Headache Rack

[SOLER]

I finally got my headache rack finished (almost). I built it months ago. This past week I put the finishing touches oin it and got it painted.



I made it with louvers, and the center cut-out for my electric slider. I have red led's and white 6" ovals that are in-line with the third brake lite. I also have some tractor lights up there to light up the rear (can't ever see at night through the tinted rear window). I'm still hooking up all the lights (the reverse circuit is giving me a headache--maybe that's why they call them that LOL ). As soon as I get it all hooked up I'll get the pics on here. BTW, it's black to match the truck with SS parts to trim it out, such as the flange to mount the led's, and it will have SS grab handels.



I'm still thinking how to mount the CB antennae up there. I want to be able to swivel them back to park in the garage. Anyone got ideas?



SOLER

 

[BarryG]

When I mounted my headache rack I also had problems with the reverse circuit. Seems everyway I hooked it up it would roast the fuse, even using a relay. I finally gave up at least for then by just wiring it up to a switch and no problem at all. I now have to turn on the switch when I want to use the reverse lights on the rack but better than nothing and I can also use them for cargo/work lights. The reverse circuit seems to be pretty marginal to begin with. That or I couldnt wire my way out of a wet paper bag which is entirely possible. Will give it another try sometime when I feel that I need to have a pita.

 

[rmcnamee]

Need some pics!!!



How do you want to run the reverse lights? I have reverse lights on my headache rack and under my rear bumper. I have them wired for 3 modes: off, manually activated & activated automatically by the stock reverse lights. Never had a problem with this set-up.



Ryan

 

[BarryG]

Ryan:

I will gladly take pics of a schematic for that setup. That is exactly what I was trying to do. I also have lights under the rear bumper. The bumper ones worked before(and still do, but they just come on when in reverse) but when adding the rack lights and converting to a switched setup it would toast the fuse. I obviously had some wire crossed somewhere but I'll admit I quit when I ran out of fuses and it was too late to get more to keep trying and I needed to go on a road trip the next day. Just never have got back to figuring it out since then.

 

[SOLER]

Same prob

I had the exact same prob today. I thought I had the reverse circuit figured out, and I did. So I started hooking it all up, and kept blowing fuses. Here's the short rundown:



1. First had to figure out how to make the reverse circuit work. I spliced into the reverse wire, and ran it to the switched part of the relay. Then, the acc part the relay went to the battery side of the switch. The acc part of the switch went to the lights. This worked.



2. I used a second relay and switch for the regular on/off circuit, so I can turn the lights on whenever. This worked. But when I hooked both circuits up, this is when I had problems. I could put truck in reverse, and flip rev switch, and lights came on. No problemo. Turn them off, out of reverse, and flip other switch. I blew about 15 fuses trying to figure this one out. I didn't have any shorts. And I ran every wire separate except for the actual wire going back to the lights. Reverse circuit has its own fuse, switch, and relay, as does the manual circuit.



3. If I unhooked the reverse circuit, the manual circuit works fine.



4. Removed all of the reverse circuit wires and everything, and now it's just like my last truck. I have to turn on the lights on and off manually whenever I want them, even for reverse. I guess I'll have to put lamps under the bumper and use them for reverse only.



rmcnamee, I would love some pics or instructions to fix my problem.



Pics are on the way!!



SOLER

 

[SOLER]

Pics

Here are some pics of the rack. All homemade, and painted on my back patio! The white reverse lights (the 6"ovals) will soon be replaced by white LEDs. The red ones are tail, turn, and stop lights



The tractor lights have a trapezoid pattern. I'm excited to see how they do tonight.

 

[bmoeller]

COOL! That rack looks great!



Hope you get the lights wired like you want. I'm thinking of doing the same with a 3 pos. switch/relays like you've tried.

 

[SOLER]

I also made the bed rail covers out of 3x5x 1/4" angle. The rack is mounted to the rail covers, and They also accomodate my toolbox. I need to get it on there next.



The rack frame was made with 1x2" tubing, and the louvers were 3/16"x2" flat steel. I used a torch to bend the tubing. Would do it different next time. Either not bend them, or else have them rolled at a fab shop. If anyone is interested, I can do another. They aren't cheap once you start adding LED lights and such.



SOLER

 

[rmcnamee]

O. K... ... as always with electrical stuff- WIRE AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!



Attached are 2 drawings of how my auxillary lights are wired up. Now you'll need to figure out what size fuses and wire to use. Depending on which position the switch is in, this set-up will allow you to have the following conditions:



1. Manually activate the aux. lights and not the factory reverse lights

2. Have the aux. lights automatically come on with the factory reverse lights

3. Have the aux. lights off completely



If you have any questions, please let me know.

 

[Spooled-up]

Nice looking rack! It looks like one of the ones you can buy from any of the websites I've seen. What kind of fabrication skills do you have??

 

[SOLER]

Nice looking rack! It looks like one of the ones you can buy from any of the websites I've seen. What kind of fabrication skills do you have??

Thanks.



I have built two trailers in the last year. One 6x12 flatbed "landscaping" trailer, used to haul dirtbikes, and a 7x14 enclosed, used to store said dirtbikes. I just got the 7x14 finished, and am selling it. I'll have it in the classifieds soon.



