A Rack for my 101A2

[Mark Harley]

I started to fab a rack for my M101A2 army trailer.
1" x 2" tubing 30" high off the tub with seven foot cross bars.
I ordered custom cut gussets with three holes to weld in the corners. End caps with tie down holes and a coat of gloss black and it will be ready for kayaks, or a RTT.

 

[Michigan4x4]

Looks good Mark!

 

[CaracasFzj80]

Nice work ! Wich size is that black cover ?

 

[Mark Harley]

This is the final result.
I welded the Gussets in the corners and painted the whole assembly black.
Bolted back on it looks good, and does not vibrate or shate even at 80 mph.

The tarp is a vinyl model " machine cover from

http://www.mytarp.com/machine-covers.aspx

I measured the tub length and width and how much side drop I wanted.
Called them and It was less than $100.00 shipped with gromets
It fits great and keeps all my gear dry.

At first I had rope to lash it to the hold downs but then went with black bungie rope and end hooks from ebay. So much easier on and off and accessable in the corners too. The bungie holds the cover down tight even on the highway.

 

[The Jade Bean]

Looks good! I'm wanting to do something like the bars on our trailer to go over the RTT so we can haul the canoe, etc. I need ours to be aluminum for weight and removable to we can use the RTT when we get to the camp site. Thanks for the inspiration!

-Daniel

 

[ntsqd]

From previous research on a project similar to this, aluminum of the same or nearly the same dimension as steel tube but of the necessary wall thickness for the load(s), won't save you significant weight except in the wallet. To save weight with aluminum you have to go to considerably larger tube dims so that a much thinner wall can save you the weight. With that much thinner wall comes the need for thoroughly thought out mounting methods that distribute the loads over a large area of tubing.

I think that you'd be surprised at what thin wall steel tube can do and how little it can weigh. A little Static and stress analysis (approximate dynamic loads by factoring the static load by 3) can save a lot of weight in steel and very likely will put you in your target weight zone.

 

[The Jade Bean]

Well hmmmm... Thanks for sharing that! I'll look into it...

-Daniel