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Truck bed skewers? How to install or where to?
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Truck bed skewers? How to install or where to?
"Preston Crawford" wrote in message ... Also, a little more detail. The other reason for the question is that we're planning on doing a spray-in bedliner. So I guess we need to know before doing that what's the best way to go. One suggestion I've read via Google is to use the bolt holes meant for a utility box to attack pieces of wood to which you can then attach the skewers. This might change how we approach the bedliner. So that's why we need to get this figured out soon. Preston What I did was build a ladder type rack thing, that has verticle 2x6's to hold the back wheels. Slots into the slots on the plastic bedliner. It also holds the big hard plastic locking box from *Mart. Scrap 2x4 & 2x6 was basically zero $$. No skewers, no removing the wheels. Which sprayin liner are you going with? I've seen good reports from http://www.combatcoatings.com/, as well as Rhino liners. If nothing else....bolt some standoff front axles to the top of the bed front. Personally....a truck and having to remove wheels to transport bikes is a serious disconnect.. Pete |
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Truck bed skewers? How to install or where to?
On Wed, 30 Jul 2003 00:15:39 GMT, Pete wrote:
Personally....a truck and having to remove wheels to transport bikes is a serious disconnect.. Hell, I thought I was crazy for having that same thought. Why buy a truck if you're going to have to still disassemble your bike to drive it somewhere? Me, I have TracRacs, and I do a few different things: 1. I stand the bike sideways, so each wheel touches one side of the bed. I've got the optional cargo fence, which wedges the wheels right against the front of the wheelwells of the truck; the bike pretty much stands on it's own at that point. I then add a single strap from the stem to one of the racks. I'll take a photo if anybody cares. 2. I stand the bike in line with the truck, lean the saddle against the rear rack, and strap the saddle to the rack. This keeps the bike _very_ secure, and it doesn't scratch the paint. 3. No racks required: Stand the bike up, and strap from top tube to each side of the bed [most beds have some sort of hook for straps]. 4. No racks required, easier and quicker, but may scratch the seatstays and fork: Stand bike near side, lean it against side, and run a strap from front of bed to back of bed along side to keep bike in place. This is very quick and avoids damaging the bar tape the way that just throwing the bike in does. For my mountain bike, I just lay the damn thing in. It spends enough time scraping trees and rocks, what difference will a plastic bedliner do... Pete -- Rick Onanian |
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Truck bed skewers? How to install or where to?
Preston Crawford wrote:
Well, the thing is, I don't want to fill the bed up necessarily with much of a framework to hold the bikes. Mainly because we'll be using the truck for other things, I'm sure. So the reason the skewers seem to make sense to me is because it isn't THAT much of a hassle to remove the wheels and then you only have a small footprint that's affected by the change. My brother has a pair of skewer mounts on the top rail of the truck bed. I think it is a type that has a bolt to clamp it to the rail, so it can be removed when not needed. The bikes go in the bed sideways and mountain bikes fit with room to spare. His setup works very well, but he's got a full sized F-150, and I'm not certain your Ranger has enough bed width for a sideways installation. My truck has a cap so I just throw bikes in with no attachment. Can get a bit messy untangling them if there's more than three though. Preston with a pickup truck??!!! You surprise me! SMH |
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Truck bed skewers? How to install or where to?
"Rick Onanian" wrote in message news On Wed, 30 Jul 2003 00:15:39 GMT, Pete wrote: Personally....a truck and having to remove wheels to transport bikes is a serious disconnect.. Hell, I thought I was crazy for having that same thought. Before I built the rack thingy, I'd just lean it against the side of the bed and bungee it to the side. Or, crosswise right behind the cab. Pete |
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Truck bed skewers? How to install or where to?
