With us downsizing from our big trailer to an 8' box tent trailer, space has become a premium. I used to just throw 4 bikes in the back of the truck, because that's where it made the most sense. But they are hard on cubic footage, especially since we won't have a normal sized rv fridge to hold our food, and we have to go back to coolers and storage bins, as well as the propane fire pit and 20# bottle.

I looked at a bunch of DIY pvc bike racks, and how I could adapt it to work with our setup, but I'm short on tonneau covers to make that happen. Fork clamps would work if all 4 bikes had quick release wheels. Putting a hitch on the back of the trailer would work, but the added weight of the rack plus 4 bikes would take too much weight off the tongue.

But thinking about that hitch mounted rack, that I've had for years, I thought maybe I could somehow mount it in my truck bed, under my toolbox. So I did a quick mockup, measured the placement of the top of the rack against my chest and got my bike up there to see where it would ride. It appeared to clear the box sides, so it warranted further measurement. Seems it'll work.

So how do I install a steel receiver tube to an aluminum truck box? First thoughts were to weld it to a plate and drill some holes, but the weight of the rack would pull the bolts through the holes. I then looked at some solutions we came up with at work, for the aluminum toolboxes in our fleet. All supports are full length and sandwiched. I then decided on 3" angle iron the full length (width) of the toolbox, bolted from the front and the bottom for a total of 12 3/8" bolts. But the stress of the rack and 4 bikes are probably too much still, and that means I can't just use a regular 8" receiver tube either. So I did the same to the back, and I ordered a 24" long receiver tube that I will shorten to the appropriate length so as to take up as little bed space as possible. Then I'll weld that to the angle irons.

Pics to follow.

 

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Hope to have the welding done tomorrow.

Kind of debating whether I weld the tube to a couple plates and bolt them on, which would make it much easier to remove. As it sits right now, there's an extra 75 pounds of steel in it.

 

I don't know if you did it, but anytime I drill and bolt something to a tool bed/box, I always put silicone around the bolt holes and in between the the box and the plate being bolted to it. If you don't, water will find its way in.

 

Decided to make the tube a bolt on. Also decided to do away with the nylock nuts and weld regular nuts on instead, to make removal easier. All of the nuts are so I can insert the bolts from the outside, except the side closest to the cab, because it would mean I'd have to pull the box out to remove those ones.

Drilled some 3/8" flat bar to bolt up to the bottom, and then I'll weld the tube to that, hopefully tomorrow.
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I haven't put any silicone yet, but I am planning to.

 

Yes, I am rigging it up to mount to under my toolbox. All of the reinforcement will be bolt on.

I welded the tube to a couple of plates that will also be bolted to the reinforcements.

Should be posting pics later on this evening.

 

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So it's on, box is back in the truck. I'll take a pic of the bike rack on it later today I hope.

 

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I had a bit of time to kill before my next engagement, so I decided to get out there and slide in the rack and mount a bike on it.

It looks like it's going to work out just fine, but I might have to hold down the back of the box a little bit since there's only one set of turn buckles on it. Other than that, I'm happy with how it turned out.

 

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So here was our setup. 4 bikes on the bike rack attached to my truck toolbox, with 4 turnbuckles holding it down and angulated to reduce flex. Was rock solid for the 2 hour drive each way. Next test is a 3 hour drive in a couple weeks.

Only issues I had were mounting the kids bikes. My daughter's is a full suspension bike so I had to mount under the lower bar. And my son's bike is small, so I had a little trouble actually mounting it to the rack. But once they were on, they were good.

 

Looks like the job came out quite nice