NTXrptr
Member
I ‘d been looking around for a chase rack for a while, but I wasn’t satisfied with what I had found. With TRR fast approaching and being that metal work is not my area of expertise I did some brainstorming with my buddy who’s done a lot of custom car work and came up with a game plan. The challenge was that the run was a week and a half away when we decided to start building. 
The things I wanted the rack to carry were as follows:
- Hold up to 2 spare tires, but run a single most of the time
- Tool box
- 2, 5-gallon fuel jugs
- Hi-lift
- Fire extinguisher
- Be able to add a second tier above the tool box
The rack it self is made of 1-7/8”, schedule 40 tubing. Which we figured would be plenty strong. It is pinned in to the cups with some quick release pins from Lowes, similar to those used on the Outlaw rack.
I liked the concept that Outlaw came up with on their alpha rack, but I wanted to be able to adjust the rack in the bed as well as coat the entire rack with either line-x or powder coat. For the ‘cups’ we used 2-inch tube and welded in flat stock to form a flat bottom, then upsized the center hole to be able to use the bed bolts.
Once the outer frame was done we built the inner supports for the tires and tool box.
Below is a photo of the inner support structure. The two top horizontal tubes have a 45 degree bend in them to give a little more vertical area for more space below the top tubes for tool boxes or other equipment.
To help capture the fuel jugs we built a tray with 1”x1” angle iron and some expanded steel. We then tapped the rack so that the tray is held down with four allen bolts. These were used so that we could get a wrench on them as well as get them close to the radius of the angles. That way we reduce our impact to the available area for the jugs.
In the center section we built a three-sided rail system for the toolbox to slide in to using the same angle iron. This is also held in with four of the same allen bolts used for the fuel jug tray.
We then painted everything flat black with some Krylon.
We installed it in to the truck, mounted everything and also added the Hi-lift branded tube mount to the front top horizontal tube Wednesday night before packing to head out to Blackwell. Which is why the pic below is so dark.
I was going to post this before TRR but being that we finished the last coat of paint and loaded it in to the truck Wednesday at around 8pm, I just ran out of time. Plus it gave me a chance to really test it before doing a write up.
I was very pleased with how it performed. As seen in the ‘proof of life’ photo in the next post after TRR.
The only thing I really had issue with was the fuel jug tray sustained some damage to the expanded metal when I was running just one jug and the jug fell over. We have plans to build a little more support in to that. I’ll also weld in some additional tie down locations.
The things I wanted the rack to carry were as follows:
- Hold up to 2 spare tires, but run a single most of the time
- Tool box
- 2, 5-gallon fuel jugs
- Hi-lift
- Fire extinguisher
- Be able to add a second tier above the tool box
The rack it self is made of 1-7/8”, schedule 40 tubing. Which we figured would be plenty strong. It is pinned in to the cups with some quick release pins from Lowes, similar to those used on the Outlaw rack.
I liked the concept that Outlaw came up with on their alpha rack, but I wanted to be able to adjust the rack in the bed as well as coat the entire rack with either line-x or powder coat. For the ‘cups’ we used 2-inch tube and welded in flat stock to form a flat bottom, then upsized the center hole to be able to use the bed bolts.
Once the outer frame was done we built the inner supports for the tires and tool box.
Below is a photo of the inner support structure. The two top horizontal tubes have a 45 degree bend in them to give a little more vertical area for more space below the top tubes for tool boxes or other equipment.
To help capture the fuel jugs we built a tray with 1”x1” angle iron and some expanded steel. We then tapped the rack so that the tray is held down with four allen bolts. These were used so that we could get a wrench on them as well as get them close to the radius of the angles. That way we reduce our impact to the available area for the jugs.
In the center section we built a three-sided rail system for the toolbox to slide in to using the same angle iron. This is also held in with four of the same allen bolts used for the fuel jug tray.
We then painted everything flat black with some Krylon.
We installed it in to the truck, mounted everything and also added the Hi-lift branded tube mount to the front top horizontal tube Wednesday night before packing to head out to Blackwell. Which is why the pic below is so dark.
I was going to post this before TRR but being that we finished the last coat of paint and loaded it in to the truck Wednesday at around 8pm, I just ran out of time. Plus it gave me a chance to really test it before doing a write up.
I was very pleased with how it performed. As seen in the ‘proof of life’ photo in the next post after TRR.
The only thing I really had issue with was the fuel jug tray sustained some damage to the expanded metal when I was running just one jug and the jug fell over. We have plans to build a little more support in to that. I’ll also weld in some additional tie down locations.