Preston Crawford wrote:
My wife and I traded purchased a ligh pickup this weekend. A Ranger. My wife is going nuts, doing long bike rides and triathalons and we figured this would fit us well as a way to easily get the bikes to and from where she needs to go. However, what I can't figure out is what is the best way to put in skewers to hold the bikes. Some people apparantly wedge in a 2 x 4 and attach the skewers to that. Some people attach the skewers directly to the bed. Anyone have any knowledge of this and have an opinion? Preston If you are going to attach the skewers directly to the truck bed, it would be best to wait until the liner is sprayed on. Otherwise moisture will eventually seep underneath the skewer, weaken the paint and cause rust. A quick and dirty approach to mounting the skewers be using some #12 sheet metal screws and drilling them directly into the truck body. *Check to make sure the FUEL TANK is not underneath your mounting point.* If the truck is a beater you don't have to care about rust forming where you shot the screws. If you care, use silicone caulk as necessary on the topside and bottomside of where you shot the screws to keep it watertight. Using bolts and washersto secure the skewers to the truck bed would be more professional, but its more work to install and considerably harder to remove. If you want to keep the truck pristine and hole free, use the 2x4 method. Ironically the number one place, I've seen trucks rust out is not the bed or underbody area, but underneath the driver's floormat, especially in GM trucks with poly floormats. My only experience with this has been with police vehicles in the rust belt, so your milage may vary. -- --- Eric Yagerlener |
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Truck bed skewers? How to install or where to?
"Pete" wrote in message
... Before I built the rack thingy, I'd just lean it against the side of the bed and bungee it to the side. Or, crosswise right behind the cab. Oh, believe me, we had this thought too. That's why I'm asking now. Because even though my wife has a couple races in the next few weeks, we probably won't do the rack for at least a month. I just needed to know soon what my options were, so I knew whether I should hold off on the spray-in bedliner or not. Now that I know that there are solutions that work AFTER the bedliner is in place we'll probably just lay the bike in the back until we figure out something we like. Preston |
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Truck bed skewers? How to install or where to?
In article ,
Preston Crawford wrote: My wife and I traded purchased a ligh pickup this weekend. A Ranger. My wife is going nuts, doing long bike rides and triathalons and we figured this would fit us well as a way to easily get the bikes to and from where she needs to go. However, what I can't figure out is what is the best way to put in skewers to hold the bikes. Some people apparantly wedge in a 2 x 4 and attach the skewers to that. Some people attach the skewers directly to the bed. Anyone have any knowledge of this and have an opinion? I used to have a Ranger. I bought a couple truck bed skewer mounts from REI (they were on sale) and bolted them to a 2x4 that I cut to the right length to nestle into the 2x4 pockets in the plastic bedliner. I then bolted a turnbuckle to the 2x4 in the right position to hook up to an eye-bolt in the bed. I put the eye bolt in the very front center of the bed floor. It was originally there for a motorcycle tie down. To fit it I drilled a hole in the bed and liner and a foot long piece of 1" square tubing which was bolted on underneath as a brace.... 500 lb motorcycles exert a lot of force. If you look underneath you can see where it is safe to drill without hitting the fuel tank. The 2x4 bicycle rack thing worked really well. It was removeable (so I could load motorcycles) with a few turns of the turnbuckle yet stable. Eric |
#9
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Truck bed skewers? How to install or where to?
"Preston Crawford" wrote in message ...
My wife and I traded purchased a ligh pickup this weekend. A Ranger. My wife is going nuts, doing long bike rides and triathalons and we figured this would fit us well as a way to easily get the bikes to and from where she needs to go. However, what I can't figure out is what is the best way to put in skewers to hold the bikes. Some people apparantly wedge in a 2 x 4 and attach the skewers to that. Some people attach the skewers directly to the bed. Anyone have any knowledge of this and have an opinion? Preston Preston Here is what you need. It's made by Swagman and it's a skewer clamping system that mounts to the bed of your truck. I know of many people that use it because it's small, it's cheap and it works. The web site is www.swagman.net but here is the direct link to the part(the claw). http://www.swagman.net/detaila.php?id=64700 Just copy and paste that link to your Address bar and you can see the item I am talking about. Hope that helps. Andy |
#10
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Truck bed skewers? How to install or where to?
I have a fiberglass lid on my truck bed as well. I went to a
trailer-hitch-mounted rack. Upside? No removing bike wheels. Downside? It makes your truck another couple of feet longer (I can't fit my truck in the garage any more). |
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