# roof rack on a truck with a tonneau cover?



## quicktsi (Dec 12, 2004)

Has anybody ever seen a roof rack mounted over the bed of truck that has a soft tonneau cover? It is such a pain to unroll the cover on and off to put more than one bike in the bed. I think it would be possible to mount it between the bed rails and the tonneau frame. Any ideas?


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## tx-xcr (Aug 24, 2004)

i saw one mounted on a hard tonneau cover once. it made use of a yak rack setup. was thinking of getting a truck back then (and now) and thought that would be a great way to go. didn't pay that much attention to what style of towers, etc was on it. i would think if you talked to a dealer, they could help you out. or even call yakima or thule and ask the company themselves.


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## SlowSSer (Dec 19, 2003)

couple of options:

yakima and thule both have track systems that can be mounted to a tonneau cover, for nice versatility, and they also have foot plates (landing pads for yak, i think) that can be bolted direct to the cover. not as versatile, but if you know exactly how far apart you want your load bars, its definitely a cheaper method, saving about 100 bucks (the tracks arent cheap)


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## YuriB (Jan 12, 2004)

quicktsi said:


> Has anybody ever seen a roof rack mounted over the bed of truck that has a soft tonneau cover? It is such a pain to unroll the cover on and off to put more than one bike in the bed. I think it would be possible to mount it between the bed rails and the tonneau frame. Any ideas?


Why not mount the rack to the cab?


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## Plum (Sep 14, 2004)

*Soft or Hard Top?*

I would think that for a hard top, the yakima rail system would be the way to go (I'm sure that thule has one too, if you're a swedish fan). Mount the rails outboard pretty far (for direct support to the rail) and get the longest set of bars before you hit passing traffic and haul as many bikes as you want. Adjustable on the rails if you carry a ski pod or anything else, could even go to a three bar setup, to have more bike capacity.

For a soft top, they probably vary too much to have a standard design fit. I had a set of uprights made that bolt to the top rail of the truck, could probably design some to work with the particular tonneu, either coming through the top or making room on the rail for the attachment points. I can get pics of my setup if you need ideas...

Plum


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## roadiegonebad (Jan 31, 2004)

what about the Yakima Outdoorsman?









or Thule Xsporter:









Mirage:


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## tedsti (Oct 22, 2004)

I was all set to buy a hard tonneau cover for my truck so I could mount at roof rack system to it. I bought the truck used and it already had a nice soft cover on it. I have not been able to justify the $800 for a hard cover when the soft one works, although not as secure.

I have thought about buying some factory roof rack rails from a Ford Explorer or the like from a junk yard and attaching them to the top of my bed rails. I could then buy the Thule feet (I already have trays from my old vehicle) that fit the rails and be set to go. The only problem was clearance to roll the cover up under the rack.

The Thule Xsporter pictured above would be nice except that it goes inside the bed rails and would interfere with the bed cover.

Ted


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## meloh1 (Jan 13, 2004)

See the posts by skiahh in this thread http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=57412&highlight=pickup+truck
He has pictures of adapters mounted to the top of his bed rails. I think you could make this work even with a soft tonneau cover. My truck (F150) has enough rail outside the edge of the tonneau cover to make this work. With the adapters you can mount towers and bars and just about any type of rack you want on the bars. I'm partial to the tire mount (Sportwerks style) rack but there are many good choices. The advantage of this system is you have the whole bed of the truck for other gear and you should be able to roll up the cover when you need to.


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