After mounting a 3rd Maxsa traction board to my rack I noticed I was getting a lot of flex from the thin steel side bar they were mounted to. I noticed this before with full RotoPax mounted on the other side. I had my farmer friend weld on a couple of strips of steel to the top of the side bars to stiffen them up. If I were to do it over again I would have had him weld straight across instead of in spots for aesthetics but whatever, it was free. :)
I had to grind off the rust and shoot the new sections as well as some areas that had large scratches on the rest of the rack. Some self etching primer and then a few coats of bedliner spray did the trick.
It's not perfect but for an $80 work in progress I am happy. It's sturdy as hell.
I chose not to do a bottom bar because it really wasn't needed for strength and it would just collect mud.
While I was at it I decided to clean up my trusty shovel! Some grinding, rust converter paint and red farm implement paint and she's as good as new!