I'm looking for information and pictures of roof racks for an F250 crew cab.
I'd like to hear personal experiences from people who have put on an aftermarket rack, as well as any links that you might have.
I was also thinking about going to a junk yard and pulling the rack off of an Expedition or Excursion or Explorer after I take some measurements. Has anyone put on a OEM rack (vs. aftermarket)? Pictures? Links?
Those who have installed a rack, how do you do it? Is it a case of drilling and using sheet metal screws, or pulling the headliner and drilling w/ nuts and bolts?
Uses will be mainly kayaks, but other items as the need arises.
Any recommendations or experiences are appreciated.
I've done some Yakama clamp on style racks and Perry Craft bolt ons. The bolt ons, come with special deck screws coated in cosmoline. When you install the bolt ons, you have to do a lot of measuring to make them even, parallel and square so the cross bars can slide. It's a lot easier to do with two people than alone. It's been a few years, but I believe we set a distance from the windshield so many inches in from the door and marked with masking tape and a sharpe. Then when we had them even, cross measured them to get them parallel/square. Tape them down, pilot the holes with a small bit, and lastly running the screws in. The key thing was to only drill the holes you had too.
OE would be pretty much the same procedure, but you may have to shorten the rails to fit on the CC.
I paid $250 ish? little less for it thorugh a 4x4 accessory shop I stopped into, there are 4 bolts that run secure it to the underside of the bed cap, non marring aluminum caps on the bolts, still mar it a bit though.
5/16 allen wrench and 15 minutes and it's off or on, I put it on only for fall and early winter, for canoes and rowboats, hold 500 pounsd it says, they are solid aluminum and with metal prices up they might be more $$ now than a few years ago.
weight 50 pounds total, and dont rust, which is why i went to them, I had a rack system that I used with my tonno cover and also with a cap, it worked well enough but was steel and rusted fast, looked like hell and I didn't want it on my new truck.
I tried to sell this rack a few times and everyone wants the sliding model from trac rack but I'm glad I kept it, I have used it a bunch already this fall.
I see a fella here in VT where I am and he ahs a rear window protector with some pipe insulation on it, the rear of the kayak rests on a T shaped square stock that bolts into his receiver hitch, looks homemade, seems to hold the kayaks he has well enough, I looked at it a bit thinking it might be a simple small canoe set up for me if I sold the racks.
When I had the cover and cap I used Econo Racks, not sure these are the same but the plate that bolts through the bed cap is flat stock, fit under the cover and cap no problem, a little piece of two sided tape filled the little gap created.
the 2" pipes slid over a male section on that base plate and allen screwed in place to stop rattle.
they cost me about $100 at the time, these are double that so maybe times change more than I realize.
I built a rack like the Double Canoe Rack (http://www.usrack.com/canoe_leg_rack.php) that uses the ball hole in the bumper. Now I've got to get something for the front. One of my kayaks is pretty short, so I don't have enough length to go from the bumper rack to the cab (ok, barely enough, I don't feel its safe).
The job is finally completed, and I thought I'd show off my solution. See my 3 pictures here
After searching around at aftermarket solutions, I figured that I could do it myself significantly cheaper.
I went to the local junk yard and found a rack off of an Explorer that I liked. Unfortunately the cross bars weren't long enough, so I went back and found an older model Explorer that had bars that would work. Total investment, $15. I had to shorten the rails that the crossbars slide on about 6 inches.
Next I went to the local specialty fasteners store and purchased some rubber threaded inserts. After drilling and putting them in, I decided that I didn't like them, and went back to get some metal inserts that I had more trust in. Investment, $25 for both sets of inserts (8 each) and the stainless, flathead, 1/4-20 screws.
Other than my set-back of purchasing the wrong inserts the first time, and working myself up to actually drilling into the roof of my truck, it was a pretty easy job!
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