Added a thule rack and cargo box over retrax pro

Today I added a Thule rack system and cargo box over the bed. It will be great for extra room for skiis or beach crap. Take a look.There is about 3 inches of clearance between the Retrax and the bottom of the loadbars. I've seen other systems that sit much higher, this one is sharp looking and the Retax works perfectly.The racks and box come off in about 5 minutes leaving only the 4 small mounting points which come with black covers.

I see what you did there and...









wait for it...







I like it! Looks great!

I've thought about putting a Maggiolina on top of a rack mounted like that.

Thanks for posting, I was thinking the same thing only with a basket. Did the rails get mounted to the truck? if so did they pop rivet them on. Or did your retrax have the rails? I have a folding cover and the Thule dealer said they could rivet the rail system on to the bed rails. Just wondering how that worked.

Here is what I used from Thule.

Tracker II feet
(#TK13)Direct Mount TK Base for Fiberglass Roof Creates a solid mounting point for Tracker II feet on camper shells, tonneau covers, or any vehicle without a factory rack.
LB78" load bars ( cut 6" off one end.)
Lock set
and a x-cargo box made by thule for Sears.
Total cost around $700 and I did the installation. You must drill 2 holes for each mounting point in the top of the truck rail. Everything is mounted on top of the retrax rails through the plastic part of the truck bed top rails. And there is plenty room for a second box, bike rack or whatever...

That is really nice. How do the rails sit? Can your post a close up picture? I was thinking of doing something like this for surfboard racks, but with the backflip it would need to be much higher. Thanks for sharing.

cbs001 said:

That is really nice. How do the rails sit? Can your post a close up picture? I was thinking of doing something like this for surfboard racks, but with the backflip it would need to be much higher. Thanks for sharing.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the nice comments. If the weather isn't to bad tomorrow I'll try to post a few close ups. I did see another company has a much higher rack system Pro Rack STR Tonneau Rack. Maybe that would work better with the backflip. Here it is.

I love it. I've never seen that done before. Well done.

cbs001 said:

That is really nice. How do the rails sit? Can your post a close up picture? I was thinking of doing something like this for surfboard racks, but with the backflip it would need to be much higher. Thanks for sharing.

Click to expand...

I got a chance to take a few pictures of the finished racks. Notice they are mounted on the retrax rails for a cleaner stronger job. There is just enough room to get the lock nuts on the underside. When not in use thule provides a small cover to snap over the mounting points.

TRAPTOR said:

I got a chance to take a few pictures of the finished racks. Notice they are mounted on the retrax rails for a cleaner stronger job. There is just enough room to get the lock nuts on the underside. When not in use thule provides a small cover to snap over the mounting points.

Click to expand...

Here are a few more shots.

this looks like the ideal solution I was looking for....for my fishing rod rack. Do the Thule base plates get screwed/drilled into the truck bed rail? Or are they only secured to the tonneau rail/plate?