Klutch
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 25, 2019
- Threads
- 18
- Messages
- 816
- Reaction score
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- Location
- Colorado Springs
- Vehicle(s)
- 1986 Jeep Comanche, 2000 Jeep Cherokee
- Thread starter
- #1
Last weekend I sprayed the Gladiator bed with U-Pol Raptor. The instructions said it takes 5-7 days to completely dry/cure. So, I waited a week and yesterday started bolting together the bed rack I ordered from @RebelOffRoad.
I looked at a lot of bed racks online. Most weren't specifically designed for a Gladiator and didn't fit very well. I wanted a full height rack to mount my hard shell roof top tent, so a half rack wasn't an option. Some appeared to be a bit delicate. I was looking hard at the Leitner rack. It wasn't quite high enough to allow my roof top tent to clear the rear of the cab. I would have to install spacers of some kind. I was looking into what kind of spacers I would need when I saw the Rebel Off Road rack which appeared to provide the necessary height without any spacers.
I called Rebel Off Road and the rep was very helpful. I got the black rack with the table mount. I also needed bed rails since my JT doesn't have them. Surprisingly, the whole kit was on my porch three days later.
Everything came packed EXTREMELY well.
I followed the recommendation in the instructions and laid everything out on a furniture pad.
Laying out the components quickly revealed this is one heavy-duty rack! It's like a giant, beefy erector set. (OK, I'm dating myself referencing that toy from the past.) I was also impressed by the fasteners. This might seem trivial, but it's very important to me. I really hate assembling something and seeing the fasteners are complete junk. Then I have to go source my own fasteners which takes a lot of time and more money. Every nut is a lock nut. I was disappointed to see the fasteners were shiny, bare metal. Doh! It's my bad. Rebel Off Road offers a blackened fastener kit. I just forgot to ask for it.
The instruction manuals are pretty thorough. They have many pages, they're printed in a large font (Yay!) and they have pictures. There were separate manuals for the rack, bed rails and table mount.
It's a bit awkward getting the pieces assembled. Every step in the manual stresses to leave the fasteners finger tight. But since these are lock nuts, you can't get them past more than a few threads by hand. So, I used a ratchet and socket to get the nuts threaded just shy of tight allowing everything to move for adjustment.
The manual recommends getting a friend to assist bolting in the three supports. But I was alone and managed to get it done. Here's the first support.
One constant concern was all that metal and my ratchet so dangerously close to the rear glass. If I was to do it again, I would tape a piece of plywood to the rear window just for peace of mind. It would really suck to shatter that back window.
After much twisting of ratchets, I got the other two supports in place (finger tight!).
I like to take my time to do things carefully (and to avoid shattering my back window!). Thus, it took me most of the day to get everything bolted together. Then I took a lot of time to get everything square and adjusted to my liking. Yeah, it was a lot of work, but I'm a glutton for punishment and I actually enjoy doing things like this.
I don't like the look of those bright, shiny fasteners contrasting with the black finish of the rack. I'm going to come up with a plan to blacken those myself. Here's another view.
This rack has an emphasis on Brutalism over elegance. I'm quite confident if I was to buy a surplus 16" Iowa class battleship gun, I could simply strap that gun to the top of this rack and go. Yeah, it's that strong.
Next came the table mount. Sheesh, this thing has only a few parts, but boy was it frustrating. The instruction manual has pictures, but they're all very close up. I didn't have an idea as to how and exactly where this thing attached to the rack. I followed the instructions as best I could, but mostly figured it out through trial and error; of which there was much. By this point I was pretty wiped out after twisting ratchets all day. I eventually got it done. It's a really spiffy accessory. I also bought the Lifetime table from Rebel Off Road. Sorry, didn't get a picture of it installed. If anyone in interested, I'll take a few more happy snaps with the table and post them up.
