Ladder Rack?

[jdkenyon]

My wife and I are about to buy a canoe. I need to find a way to carry this thing around. I could leave it hanging out the back but that just doesn't seem like a safe idea to me so I was thinking of buying a ladder rack. Don't need anything fancy($$$) or too heavy duty. I was hoping to find one that will just sit in the stake pockets so nothing permanent has to be done to the truck. Does anyone have a suggestion on where to find such a beast and how much it might cost?

 

[shendren]

i had a custom one made for mine. i haul appliances. i had it go straight up from behind the cab to about 3 inches higher than the cab. i had i made from welded steel tube. cost was $225. well worth the money. doesn't rattle and is nice and heavy duty. good luck. scott,.

 

[Rob Thomas]

jdkenyon,



I have a set up to haul my kayak's,I made it out of 1" square tube, it's two piece,one in the front and one in the back,it weighs about 5lbs a peice. If you have acess to a welder you can make them in about 1/2 hour,plus paint drying time. Total cost about $15 !Click on my links below, I have a pic in my gallery with it installed, although it is a distant pic you'll get the idea. One more thing I can install and remove in less that 3 min.



Rob

 

[Deezul1]

If you look at used ones remember that the rear of our beds are narrower than the front by about 1 1/2". Dumb idea DC

 

[merryman]

A caution on racks that simply sit in the stake pockets without being otherwise attached. I had such a rack on a former truck and it fit very tightly; you had to actuallty force the "legs" further apart to get them into the stake pockets. While driving the truck at night my son failed to see a large hole in the road. When the truck bounced due to the hole the rack came out of the pockets on that side of the truck and did nasty things to the side of the box.



Vaughn

 

[Bigsaint]

The nicest one I have ever seen sits on the bed of Eshaw's rig. He made it himself, which doesn't help ya much, but maybe Eric has a set of plans that he can forward.



Scott W.

 

[pwknapp]

For my canoeing days I just put a nice headache rack on and left the back end on the tail gate. JM . 02

 

[jdkenyon]

Thanks for the suggestions. I think I might attempt to build something similar to what RAMTHIS1 said. Even with my not so great welding skills it should still be strong enough.



Josh

 

[Rob Thomas]

Josh,



Yea, it works real well ,I didn't have the stake pockets in my bed caps, so I made my own pockets for it to fit in,you'll be able to use your stake pockets,which will be alot nicer, and simpler.



Good Luck, Rob