ATV Rack extension/retaining walls.

Got tired of having to strap/hold stuff down, especially for the fast 50 yard, or even 50 foot jaunts around the property. Thought it’d be nice to just trow something on and not worry about it sliding/bouncing off. 

Thought “oh yeah, they make those walls for the racks”  but I ain’t got, nor willing to pay $60 or more for one. 

$5 in welder wire, scrap scrounged steel, and 6 or 7 hours over a couple evenings is a lot cheaper and easier! And more fun too! 

Gotta be one of THE coolest tools I’ve bought. It’s astounding how handy a cordless angle grinder can be, especially with a cutting wheel! 

It’s amazing what you can do with 2 grinders , 2 cutters , and a welder, some old furniture, with a little imagination. 😎😉👍 

Needed some medium weight tubing, and finally saw an old futton/couch thingy frame in my scrap pile. 

Pulled a loose slat out, and it was sturdy but not too heavy, seemed heavy enough (both durable, and thick enough to weld).
Cutt all the slats out of one side,  got 12, 23″ pieces. 
Trimed, striped paint from ends for joints, measure, layout, bent some corners (2nd set of corners I did butt joints, for ease of layout/assembly, but it wasn’t as nice a finish).

Cut and welded it all up in two evenings. 

Those corner clamps are made for cabinetry & carpentry , but are a gift from God for layout and holding while welding too!  Makes me wonder why I never though to use them for this before.

It took about 11 of the pieces total.  10.5 really, but one piece I have left is 23″ worth of short chunks, not a whole piece. Have one whole one left. But I also have another 12 left to be cut from the other half of the couch frame!

Yes, it looks tall, but that’s only about 6″ which sounds short to hold things in place. But it’s what I found was average for the factory and aftermarket sets of these walls,  so that’s what I went with.  Still sounds short, but looks tall to me.. But I like it. 

Here, mostlt finished, painted and mounted, with the accessory mounters secret weapon(amazing what you can hold down with u-bolts, and also the strength/secureness they have).

 That might seem light duty for this, but you have to remember that the rear rack capacity is only about 130 pounds, and I’ll be strapping anything big/bulky/heavy to the rack itself, not the wall. 

Here you can see the contrast in the corner styles. 

It does get two more things before it’s really completely finished; 

Some holders/brackets at the front corners for a removable front cross bar.  And some mesh walls all the way around, IF I can scrounge some cheap or free mesh.

 I might go back and grind/smooth some of the rougher welds too. 🙂  

Really liked this one, it was a challenge,  needing to not only design and build, but keep everything true, straight, and square so it would all line up. Had to tweak it a couple times, even cut, bend and re weld the widened cut (sorta like a pleated spot?)once to take twist out.  

Was a fun challenge welding round tubing too, hadn’t done that before.  Also uphill/downhill, and upside down, sideways, and various angled welding, which I’ve not done a lot of.