How to Maintain Your Truck Bed Rack (And Prevent Rust)
Keeping your bed rack looking the same as it did when it came out of the box requires a little bit of maintenance, no matter what bed rack you're running.
In terms of what can affect the longevity of your bed rack (besides bed rack selection), there are a few factors outlined below, that may be outside of your control.
- Weather
- Salt
- Vibration
How weather, salt, and vibration affect bed racks
Let's start with weather. If you live in Palm Springs, California versus Bangor, Maine, there is obviously going to be a difference in climate.
For Palm Springs, where it rarely rains, and is almost always sunny, you're going to want to consider the coatings on the bed rack, from a UV perspective.
Aluminum, if it doesn't have the proper anodizing, can over time turn from a nice black finish to a purple hue. There is a fix for this - making sure that the aluminum on your bed rack is anodized with an architectural finish. An architectural finish can withstand years and years of UV abuse, because the anodization was designed around parts that are on buildings. Since they're on the side of a sky scraper, or an armrest of a bench in the park, they need to be able to withstand constant UV exposure.
If you're compromising on your bed rack purchase by going with a lower end brand, and they have anodized aluminum in the build, you can expect some purpleness overtime.
At BillieBars every anodized crossbar is finished with the highest architectural finish that money can buy. Rest assured, if you live in an area with constant UV exposure, your bars will remain black over time.
Winter and coastal maintenance tips
Now pivoting to Bangor, Maine, where the climate is quite different, there are different concerns.
Maine is known for it's harsh winters which brings us to our next threat, salt.
Salt and metal go together like orange juice and mint toothpaste. It's not good. That being said there are a few ways that you can make sure that salt doesn't cause rust on your bed rack.
The first thing to consider is if there is any steel on your bed rack. Aluminum won't rust, but steel will.
The correct coating can prevent almost any form of corrosion and rust. This information should be publicly available, but if not, reach out to manufacturer and ask the what they are coating the steel in their bed rack, and how they are achieving this result.
A lot of companies use a basic chemical wash, followed by a single step powder coat finish. This would typical of what you would see from bed racks made overseas, particularly in China. Why? Because, it's quick, easy and cheap.
What you're looking for is a company that uses a two step coating process, that blasts the steel prior to coating, instead of a chemical bath.
The blasting provides texture to the steel (not noticeable by the naked eye), creating ridges that allow for great powder (paint) adhesion. This is a typically a labor intensive, by hand process, and the payoff is big.
If the steel part comes with a two step coating, it is likely that there is a zinc base. This provides an added layer of protection, if the outside layer of powder coat (typically black) is comprised from some impact related event.
BillieBars coating process for it's steel parts is listed below. As outlined in our bed rack overview, our bracket coatings cover a lifetime warranty, in the outside event that rust occurs. Just shoot us an email with your original order information, and we'll get you squared away!
- High Quality Steel Selection
- Bending, forming and welding of the brackets
- Blast the parts, to create texture for powder coat adhesion
- Adhere zinc base layer
- Parts are placed in high temperature oven to cure the zinc
- Adhere fine texture (black) powder coat
- Parts are placed in high temperature over to cure the fine texture powder coat
The last consideration for your bed racks is the hardware. Unless it's stainless, it will rust. It's that simple. We use all stainless hardware at BillieBars, including our security bolts that hold the crossbars in the brackets, for our low profile bed rack.
How to clean your bed rack
Now that we've run through coatings, and metal properties, lets talk maintenance. Salt is rusts best friend, so it's important to rinse your brackets with fresh water from time to time, if you live in a salty environment. You can do this with a hose, or if it's too cold out for that, use wet paper towels to wipe any salt off.
Salt would be prevalent if you live near an ocean, or if you live in area where it snows and they treat the roads with salt. If you live in either of these areas, be sure to clean your brackets every so often. Nothing will need be done to the our crossbars, as aluminum will not rust, but it's not a bad practice to wash them down periodically.
- Wash your brackets and crossbars with a gentle soapy solution
- Wash off with fresh water
The last outside factor affecting your bed racks performance will be vibration. Vibration from driving down the road, or off-roading could cause parts to come lose over time, compromising your bed rack and causing a safety concern for vehicles behind you.
Vibration risks increase with a bad design, and the more parts in the bed rack (or points of failure). The only way to combat this issue would be check the tightness of bolts periodically, or add blue Loctite to the bolts before fastening (this would be for serious off roaders only).
In the case of vibration, simplicity reigns supreme - and we outline here why BillieBars design combats this risk.
How to prevents bolts from loosening
Every bed rack manufacturer should have directions on how to correctly torque bolts during installation, and periodically after installation.
For example, BillieBars recommends torquing all bolts to 20 ft lbs. This would be done with a torque wrench, where you can adjust the setting. We sell the socket head here, that would be compatible with the security bolts found on our Low Profile Bed Racks.
We recommend checking the bolts before every driving event, to be safe. As mentioned previously in the this article, BillieBars Low Profile Bed Racks brackets hold a very high safety factor, but it's always better to be safe than sorry.
If you're planning on doing some serious offloading it would be advisable to use some thread locker on the bolts. They have different strengths - we would recommend staying with the low or medium strengths and checking the torque of the bolts prior to the day's adventure. Bringing spare bolts for your bed rack is never a bad idea if you're going on an extended trip and would like redundancy.
Some of our hardware kits are listed here, others are not - if you'd like a spare hardware kit that you don't see on our site, please shoot us an email found here (for existing customers only), and we'll get you squared away!!
FAQ
How long do truck bed racks last?
That all depends. If you don't do research, you rack could end up looking this in a short time
(Please note below is NOT a BIllieBars Bed Rack)
On the far end of the spectrum, if you make the correct selection, maintain your bed rack throughout it's exposures and or seasons, your bed rack could and should last for the life of your truck. And the next one.
Can rain damage a bed rack?
In short, no. That being said, if your bed rack is comprised of the wrong materials, or there is a disruption to the powder coat on a steel component, any form of moisture will cause rust. Again, aluminum will not rust.
Should I remove my bed rack in the winter time?
That's totally your call. If you don't plan of using your bed rack for a few months, and you also don't mind losing the look of a bed rack, it would probably be smart to remove the rack and store it somewhere out of the elements.
A factor in determining whether or not you should remove your rack between use is how hard it is to remove the rack. Some bed racks are bulky, come with a ton of components, and would require a friend or two help you remove the rack, and that may not be worth it for you.
Other racks come off and reinstall easily, and if that's the case then pulling it off for the 2 months where you know it won't be using your rack (example: your run your rack to carry your rooftop tent and you won't be using it again for 3 months. and the winter is bad where you live).
Either way, the most important thing is to get out there and Go! Thanks for reading!
