How to Mount Accessories to Your Bed Rack, Safely
In this article we're going to dive into best practices for mounting all the most popular accessories to a BillieBars Bed Rack.
Mounting a Rooftop Tent
This is one of the top reasons people buy BillieBars Bed Racks- it's an incredibly easy and reliable way to mount a RTT. We have a 2 different style bed racks:
- Low Profile Bed Rack - available in 5" and 8" heights
-
Cover's w/ T Slots Bed Rack - available in 6", 11", 17 and 24" heights
- requires a tonneau cover with an integrated t slot along the bed rail
- tonneau cover examples: Retrax XR, Roll N Lock XT, Bakflip X4TS
- Dynamic Load Capacity - refer to covers suggested loads
- Static Load Capacity - refer to covers suggested loads
- check tonneau cover fitment here
So what exactly are Dynamic and Static Loads? We outline their definitions below:
- Dynamic Load - this refers to the load being imparted while underway. i.e. - a driving event. the dynamic load capability will always be lower than the static load capability
- Static Load - this refers to the load being imparted while sitting still
Now, what are some factors that could influence dynamic load? The main 3 factors are:
- height
- speed
- angle or pitch
Lets put this in real life terms.
- Truck with a 5" bed rack driving 40 MPH, on a perfectly straight, flat road, with a 150LB RTT loaded on the bed rack
- Same Truck with a 20" bed rack, driving 60 MPH, on a road with a slight pitch to it, multiple hair pin turns, and a 150LB RTT loaded on the bed rack
What scenario would have a higher dynamic load? Scenario 2. Why? The height of the bed rack, the speed, and the pitch of the road all lead to more force.
What does this mean for you? Well, if you exceed certain limits on dynamic load, it could ultimately lead to damaging your bed rack or your truck. The most common example of this would be a cracked bedside. Adding bed stiffeners would help alleviate this concern.
If you're running a low profile bed rack, you'll greatly reduce any concerns of any issues, as you'll be reducing the dynamic stress on the bed side.
Center of gravity would also be a consideration when placing a Roof Top Tent on a bed rack. We have a lot of customers bias the RTT to one side of the crossbars, so that they can add another accessory on the other side of the bars - like a bike mount or an awning. Again, having a low profile bed rack would greatly reduce any issues from the center of gravity being thrown off. If you don't have a reason to bias the RTT to one side to accommodate other items, put it right in the dead center.
If you do bias it to one side, we recommend trying to balance the weight with another item, just so you don't get too lopsided.
Which leads us to our next accessory:
Mounting an Awning
Diving into the mechanics of mounting a RTT onto a bed rack is a perfect seg way to one of the most popular aftermarket overland accessories - an awning.
Awnings are crucial to taking your overland camp to the next level. We dove into setting up the ideal basecamp in one of our previous blog posts - but essentially, adding an awning is going to take you from a shanty to a mansion, overland style.
Awnings themselves come in the 180 deg form - which means they'll only cover one side of your truck. In the last few years, 270 deg awnings have really taken off. They offer coverage for one side of your truck AND the tailgate, which is a really popular staging area. You can shop our complete awning collection here.
Some considerations for mounting your awning are:
- making sure it's high enough for you walk under it
- making sure it won't interfere with opening a passenger door
If I have a Low Profile Bed Rack from BillieBars, how am I going to get my awning high enough? Well luckily Bill thought of this for you. Our awning mount is capable of reaching another 20" from the crossbar. So if you have our 8" Low Profile Bed Rack, you'll have a total of 28" of clearance, above the bed rail.
If you land on our Bed Rack for Cover's w/ T Slots, you may be able to get away with mounting an awning directly to the bars if you go with the 17" or 24" heights. We outlined the entirety of our Bed Rack line and the compatible awning mounts, below.
- Low Profile Bed Racks, 5' and 8" - compatible Awning Mount
- 6" Bed Rack for Cover's w T slots - compatible Awning Mount
- 11"+ Bed Racks for Cover's w T slots - compatible Awning Mount
Will I need additional hardware to mount my awning?
No, is the short answer. The hardware from the awning company in conjunction with our awning mount will be sufficient.
Most awnings have an integrated extrusion along the back side. The extrusion allows you to drop in t nuts (provided from the awning company) and then bolt into our awning mount. This allows for flexible spacing and will keep your awning ultra secure over long trips.
Mounting Lighting & Recovery Boards
Our M6 or M8 kits will offer a simple and effective way to mount most lights. Our crossbars have a total of 6 integrated t slots - 2 on top, 2 on the bottom, and 1 on either side.
The tricky bit will be routing the wiring to the battery but other than that it should be straight forward, leaving the rest up to your imagination. Just be careful not to burn out your battery at basecamp when the engine isn't running.
Recovery is a huge part of overlanding, as you will eventually get stuck and you'll need recovery boards to get you out of the jam.
There are a number of ways to mount recovery boards - roof racks, on top of cargo cases, etc. Mounting to a molle panel is a popular way to carry recovery boards. They'll be conveniently on the side of the truck when you need them....
All of our molle panels are compatible with our recovery board mounts, which will fit almost any aftermarket recovery board. We did a more in depth take on recovery gear, which you can find here.
FAQ
Can I mount multiple heavy accessories?
Mounting a few heavy accessories is definitely possible but you may run out of room before you run out of weight capacity. Weight capacity should always be the first consideration, so make sure you're within your bed racks dynamic and static loads, referenced above.
Our Low Profile Bed Racks are all truck specific so feel free to reach out to us with dimensions to determine how much crossbar space you'll have for your truck. Bed widths vary by model - below are some examples:
- 2019 Toyota Tacoma - 5" Low Profile Bed Rack - starting at $699 - roughly 65" of mountable crossbar space
- 2017 Nissan Frontier - 5" Low Profile Bed Rack - starting at $719 - roughly 67" of mountable crossbar space
- 2022 Ford F150 - 5" Low Profile Bed Rack - starting at $749 - roughly 71" of mountable crossbar
Bigger Truck = More Options. Time to Upgrade :)
Do I need reinforcement brackets?
If you're within your dynamic and static loads, no. If you're pushing the limits you can always add a 3rd crossbar with BillieBars. We do it all the time, just shoot as an email and we'll forward you a custom invoice. This RAM owner isn't messing around.....
How much weight is too much on one side?
This should be intuitive and you'll know something is wrong when you go driving. Try to offset anything that is off center, with something on the other side. If you're just mounting a single bike, offsetting it to one side won't affect anything as the weight of a single bike isn't enough to make a tangible impact. Common sense is best practice here.
Feel free to contact us with any specific questions. Most importantly, Get out there and Go!
Thanks for reading.
