I am looking at doing something a little different with my truck and hauling family and dogs. I'm wondering if I'm on a decent path and make sure I'm covering my bases and maybe find something I haven't thought of yet.
What we are doing:
Cross country trip, haul family, luggage and 2 large dogs (100+ lbs). We had a shell in the past, but we got rid of it a few years ago, as we were down to 1 dog traveling. Now we have a 100lb puppy, and he likes to chew, so another shell and our luggage in the same space isn't appealing. We were looking into crates, but 2 crates large enough for the dogs doesn't leave much room for bags, if both crates even fit. We happened to see a bed rack, and started to think that might work. One with sides and a middle bar so we could mount a rack or box of some kind over the top for luggage, provide shade, and a "top" of the bed for protection of the dogs. I'd also need to make sure the rack was long enough to not leave a huge hole for the dogs to climb over the tailgate to fall put, or put something across to close off the opening a bit.
I was looking at the Tyger rack on Amazon or maybe the uptop. We have the utilitrak system, so I was hoping to use those to mount the rack so its easy to pull out when we need the bed for hauling other things.
The top I was either thinking of borrowing my neighbors Thule box if it fit or attach a cargo rack and strap everything inside or find some boxes to mount.
So, before I start spending money,
anyone have any thoughts on whether or not this would work? Anyone try this before? Products to consider?
What we are doing:
Cross country trip, haul family, luggage and 2 large dogs (100+ lbs). We had a shell in the past, but we got rid of it a few years ago, as we were down to 1 dog traveling. Now we have a 100lb puppy, and he likes to chew, so another shell and our luggage in the same space isn't appealing. We were looking into crates, but 2 crates large enough for the dogs doesn't leave much room for bags, if both crates even fit. We happened to see a bed rack, and started to think that might work. One with sides and a middle bar so we could mount a rack or box of some kind over the top for luggage, provide shade, and a "top" of the bed for protection of the dogs. I'd also need to make sure the rack was long enough to not leave a huge hole for the dogs to climb over the tailgate to fall put, or put something across to close off the opening a bit.
I was looking at the Tyger rack on Amazon or maybe the uptop. We have the utilitrak system, so I was hoping to use those to mount the rack so its easy to pull out when we need the bed for hauling other things.
The top I was either thinking of borrowing my neighbors Thule box if it fit or attach a cargo rack and strap everything inside or find some boxes to mount.
So, before I start spending money,
anyone have any thoughts on whether or not this would work? Anyone try this before? Products to consider?
