sandog

I ordered an A.R.E. topper and it should be here next week. I want to put a cargo basket on top. Several times in the past I've bought a Yakima Mega Warrior basket with extension. However to do that you have to first bolt brackets to the topper/shell, then install towers with locks and bars. You end up having $700 in the thing and the towers make the rack sit up pretty high. I would like a basket where you can just bolt it directly to the topper, and not pay for the high priced Yakima stuff.
I saw this one, Sport Rack. With extension, it sells for about $340. It comes with U-shaped brackets that I could put through the roof. I will probably have to get some rubber/hard plastic spacers for each corner to keep the rack from directly contacting the roof all over, plus the top of the topper is not perfectly flat, but has a slight radius to it. Anyone know of some reasonably priced baskets that don't require towers and cross bars to mount ?
http://www.backcountryracks.com/spor...ar-basket.html

KR Kodi

iTrader: (1)

Hi - sorry I can't give any info about a cargo basket for your topper.


However, I'm just curious about your setup. I see the topper will weigh in the range of 200 lbs.


I assume you're interested in carrying stuff on top of your cap because you'll have the bed full of camping gear, etc. - is that right?


Who/what will be in the cab when driving?


Will you be towing a trailer as well????


I looked in your profile to get some info about your truck. You say it's a Lariat, and your options are "Everything!".


If it's anything like my heavily optioned King Ranch, you'll have a low payload capacity - especially if "everything" includes 4x4 and off-road packages. Take a look on your driver's side door at the two stickers on there - one has your GVWR and front/rear GAWRs; the other is the yellow tire sticker, and also has the payload capacity on it.


The payload capacity is for a completely empty truck except for a full tank of gas.


If your payload capacity is down in the 1200 lb range, by the time you load up 2 people with standard airline weights of 170 lbs each, maybe 60 lbs of luggage, your 200 lb topper, 300 lbs of camping gear in the bed, 100 lbs of stuff on top of the topper - that's a total of 1000 lbs, and you would still have 200 lbs remaining before maxing out your payload and bringing the truck right up to its GVWR.


The only thing you might need to be concerned about is the rear GAWR, and if all that stuff sags the rear too much you might need to consider some airbags or such. But, if you're up against your rear GAWR, you'll have to reposition stuff forward or reduce the load.


And....if you had any plans to tow a trailer, you'd be limited to a max of 200 lbs tongue weight, which would be a max trailer weight of 2000 lbs.


Bottom line - I don't know much about your truck, who/what you'll be carrying in it, if you plan to tow at the same time you load the truck up, etc., but just want to make sure you're considering all the things that might be limiting factors in loading up with your topper on the truck.


BTW - if you the Heavy Duty package, never mind!! With Max Tow and Heavy Duty you can load up and still pull a fairly good size trailer.


.

sandog

Probably won't be towing anything. I will most likely have a 50 lb. kayak on top of the rack/basket. If I were to go on an extended backcountry trip, maybe a extra tire or a couple gas cans. I doubt I'll ever load it any where near capacity. I'll have to look at my window sticker or build sheet again, but I don't remember seeing Heavy Duty on there.

brulaz

My Leer came with Thule front-to-back rails pre-attached to the roof. You can then clip in cross-rails anywhere you wanted front-to-back. And there are baskets and other stuff you can attach to the cross rails. We carry two kayaks on them. I think there is some weight limit though ...