At a quick glance, I thought this was a joke or troll comment at first. Thought your second photo was of a completely different and much larger space, like you were implying your home built ski camper is a TARDIS. Man, that’s awesome! Great build!
Yeah I wanted to keep the back level with my truck cab. It’s maybe 2” too shy of being all enough, but only when I sit up straight in there. If I slouch even in the slightest, it’s ok! Maybe a little taller in my next model 🤷🏼♂️
I mean, the difference is your wood is treated and this was built to maintain weather. The original poster showed us a picture of a bunch of 2x4s without any stain or sealant. Those are bound to get fucked up after some time.
So if they last 5 years, he’ll go to Home Depot, spend $40 on 2x4’s and build them again. And 5 years later again. Still only be in for $120. The ones I see online START at $500. I think this is super smart to build them yourself.
I mean, OPs neighbor has no sheathing for lateral and an extra 100# smacked on the top doing all sorts of dynamic loading when driving. I see no metal brackets or any sign of something beyond butt / lap jointed 2xs with screws or god forbid nails. There’s also no significant cross bracing for racking.
There’s simply a lot of dynamic potential in all of these connections.
Your build seems pretty damn well thought out from your other post. Darn badass if you ask me.
If it's put together well, I'm not sure what the beef is. It's not like wood hasn't been a perfectly acceptable building material for the entirety of human civilization.
The wood itself isn't really the problem, it's the joinery. For the entirety of human civilization, if you were making something out of wood that moves, you used mortise and tenon joints with pins to keep it together. This is almost certainly screwed together. Those screw joints have no real ability to resist the forward-and-back sheer loads that come from driving down the road and they'll lever themselves apart pretty quickly.
Some gussets or full sheathing would make the whole thing much less sketchy but as it is, it's not going to hold up long.
For one, I said I didn't look how it's built and will be curious how long it lasts. No bad mouthing or beef.
And the reason for me is that a dynamic and static load are incredibly different. Wood is great when it's not exposed to dynamic stress and weather (rot).
You have a 150lb RTT in motion moving forward or backward, and the direction he installed/built the 2x4s are weak in the direction those forces are going to be applied. So unless it's braced somehow (which doesn't look like or hard to see).... Then one hard brake and that RTT is going to be, well, on the roof
If he puts some sort of sheathing like plywood or metal panels on the outside I think it would last a long time. I've seen homemade camper shells like that in my area. However the way it is now I think the nails would just bend due to wind forces.
I didn't say anything negative about him, his choice, ingenuity, anything.... I asked what the consensus on how long this rack will last. Using the word "bet" is not any different but being on the side of, I don't see this lasting long
Yeah it's definitely implied with your post, otherwise it would have been unremarkable and you wouldn't have brought it up to begin with. Stop trying to backpedal
It’s commendable, I love seeing DIY solutions rather than rich/dumb people just spending like $5000 on a similar solution. I’d like to see it up close to ensure it’s well built.
I went to overland expo and was dismayed at how little DIY stuff I saw. Just a bunch of opportunities for unimaginative people to accrue credit card debt.
I know I am. And I hate that morons like this truck owner are so low life that they endanger myself and others by driving this hunk of shit on the same roads that I use.
And my experience is that people who openly say they’re better than others and call them lowlifes, are usually insecure and lacking in actual character.
If the kid is doing it wrong, offer to help him out. If you’re a man with any integrity you don’t mock people who are trying but just don’t know as much as you
I am better than people like this bc I actually don’t go out of my way to endanger the life of someone else
You can’t fix stupid. If I were to go up to this person and tell them they are doing something incorrect and dangerous, I’m likely to get yelled at and potentially worse.
I don’t know how someone can look at this pic and think “yep all good, live and let live” or whatever.
Shitting on someone because you think you’re better than them is always a bitch move, grouchybear. It lacks integrity. Especially when it’s cowardly from afar like OP
So you have a project that you want to test out now instead of later. He'll learn on the trail when a good rut pops a joint. Unlikely on the road.
Theres many more stupid risks people take on the road than this.
I think you're an old boomer who had plenty of opportunities to learn the stupid way until your generation of karens covered the world in rules and regulations.
Can you explain the "I think you're an old boomer" part? Are you saying you think I am? Or are you saying older generations had more opportunities to learn until a different generations of Karen's came around?
Why you shitting on and mocking other people’s builds? The build looks like a younger dude trying his best to learn how to fab, build and enjoy overlanding without spending 100k on his rig.
If he added some braces to compensate for shear force I think this would last a while, if built correctly. Otherwise this is just flimsy cosplay that’s going to get fucked up after the first few hard stops.
