It’s been a couple months and a 800 mile road trip through the Eastern Sierra’s, but I am finally getting around to posting about my DIY rear door rack. This project was only possible because of the fantastic hinge brackets made by @dinocarsfast and sold at www.vangocrafter.com.
I used 15-series (light version) in black, sold from tnutz.com. So far, I have been very happy with their product selection, their cuts, and their price is so much better than any other vendor that I have seen. In a world of Amazon and McMaster, you do need to exercise some patience. It typically takes 2-3 weeks to receive product in Central California. The first time I ordered from tnutz.com, I made all my own cuts. Too many AL shavings in my garage! It’s way easier and cheaper (in shipping) to have them make the cuts.
VanGoCrafter provides excellent drawings for their hinge mounts, which allowed me to design my rack in fusion 360. Having a good plan is important if you are having someone else make all your cuts.
I do not claim to be an engineer by any means, so take what you will from my rack build. If I had had more time when I built it, I would have weighed the rack and the equipment I am mounting on it. Not sure it matters though, as I couldn’t tell you a maximum weight that I should be putting on there. Maybe Ford lists some specs for rear door weight in the BEMM? Too bad it doesn’t sound like @florafrank can help with that! I carry a full spare (245/75/16) on the left rack. On the right rack I mounted an aluminess box I bought used off facebook market place for $400. In it, I carry a 5 gal jerry can, 20 lb propane, leveler wedges, propane stove, air pump, and a few others. During the winter, I also want to mount a ski rack (just the basic clamp thingy do’s), so the skis hang vertically on the side. For summer, I want to mount a couple of bike rack trays across the top of the box. We’ll see how those pan out.
I have a good friend and coworker who has a degree in industrial technology (shares some similarities with engineering as I understand it, or don’t), and he was pretty impressed. I’m sure some of that had to do more with his lower expectations for me than the result, but nevertheless, I came away with some more confidence in the rack. We also have about 800 miles through the Eastern Sierra, including some good washboard gravel roads.