I guess my fab skills are basic, or at least my capabilities are, mostly because I don't have all the fancy tools. I have a mig welder, a small oxy-acetaline torch, a chop saw, and a grinder. Sheet metal is the hardest part for my as I don't have the right equipment, and the enclosed trailer was a bear. But angle and tubing are fun to work with, as long as there isn't much bending involved. As I said earlier, if I did another rack, I'd have a shop bend it for me.



I think my next project is going to be a motorcycle carrier for my reciever hitch. I need something to carry my cruiser on the back of my 5er. I've thought about attaching a caster wheel on the bottom with a spring, so it's not really a trailer, but has extra support so 600 lbs aren't all on the hitch, and lightening my pin weight on the fiver. But, I still need to figure this wiring diagram, curtesy of rmcnamee. And then I've got to get my cb sticks up there. As I mentioned earlier, they are going to be hinged so they can roll back horizontally to park the truck in a garage. I've thought about using an electric motor. That way, I can still go thru the drive-thru



SOLER

 

[bmoeller]

And then I've got to get my cb sticks up there. As I mentioned earlier, they are going to be hinged so they can roll back horizontally to park the truck in a garage.

http://www.walcottcb.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=29_59_112&osCsid=483b705c1a2cc34bb87e1e46a3f92417

 

[BarryG]

Soler:

That is a nice looking rack and your wiring experience mirrors mine. Thought I had it right too but something wasnt right obviously.



Rmcnamee:

Thanks for the pic. I will have to dig the one I drew and see what is different. Thanks again for the pic.

 

[XcumminsX]

Awesome job. Im going to be making my own asap. I am just getting into welding, i just picked up an old arc welder we had laying around

 

[tcoombs]

Nice Rack.....

Sweet job.



As for the wiring, I can tell you that I have a similar setup to rmcnamee's. However, I would still blow the fuse occasionally, and the reverse switch (on the transmission) at least once. I found a relay socket on www.partsexpress.com, that has a diode in it. I think the back-current was killing the fuse and the switch. www.the12volt.com also has some pretty good diagrams. I'll try to verify my diagram (with the diode) when I get home tonight.

 

[SOLER]

Thanks

bmoeller, thanks. Those are some pretty nifty doo-dads. The only thing is, I want dual whips, and want to just turn one and they both move. I'll have to see if I can fab something using one of these.



Thanks for all the comments, y'all. I just finished everything tonight. The wiring was pretty ugly. I cleaned it up tonight. I used an LED switch, and mounted it where I could see it (I think I was driving last night with the big lights on--OOPS :-laf ) Plus, I used a four wire flat connection at the corner of the cab-bed-headache rack. It worked great, except I have 6 wires (right turn, left turn, tail, reverse, brights, and ground) I had the four wires okay, but I had the rev and brights, plus an extra ground, and I used those Posi-Lock connectors. I really like those, but all of that together made for UUUgly. I found a 6-wire square plug today at Autozone. Badda boom badda bang!!! Exactly what I needed. So, I Soldered it all back up, and it is very clean By the way, I never was much good at soldering, but I've had lots of practice the last couple of days I'm much better at it now. Plus, I used shrink tube everywhere. Clean wiring!



I'm going to check out some of these websites and see if there is something I can use--maybe a better switch (3-way) and probably not use the relays. I'm using 20-amp switches, so I don't think I even need the relays to begin with. What do y'all think?



SOLER

 

[SOLER]

New switch

I spoke with my dad about my wiring woes. He couldn't figure out why I needed two switches. He suggested one switch, like the diagram from rmcnamee. He also didn't know why I needed the relays. Well, first of all, I couldn't find a SPDT 12 V switch, and was uncertain of using those rated for 125 VAC. I also wanted to use switches that had lights in them. Second, I was originally going to use some switches that were only rated for 2-5 amps. Not enough for this setup.



I found a 12 V SPDT switch, and am going to use 1/2" indicator lights--Blue for manual ("B" for Back OFF!), and Red, or "R" for Reverse.



It's dark now, so I'll be doing this tomorrow and let y'all know what happens.



SOLER

 

[JHardwick]

Awesome job. Im going to be making my own asap. I am just getting into welding, i just picked up an old arc welder we had laying around

LOL, I can't resist this, hehe.



I don't search you out to bash you, in fact I've stayed away from it knowing your family owns a machine shop and so do I. But, I'm thinking you better finish the Ti ring and pinion set and injectors first ... ... ... ... ... ... . actually, you'd be better off starting here first :-laf



My skills slant more toward machining, but thats a good looking rack SOLER!

 

[SOLER]

My skills slant more toward machining, but thats a good looking rack SOLER!

Thanks



SOLER

 

[Eric Lee]

Nice - This is exactly why I follow TDR -



I have two 4"? rubber housing 'tractor' lights mounted to the end plates on my hitch. I want to redo that wiring soon and you gave me just what I needed. I really like the three way switch, and of course the heads up on common issues that can spoil 'turn the key' time.



For those of you that don't have aux back ups, they are nice to have -