Fiberglass Cap - Exterior Frame Rack

[NWOhioChevyGuy]

OK, years ago I placed some mounts on top of my ARE fiberglass cap to haul four kayaks. The cap didn't like the weight and cracked at the corners by the rear door, top two corners. I fixed that with some fiberglass and have not hauled that type if weight on top since.

Now that my kids are out of the house I will be hauling only two kayaks and plan to rework my rack for the truck so I don't have to pull a trailer with me on trips.

I have 1" square steel tubing (1/8" wall) from other rack / trailer rack projects that I will reuse.

This rack will be external to my cap, mounting to the same points on top of the cap as used before but have "legs" on the outside of the cap to bear the weight onto the bedside utilizing some 3.5"x6" angle iron as "feet".

Question is should I weld the feet on the inside of the legs or outside of the legs?

Sketches in the pictures below.

 

[NWOhioChevyGuy]

Sent from my iPhone using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[bdbecker]

As long as your welds are good, it won't make much of a difference which side you choose. If it were me, I'd weld the tubes to the outside to avoid having to spend a bunch of time fitting the tube to the inside radius of the angle. It would give any water that might seep into the tubes a way to run out. Finally, I think it would look better to have the angle tucked tightly to the side of the cap.

Additionally, you could put some square plugs in the bottom of the tube to give it a nice finished look.

https://www.mcmaster.com/#9565k62/=1dqosrv

(Depending on your wall thickness, you may need a different size than what is shown on that link)

 

[NWOhioChevyGuy]

Plugs are a good idea, not really concerned with finished look as cap is only used for vacation trips, but may look into them further.

Mcmaster has them in packages of 100, I would only need 8

Found a 10pack on Amazon - will keep bugs out and finish off the ends nicely.