Conclusion
With the addition of black paint to both racks, they matched my truck and ATV. This was the cherry on top for me. With the money I saved on building racks for my vehicles, I had extra funds to spend on other stuff like, LOL, fish from the store if I have a bad day, or more tackle.
You don’t even need to be a great handy man to get the racks built. Grab a buddy or two and get it done over a weekend and have fun doing it.
Steel for life
Building your own rack for your ATV is a time-honoured tradition now for people. Yes, you can buy a nice steel rack for your ATV and have your bank account drained of $500 to $1,000.
Save the money for other stuff and get down to business yourself. Better, you can partner up with a buddy and split the cost and build two at once.
My friend, Francis, and I went this route last year as we both had new machines and wanted racks on them. It cost us under $200 to construct two steel racks for our ATVs. You can weld or bolt-together steel racks. We went with the welding option, but the entire rack is bolted onto a bar on the front and rear racks, so it can come on or off with the adjustment of four bolts.
Again, the design and execution were simple. We did nothing complicated. We had the racks painted by the end of one weekend.
I’ve had my rack on my machine since I first bolted it on. I love it. I put my 45-pound canoe on there, and with a pair of 2X4s, it handles the classic 10 or 12-foot aluminum boat.
I put it through the ringer the first time out with WNM contributor James Hodgins. I got a half-baked idea to try and find a “backdoor” path into a speckled trout lake. Three hours later and left with less than one-kilometre to the lake, we, frustratingly, abandoned the cause and went in search of a lake trout and smallmouth bass lake. I pushed the ATV across a new and rough-cut trail made by an exploration company. There were many moments with Hodgins, and a few with me, hanging off one side or the other to keep the ATV in motion. I got stuck I don’t know how many times. I hit deep ruts, stumps, rocks and everything else in the way and out of the way. I sent Hodgins flying off the vehicle twice. Needless to say, it was not a nice ride in a groomed park.
We never once had to get off and adjust the canoe on the rack or worry about the rack. LOL, I hit some big trees and the rack stood up to the test.
What I really love is attaching items to the rack. You can load up an ATV – to the point of ridiculousness. I kept the rack on through the fall and winter seasons. It was great for ice fishing as I had endless options to attach gear to thanks to the racks.
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