Due to my back rack, a pre manufactuered cap wont work...

Anyone have experience making these? If so, what issues have you run in to?

 

can you be more specific

 

Yes, picture of truck with "back rack" would be helpful, even if its an online pic similar to your trucks setup.

Also what is the purpose of the "cap", to secure tools, to keep things dry in wet weather, to sleep in???

 

mine doesnt have the tool box





As far as usage it would need to be more secure than a soft cover. Obviously nothing is 100% secure, but being able to 'securely' store stuff, primarily for a cross country trip im going on in a year or soo.

 

With the headache rack there, it looks like it's going to be almost impossible to get a good seal on the cab-side edge of the cap. You're definitely going to have to get creative for this to work.

This is probably going to wind up being a "which one would you rather have" kind of thing.

 

wouldnt it just be easier to take the headache rack off for the trip and get a cheap cap off craigslist?

 

You can put a bar across the bed just behind back rack, to give cap a place to sit and seal at the front.
From that bar down to the bed you can install a plate, cut to fit and then seal it around the edges with ??, your choice, expanding foam?.
This could be done with wood for temp use or metal for permanent use.

You will want to make sure water can drain out from the exposed bed under the "back rack".

What you need to do first is to find a cap you like and at a length that will fit.
Measure maximum length from rear to "back rack" and from side to side.

Then call or search for a cap that has the correct width and a length that is shorter than maximum length.
You may end up a few inches short of maximum, but buying "off the shelf" cap will be cheaper than buying custom made cap.
And that length will tell you where to install the bar and plate.

And you can cut and shorten some canopies, aluminum would be easiest because the cap is the same dimensions from front to back, fiberglass caps tend to be curved so would be harder to get a good blend when putting if back together, but you really don't need the front window since back rack is there, so you could cut off the front to shorten and then cut a wooden plate to fit and then reseal and paint it

 

I would rather just buy a ready made one. It's less time consuming.

 

I could imagine a sweet combo. Aluminum cross bar frame. Maybe a luan board wood sheet for sturdidity on top of that. Fiberglassed on too as an outer shell. Rubber seal up against the box. Hinged maybe a few inches away from the box.

Get creative. Will need a bunch of resin for that shell.

 

A bit difficult to have your cake and eat it too. Take that rack off and replace it with a topper. If you need a rack for carrying long items you can always mount something to your topper.
Seems like you should be able to figure this out...no rocket science involved here right?

 

What he said ^^