Home made topper cross bars. Plus trucks stuff!

[Maverickman74]

Got off work early today, which is extremely rare, so I decided to do a couple lil projects on the Tremor. We are taking some visiting friends out to Hana tomorrow so it is time to get the old fridge running in the truck. Sure I can run the AC cord from the backseat but I had a marine 12v plug laying around for a while so I installed it on the driver's side 12v flex bed connection. I just shaved the backside of the plastic cover and drilled a hole in it. The nice thing about those pigtails is that you can go under the bumper unplug it and pull it out so you can work on your wiring without fiddling about in the hole.

The other project I did was much more involved but only too about 3 hours total and a hour of that was cleaning the scrap metal. So I have a bunch of nice (and some mangled) aluminum from a bridge that got destroyed by a flood. These pieces are some of many that made up the driving surface of the bridge. I love em they are beefy and a great for all kind of projects. All I had to do was chop a couple inches off the ends. Then drill out 8 mounting holes and 4 ratchet strap holes. It also happened to have 6 holes drilled and tapped and equalled out centered so I can mount some lights on it eventually. I didn't have any of the fancy T bolts that the ARE MX topper tracks are made to work with. So I took some 5/16ths bolts and shaved down some washers to fit the slots. I also had to taper the bolt heads to fit as well. Admittedly I do still have a bit of work to do on it. I want to make some composite wedged seats so it sits a little flatter on the rails. Also when I do that I will shave down one rail on each cross bar to account for the taper of the roofline. Whenever I get to that I will shorten the mounting bolts(or buy Tbolts) and drill more holes for straps to hook to. Since I used a bolt and washer combo I had to remove a few of the mounting bolts for the rails. Easy enough and the seal went back on nice.

Well for now we can haul longer items like 12ft boards or our tailgate umbrella or whatever we need and still be able to take the dogs with us.

Update. Also wanted to include a photo my wife sent last night of what is typical of my wife to be hauling on a weekly basis. She is building a wheelchair ramp for someone she built a house for 10 years or so ago. Not that we are going to load the topper up real heavy but it will be nice to toss long stuff up there. Eventually we plan on adding a Yakima roof crossbar to match the height.

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[Hot Runr Guy]

Well done! HRG

 

[Maverickman74]

Well done! HRG

Thanks. They will come in handy.

 

[Tree Soloist]

Hey @Maverickman74 , do you happen to remember the distance between the roof tracks?

 

[Maverickman74]

Hey @Maverickman74 , do you happen to remember the distance between the roof tracks?

At the rear end it is 36.75" at the center of the track. It may be slightly different at the front. The roof of the topper isnt a true square. Its crazy wind and rain out there right now so I only measured the rear but I would be suprised if it varied more than an inch going towards the front.

Rails have worked out great. I did order some proper T bolts for them and I have a plan to shave them so they are perfectly level, aswell as add a dedicated in-channel ratchet strap, 360 degree lighting, and a little aero trimming. But I have loaded plenty up there without issue. I think I have gone up to around 125lbs of lumber.

I am also thinking about a way to make a aluminum basket/tray to sit low in the middle for small akward stuff.

 

[Tree Soloist]

At the rear end it is 36.75" at the center of the track. It may be slightly different at the front. The roof of the topper isnt a true square. Its crazy wind and rain out there right now so I only measured the rear but I would be suprised if it varied more than an inch going towards the front.

Rails have worked out great. I did order some proper T bolts for them and I have a plan to shave them so they are perfectly level, aswell as add a dedicated in-channel ratchet strap, 360 degree lighting, and a little aero trimming. But I have loaded plenty up there without issue. I think I have gone up to around 125lbs of lumber.

I am also thinking about a way to make a aluminum basket/tray to sit low in the middle for small akward stuff.

Thanks a bunch! I'm planning to DIY a rack as well, for some solar panels.

 

[Maverickman74]

Thanks a bunch! I'm planning to DIY a rack as well, for some solar panels.

Yep I want to run a 50 watt panel between them. So I can wire that up to a small hybrid controller/inverter. Or one of those battery in a box setups. I actually. There is a lot happening with batteries right now. I'm hoping in a year or 2 something will come out that is compact, fairly light and contains everything in a low profile water resistant package that could be mounted in the bedside area. Maybe in place of one of the cubbies with a splash proof door for the outlets/ controls. I also have been trying to figure out how to get wires into the topper without compromising its water resistance and still look clean. I have some lights picked out a 12 inch single row spot light for the front face of my bar and a 7 inch flood for the back of the rear bar and possibly some small 2 led lights for the sides of each bar. I just haven't ordered them yet because I haven't figured out how to get the wiring out and up there.

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