Im looking at building a headache rack for my 1999 Super Duty, looking for some ideas, looking for more of a simple design with square tubing and expanded mesh. Any tips as far as geting good angles/everything level?? Would love to see some pics Thanks!!!!

 

I started with 2" angle layed on my bed. My uprights are 3x3. Cross beams are 3 x2. I then added a 1" piece of flat stock across the bottom to make a shelf. The only thing I didn't add is
break and turn singles.

 

Before this one got painted:


My advice: get a set of wooden saw horses set up to mimic the width between the bed rails, then put your rail caps on each saw horse and weld the main outer part to the rails first. The first one of these I built the entire rack then tried to get it on to the rails, HUGE pita that ended up with me laying on my back holding my ankles above my head to hold the rack still, and mig'ing about six inches away from the three amigos. Second time I welded the outer frame to the rails, then added in the lower cross piece, and adding all the other mess in was simple. To make the design more simple, forget the lourves and light boxes and just make an open trapezoid and weld whatever expanded sheet into it that you want.

For the rail caps, I used 2x6 tube, 9 feet long. I sliced it open and figured out which end was more sprung, cut that off then put the more twisted part that was left under the rack and the flattest towards the back. Cut the curve by hand with an angle grinder, and they turned out pretty good. They actually aren't bolted in towards the end, the toolbox holds it down enough that the caps won't flop around.

The plan on the 2nd one was to get something CNC'd to put into the giant gaping hole, but that still hasn't happened. For angles use a tape measure across corners, that'll square it better than trying to use a sqaure or angle maker to guess at it.

 

Thats a nice setup texastech, nice work on that rack.

 

I know it's obvious, but still....

Make sure you get your frame tacked in many places when you assemble before you lay in your final beads. Too much welding in one spot will warp it enough to mess up your fit.

 

dont have many pictures of my half headache rack. but i picked up a used mc welco cross bed box for 100 bux on craigslist and took the local pickup shell ladder rack fabricators bar from my totaled 2008 ranger and cut and widened and added some height to it. then i took the whole mess and welded it all together into one unit. so far its very very strong and works out prefect for my use. while welding i added 2 tabs for some farm tractor lights to face rearwards, and a tab on the drivers side to mount an 8 foot tall atv flag/whip on there. when i have a 8' whip on my 7 foot tall truck its almost 15 feet in the air and stands out when coming up the sand dunes out here in california.





and yes 2 years later it still looks the same.... rusty. too busy with work and too broke to have it all sand blasted down and painted.

 

Here's mine.... Heavy duty.... Weighs over 150 lbs.... But it's very sturdy!


Garry in Kodiak

 

Ya I have been thinking about building one was going to mount LEDs taillights, I was also thinking of making a removable top bracket so I can mount 4 (KC Longrange?) lights facing front. Also I dont know if I should have a cut out for my sliding window.
~Gage~