- Thread starter
- #1
Occasionally I have a need to carry longer items, wood, steel, ladders, but have no desire to have items sticking out the back. A simple front of the bed rack allows one to prop long things over the cab with the bottom into the bed/tailgate. However I wasn't able to see anything specific to the Maverick that didn't involve either drilling holes through the side rails or clamping to the rails.
The XLT and Lariat have bed tie down rings at the front as well as the upper and lower side tie downs, front and rear. My goal was to fabricate a rack that could be easily installed and removed using those existing mounting spots. A "no drill, no clamp" alternative.
I had quite a bit of 1" square steel tube already on hand, so used that. For someone with a proper tubing bender, using round tube would work better for the front rack. After completing the front rack I saw how easy if would be to also make a rear rack from the same square tubing, and how that square tube perfectly fits the vertical notch at the rear of the bed. Very easy. I'm just an amateur welder, but I think these turned out quite well, and despite the appearance of being small, each will easily support more than 200 pounds and are very stiff fore and aft.
I can remove the 8 tie downs and install the 2 racks in less than 15 minutes. Removal is even faster. I did find that all of the tie down threaded holes benefited from using a tap to clean the threads, even though they all had the factory installed machine screws. 8mm x 1.25 tap for the floor D rings and 6mm for the side tie downs. Longer 6mm screws were required for the rear rack installation.
I think a good commercial fabricator could easily make these with a proper jig, or combine them into a complete over the cab ladder rack.
My first post. Cheers.
The XLT and Lariat have bed tie down rings at the front as well as the upper and lower side tie downs, front and rear. My goal was to fabricate a rack that could be easily installed and removed using those existing mounting spots. A "no drill, no clamp" alternative.
I had quite a bit of 1" square steel tube already on hand, so used that. For someone with a proper tubing bender, using round tube would work better for the front rack. After completing the front rack I saw how easy if would be to also make a rear rack from the same square tubing, and how that square tube perfectly fits the vertical notch at the rear of the bed. Very easy. I'm just an amateur welder, but I think these turned out quite well, and despite the appearance of being small, each will easily support more than 200 pounds and are very stiff fore and aft.
I can remove the 8 tie downs and install the 2 racks in less than 15 minutes. Removal is even faster. I did find that all of the tie down threaded holes benefited from using a tap to clean the threads, even though they all had the factory installed machine screws. 8mm x 1.25 tap for the floor D rings and 6mm for the side tie downs. Longer 6mm screws were required for the rear rack installation.
I think a good commercial fabricator could easily make these with a proper jig, or combine them into a complete over the cab ladder rack.
My first post. Cheers.
Sponsored
Last edited:
Please just shoot me! Cutting, shaping, and welding all 24 mounting tabs took forever. Then there was the "precision" (sorta) machining so the holes line up. By the time I got to the upper gussets on the uprights, I was so burned out on attempting pretty welds I no longer gave a damn (and it shows!). I bolted the cross members instead of welding to avert alignment issues from my personal demon: thermal distortion. 
