Hey, I thought I would just show people my cheap-as-chips van racks that I made up for our annual trip to WA. Every year we end up throwing everything in a pile in the back of the rental van, so this year I thought I would make up something to make it easier for us.



Total cost would be about $100, and its pretty easy to disassemble when finished.

We managed to fit in 6 boards, and a bunch of sails. It was good to not have all the sails crushed under a mountain of gear for a change!

So it's just free-standing in the van? Not screwed down?

good simple stuff...and looks very portable when pulled apart

ikw777 said...

What are the uprights? Conduit?

Yeah, its just electrical conduit, fitting into timber with the right size holes made by a spade bit. I used screws through the timber to lock the conduit in place.

wow

never heard of double bunk camp stretchers...you mean one bed above another...

how can they make a portable bunk strongenough to support the top person?

enlighten me more...that idea is great too for portability..any photos?

man some interesting ideas here.

You can't store enough boards in those racks I would need three or four to hold my collection of boards-that-no-one-wants.

I made some racks out of galvanised steel and bolted it onto the wall studs. The boards were horizontal, and once it was fully loaded you had trouble getting to the boards on top.

I ended up removing it as it was cumbersome and the galvanising rusted badly with only a little salt water on it.

Now I have lengths of timber running horizontally with electrical conduit held in holes in the wood to separate the boards, and they stand vertically like in a windsurfing shop. Its heaps easier to get the boards in and out and there is no more rusting problem. Sails and booms can be stored the same way.

My travel rack for the van above was meant to be a cheap/quick way of putting a rack together to stop me and my buddies from crushing our gear. It breaks down to 6 bits of timber and lengths of conduit, so its pretty easy to store.

It was a success as we got 7 boards in, with about 12 sails, and 6 booms in, and none of my gear got crushed!

WindmanV said...


Try this: www.anacondastores.com/

That's the one I used, much cheaper from BCF. I don't think I'd ever trust the top bunk for an adult but kids don't break that easy if the fall out(the bunks are only about waist high anyway). I only had 3 boards and 5 sails so it worked for me, Sails and masts on the top and 3 boards in board bags on the bottom and booms hung on hooks on the side. When camping up at corros I'd just clear the boards from the bottom and throw a sleeping bag in and I was set for the night. The bunks were secured in the van with ratchet straps to the cargo tie down points in the iLoad, the whole thing was super stable. Like I said it was done as a quick fix, I had no tools to use so I had to come up with something that used minimal effort.....it got the job done.