.

And then improved on the first design with new rails...

....So here's the new and improved Secondary Rack...

Then I aligned the ATV ramp where I wanted it, drilled a few holes and using some capture nuts and stainless round button headed Allen bolts mounted that sucker to the rails. No Clamps, no dangling thread ends, just a solid mounted storage surface...

This is a way stronger set-up. With me and my wife standing on the rack there was no flex at all.

And a shot all loaded up for a camping and river running trip...

 

[frumpy]

I had a better look at my truck and I'm not sure if a simple angle iron bracket under the velcro rail will cut it. The velcro rails are held on by 3 or 4 clamps on each side and I'm thinking sandwiching a rack system under that rail is going to cause some issues. Unless anyone has any ideas I'm thinking I'm either going to have to buy a new tonnuea or just scrap the tonneau (or maybe make a removable baha style rack that fits into the bed with the tonneau rolled up.