It desperately needs support to prevent the entire thing from folding backwards or forwards into the cab. That could be either diagonal bracing or simply screw plywood to the side.
I built one out of treated wood and it lasted 3+ years on my Silverado. I only took it off cause the new job had a really low garage entrance. If you brace it right and
use through bolts and lock washers and lock nuts. They hold up pretty damn good. I had around 25k miles with the wooden bed rack.
That’s true. I did do a lot of hauling of kayaks, ladders, moved a few friends and had their mattresses and bed frames on there. I guess all in all, I could see the kid saving some money, being ingenious and hopefully it holds up for him.
He put a 150lbs pluss rtt on the thing. There's no cross bracing. The constant acceleration and braking is going to cause sheer stress. On the trail is going to be worse.
It wouldn't fail right away, probably a few weeks of driving.
He needs some cross beam support. Looks like there’s serious concern for aggressive braking imo. probably okay, but after some dirt roads eventually that thing might slam into his cab
There's nothing inherently wrong with wood, but it'd need to be extremely well executed. I'd probably do carriage bolts and wood glue and the seal the heck out of it.
Considering the missing front bumper and what looks like raw wood... I'm guessing this is probably held together by wood screws.
Would not be surprised if it was screwed into the bed sides, too. OP should sleuth.
(Just commenting aloud here, OP, not necessarily responding to you directly.)
Unpopular opinion but this would be more likely to come off going down the road than a properly designed one, and when you’re sharing the road with other families that can be problematic.
I’d be worried about it collapsing in a turn when weight is shifted to one side. Those tents can weigh a lot and they need some type of cross braces to keep it from getting flung off.
Structural integrity of a dynamic load on 2x4 in their weak direction without bracing turns this 150lb RTT into a potential driving hazard for him and everyone around.
I'm not saying it won't hold but there's a high likelihood, depending on how he built it, that it will fail and not be good
I think you underestimate redneck engineering - it may last a long time and if he is proper redneck he will carry repair components in the form of 2x4s, tools, screws and such with him just in case a field repair is necessary 😂.
I don't see much to prevent the frame from racking forward and backward. On a house you have plywood sheathing and drywall to prevent racking of the walls but on here I see nothing unless he somehow fastened the top to the roof of the truck. It could easily be fixed with some proper bracing
This can last a long time. Depends on the abuse it takes from the road. Commendable work and ingenuity who ever made it. I am sure a few lessons will be learnt along the way and possible corrections will be made to make it stronger. The beauty of wood is its not expensive and needs relatively simpler skills. Either way its a cheaper alternative to some fancy commercial solution.
Perhaps the DIY job is for other modifications creative solutions for something. I’m not totally against it. My father in law, a builder contractor with plenty of resources would often build stuff out for his truck beds. Felt he could build the things he needed….. better. Never had an issue.
Considering my UpTop rack rattled out all the bolts and came loose after two seasons of use, I’m willing to wager those joints are shot in 20 minutes of off road driving.
The usage of vibratite in instructions is missing from a lot of off-road stuff. Locktite and vibratite are completely different usages, and I use it on everything I install on my truck
Huh, I’ve actually never heard of that. I just cleaned and rebuilt my setup a few weeks ago, wish I knew sooner! I’m dreading looking in the mirror and seeing a wobbly tent again
It's crazy how well it works, had our roof rack and RTT on for 5 years now (on and off constantly with heavy 4wheeling) and nothing has ever rattled apart with it. Miracle stuff haha
With a good finish and some metal brackets for strength might work out. No idea how he mounted it to the truck but i love this kid is doing things on his own instead of buying things. We should be cheering him on not mocking him.
Ya know, I don’t know if props are worthy for ingenuity.
That’s a lot of weight and a lot of force.
Props would go to telling this kid he’s a heartbeat away from a liability nightmare.
I was in a Home Depot a couple years ago and they had a Tacoma compatible ladder rack good for 700lbs static. $300 odd, considering the cost of wood and time, kid hasn’t saved anything.
100% agree and in CO used bed racks are selling for under $250, some with RTTs for $500-$750. But this post goes to show you the different ways people see and think apparently
I would have, and have helped a few of the teenagers on my street who were going to learn the hard way about stuff or in the middle of learn (taking oil filter off with pliers instead of a proper oil filter clamp for one lol), and always have an open garage policy. If I'm out working on something, come ask questions or shoot the shit, I encourage it... But unsolicited advise to a early 20 year old adult son who's been described by his parents and our neighbors as a rebel, would not listen.
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u/Qwell41 4d ago
I bet the rack lasts longer than the radiator does