Buying a factory-made canoe and kayak rack for a pickup can thin a bank account in a hurry.
Invest a free Saturday and it's easy to build your own rack that slides easily into a truck bed. The $50 to $80 cost is hundreds less than a factory rack and it's a cinch to build.
I wasn't blessed with the handyman gene, but I easily built my new wood canoe and kayak rack in about six hours. The only tools needed were simple hand tools, a circular saw and a drill.
The rectangular base of the rack is put together first using 2-by-6 boards. Everything above the base is 2-by-4 lumber, except the two side pieces which are 1-by-6. I used untreated lumber and painted the rack flat black to compliment my silver Dodge Dakota pickup.
At about 70 pounds, it's light enough for one person to carry and load into the bed between the wheel wells. It's secured to the truck bed with ratchet straps at the front and rear of the rack. Hooks of the ratchet straps attach to tie-down brackets on the bottom corners of the truck bed.
Looking at the photos here ought to give a builder an idea on how to build a rack to fit his own truck. I built the base so the long pieces fit snug against the front of the bed and the closed tailgate and wide enough so it fits like a glove between the wheels.
You'll want to build your rack tall enough so you don't thump your head on it every time you turn around. I'm about 5 feet 7 inches short and the top of the rack is about 6 feet, 2 inches off the ground. Tall folks may want to add a few inches of height.
The new rack replaces the first one I built 10 years ago. That one lasted through a decade of hard use on rough roads, like the one that goes to Kyle's Landing on the Buffalo River. The joke is the Ponca to Kyle's float is a Class II run with a Class IV shuttle.
So I built the new rack just like the first, but with some improvements. A carpenter friend suggested I use bigger nuts, bolts and washers to fasten the four upright pieces to the base, and use Gorilla Glue between the boards for good measure. I used two hex bolts, one-half-inch diameter, nuts and big washers to attach each upright to the base. Globs of glue went where the upright meets the base.
Friends and neighbors, the new rack is rock solid. It doesn't wiggle or sway a millimeter, even with a canoe strapped to the top.
I learned the hard way that you need to secure the front and back of the rack to the bed with ratchet straps. When I built that first rack, I only used a strap in front. One day I had my canoe loaded on the rack and ran over a curb. The back of the rack flew up in the air like the rear of a bucking horse. My canoe hit the windshield and put a big crack in the glass.
I spent about $50 building this new rack, but I had some 2-by-6 lumber left over from another project. It took about a quart and a half to paint it, two coats on most of the rack.
For a guy lacking that handyman gene, I'm pleased as punch with how it turned out.
Flip Putthoff can be reached at [email protected]
Sports on 07/10/2018