Took a whack at a DIY bicycle rack

[ChrisM]

I put my Thule rack on my RL a total of one time and decided I didn't want it up there but I need a bike rack so that me and Jr. and the Misses can do some bike riding away from the neighborhood.

My son rides in a little bike trailer or in a baby bike seat which fits under my tonneau just fine but I needed something for our bikes. I don't feel like pulling off my tonneau everytime I want to take my bike somewhere so here is my solution.

I bought a Thule roof rack from Goodwill a couple of years ago. I have only had it on the RL once because it is too much to put up there and take down and frankly I'm not a fan of roof racks anyways. I also had a $30 bed extender (the other kind for wood that hangs over your tail gate) sitting in the corner which I have only used once. I also had some steel stock sitting in another corner of the garage. (Yes, I have a lot of crap sitting in corners. If there were any more crap in the corners, my garage would be round.

Anyways, I was cleaning out the garage to make it rectangular again and was throwing a bunch of crap away. I was going to get rid of the stock and the bed extender and thought perhaps I could make something out of them along with the Thule rails.

Here is the result. The only thing that I spent money on to put this together is on titanium drill bits and some stainless bolts. The rack is strong enough to park a motorcycle on . The whole project was less than $30 for what I ended up spending outside of what I already had sitting around.

[ChrisM]

PS. The part of the rack that fits in the reciever for the hitch is long enough that you can slide it out and put down the tailgate without removing the rack or the bikes. If the bikes are removed, you can open the tailgate either way without removing the rack.

The whole thing can be removed from the truck in less than 3 minutes which includes the time it takes to remove the bikes from the rack.

[shovelhd]

Very nicely done.

[RidgeLI]

Great work!

RidgeLI

[CUinaRidge]

Mod Number ???

and wasn't Chris talking he almost done modding??

yep good job Chris!

[Pug]

Niiiiiiiice! Gotta love a great DIY project that finds uses for "corner crap"!

After seeing it on your truck, there'll probably be a bunch of people searching for the Thule rack, not realizing it's a DIY adaptation of the roofrack.

Any "wobble" or "twist" in the receiver?

Happy biking!

[ChrisM]

Originally Posted by Pug

Any "wobble" or "twist" in the receiver?

Happy biking!

There is a little. I'm working on that. I think I have figured out a way to pretty much eliminate it.