Bed mount snowboard/ski carrier

[ja0540]

I have been thinking of this for awhile now because I wanted a more secure way of carrying my snowboard and I did not want to add a roof rack. Putting my snowboard in the cab was OK but not convenient with passengers and the potential for damaging the interior is a concern.
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All these parts with exception of the carriers can be found at Home Depot.

You will need:

1) Set of Ski/Snowboard carriers (I went with the Thule Flat Top 6 Carrier, it was a decent price at REI with a 20% discount for being a member and came with locks unlike the comparable Yakima model)
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1) 10’ piece of 1 5/8’ thick uni-strut (Home Depot brand is Super Strut)
4) Uni-strut “L” brackets
4) ½” Square washers
4) ½” x 1 ½” Cap head bolts (I went with cap head bolts instead of hex head because I thought it would be less likely that a thief would be carrying around a large Allen wrench)
4) ½” x 1” Cap head bolts
8 ) ½” Spring nuts
4) ¼” Spring nuts
4) ¼” x 1 ½” cap head bolts
4) ¼” lock washers
12) ¼” Fender washers
3/8” & 3/16” Allen wrenches
Something to cut uni-strut, I used a Sawzall but I’m sure you could use a hack saw but it may take awhile.
Drill with ¼” drill bit

Carrier modification:
I choose to modify the carriers for more secure mounting, future flexibility and the factory Thule hardware will not fit around the 1 5/8” uni-strut. If you want to use the factory Thule (Plastic) mounting hardware and will not be using the cross bars to support any significant weight in the future you can use the thinner uni-strut and skip this step.
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- Use a drill with a ¼” drill bit to drill out the rivets that mount the hardware to the carrier body. You will need to drill through the center of the rubber gasket to get to the back side of the rivet. The hole in the gasket will be used later to gain access to the head of the mounting bolt if you choose like I did to use the same factory mounting location. WARNING: do not try to remove the rubber gasket to do this. The gasket is crimped in and you will spend more time trying to get the gasket back in then it takes to completely install everything. If you plan to use these carriers on more then one vehicle and don’t want to remove the mounting hardware don’t worry, after drilling out the rivet I noticed that there is a molded space for a ¼” nut. To re-attach the mounting hardware use a ¼” nut and bolt to do so.

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[ja0540]

1. Cut the Uni-strut into two 58” pieces. From the factory cut edge, your cut should end up dead center between two holes. It is important that you have equal spacing from the edge to the hole on each side.
2. Install the 4) ½” spring nuts into the side tracks spaced where you would like the carriers to set.
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3. Hand tighten the ½” x 1 ½” cap head bolts through the hole on the long side of the “L” bracket using a square washer as a spacer between the spring nuts already installed and the “L” bracket. If you do not use the square washer the hole in the brackets will not line up with the holes in the Uni-strut.
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4. Using the precut piece of Uni-strut as a straight edge, set the Uni-strut on top of the brackets on one side of the bed. Adjust the brackets to set flush with the Uni-strut and tighten the bolts securely. Repeat with the other side.
5. Remove the springs from (4) of the ½” spring nuts.
6. Set the Uni-strut across the bed setting on top of the brackets with the flat side down. Use the ½” x 1” cap head bolts and the ½” spring-less spring nuts to secure the Uni-strut to the brackets. The cap head should be on the top side with the spring nut on the bottom.
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[ja0540]

7. Set the carriers on top of the Uni-strut in the position you would like and install the ¼” spring nuts under the mounting holes of the carriers. There are two sets of holes on each side of the carrier you can use either set. I choose to use the inner set for security reasons but they are more difficult to get to.
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8. Install the ¼” cap head bolts with (1) lock washer and (3) fender washers though the mounting hole securing it into the spring nut below. Warning: the aluminum frame of the carrier is very thin. Do not use less then (3) fender washers and do not over tighten the bolts. It will bend the aluminum and could affect the operation of the carrier.
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9. Mount your board or skis to verify the positioning and operation.
10. Double check that all the nuts and bolts are tight.

[ja0540]

Make sure that you do not mount you board to close to the back window because you don’t want your board to rub on the cab or window when the truck frame flexes. Note: Your board or skis will extend past the edge of the tail gate. My board is a 160 so yours will extend more or less depending on the size.
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The uni-strut cross bars are very strong and will support me at 190 lbs. and you can mount the utilitrack tie-downs to the uni-strut for even more flexibility.
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My next project is to figure out how lock down these mounts. As it is now the carriers and cross bars can be removed with a 3/8” Allen wrench. If you have any ideas on this please let me know.

[HarshReality001]

props bro. looks good!

[FrontyCrew61]

looks good.
I might rig up my nerf bars for something like that. and Weld together a bike rack for my tow hitch while im at it.

[andrewgnar]

This is awesome man. I wanted to do something like this for my surfboards. Wish I had utilitrack, would make it a lot easier. Any ideas on how to do this on a 1st gen?

[sledneck]

nicely done

[ja0540]

Thanks Guys,

Andrewgnar I'm not familiar with the first gen so I can't give you any pointers there, but here is a post on how to add a utilitrack system and this should work on any truck. Because the rails are installed only front and back you would just need to change the direction of the crossbars and mount the carriers to both cross members instead of just one each.

http://www.clubfrontier.org/forums/f...nistrut-34948/

[mike]

Nice work. I love it when people come up with different ways to use the utili-track.