And here it is all together and out in the open. You might think it appears a bit dorky with factory tires. I plan to install a minor lift and larger tires. But I really want to get some miles out of the factory tires before I throw them away. My build is mostly for camping and basic overlanding. I won't be doing any extreme trails or rock crawling. Anyway, thus far, I'm really happy with this bed rack. I'm hoping to get friends over this weekend to help me get the roof top tent on top of the rack. (It's a Tepui Hybox.)
I looked at a lot of bed racks online. Most weren't specifically designed for a Gladiator and didn't fit very well. I wanted a full height rack to mount my hard shell roof top tent, so a half rack wasn't an option. Some appeared to be a bit delicate. I was looking hard at the Leitner rack. It wasn't quite high enough to allow my roof top tent to clear the rear of the cab. I would have to install spacers of some kind. I was looking into what kind of spacers I would need when I saw the Rebel Off Road rack which appeared to provide the necessary height without any spacers.
I called Rebel Off Road and the rep was very helpful. I got the black rack with the table mount. I also needed bed rails since my JT doesn't have them. Surprisingly, the whole kit was on my porch three days later.
Everything came packed EXTREMELY well.
I followed the recommendation in the instructions and laid everything out on a furniture pad.
Laying out the components quickly revealed this is one heavy-duty rack! It's like a giant, beefy erector set. (OK, I'm dating myself referencing that toy from the past.) I was also impressed by the fasteners. This might seem trivial, but it's very important to me. I really hate assembling something and seeing the fasteners are complete junk. Then I have to go source my own fasteners which takes a lot of time and more money. Every nut is a lock nut. I was disappointed to see the fasteners were shiny, bare metal. Doh! It's my bad. Rebel Off Road offers a blackened fastener kit. I just forgot to ask for it.
The instruction manuals are pretty thorough. They have many pages, they're printed in a large font (Yay!) and they have pictures. There were separate manuals for the rack, bed rails and table mount.
It's a bit awkward getting the pieces assembled. Every step in the manual stresses to leave the fasteners finger tight. But since these are lock nuts, you can't get them past more than a few threads by hand. So, I used a ratchet and socket to get the nuts threaded just shy of tight allowing everything to move for adjustment.
The manual recommends getting a friend to assist bolting in the three supports. But I was alone and managed to get it done. Here's the first support.
One constant concern was all that metal and my ratchet so dangerously close to the rear glass. If I was to do it again, I would tape a piece of plywood to the rear window just for peace of mind. It would really suck to shatter that back window.
After much twisting of ratchets, I got the other two supports in place (finger tight!).
I like to take my time to do things carefully (and to avoid shattering my back window!). Thus, it took me most of the day to get everything bolted together. Then I took a lot of time to get everything square and adjusted to my liking. Yeah, it was a lot of work, but I'm a glutton for punishment and I actually enjoy doing things like this.
I don't like the look of those bright, shiny fasteners contrasting with the black finish of the rack. I'm going to come up with a plan to blacken those myself. Here's another view.
This rack has an emphasis on Brutalism over elegance. I'm quite confident if I was to buy a surplus 16" Iowa class battleship gun, I could simply strap that gun to the top of this rack and go. Yeah, it's that strong.
Next came the table mount. Sheesh, this thing has only a few parts, but boy was it frustrating. The instruction manual has pictures, but they're all very close up. I didn't have an idea as to how and exactly where this thing attached to the rack. I followed the instructions as best I could, but mostly figured it out through trial and error; of which there was much. By this point I was pretty wiped out after twisting ratchets all day. I eventually got it done. It's a really spiffy accessory. I also bought the Lifetime table from Rebel Off Road. Sorry, didn't get a picture of it installed. If anyone in interested, I'll take a few more happy snaps with the table and post them up.
And here it is all together and out in the open. You might think it appears a bit dorky with factory tires. I plan to install a minor lift and larger tires. But I really want to get some miles out of the factory tires before I throw them away. My build is mostly for camping and basic overlanding. I won't be doing any extreme trails or rock crawling. Anyway, thus far, I'm really happy with this bed rack. I'm hoping to get friends over this weekend to help me get the roof top tent on top of the rack. (It's a Tepui Hybox.)
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