I saw a set of these years ago for sale at a Bass Pro, but my hunting truck didn't have separate headrests in order to make them work. Since I switched hunting trucks this year, I could use a set of these now. The ones like what I wanted (2 gun rack) are almost non-existent or crazy expensive, and I didn't want the kind with fabric straps. Some smaller ones held the gun up too high and I didn't like how loosely they hung off the headrest supports. So, I decided to try and make my own.
Home Depot has 3/4" x 36" x 1/8" aluminum flat bars for $5/ea. I grabbed two thinking this would be enough to make two holders long enough to hold two guns. I was wrong! I have almost 20" left out of the 2nd bar, but that's wasn't enough to make 2 more sets of hooks. So, this ended up holding only one gun. I may try to add a 2nd set of hooks later. Maybe not.
I bent the hooks first since I didn't know how much of the bar they were going to use. I bent these using a 2" diameter piece of round bar. I had to come up with a way to help hold the bar while I bent it. It ain't pretty, but it worked.
From the start of the turn, out to the tip, is 6" long. I bent both hooks on each end of one flat bar, and then decided to just cut it in half. This left a 12" long "tail" for me to use to mount the hooks on the cross bars. The cross bars, that are held in place by the headrests, are 8" long. The hole spacing on my headrests is 5-7/8" center-to-center and I opened up the holes to 1/2" dia. This gives almost 1/8" of play as the headrest posts are slightly larger than 3/8". I used (2) 1/8" x 1/2" pop rivets to hold the two pieces together and the connection is pretty tight.
I've since added some 3/4" x 7/16" vinyl weather stripping to the inside of the hooks for padding. Not sure if this enough, but we'll see how it rides in a couple weeks.
One thing I have noticed, is this current setup will not hold shorter rifles like youth models or carbines. This is because the hooks are mounted in the center of the cross bars. I may move each hook 1-1/2" inward at a later date. It seems to hold my 22-250 just fine, but I haven't tried the AR in this yet. I think it's also a bit too far for my bow.
So far, I'm in this for less than $20 including the weather stripping.
Home Depot has 3/4" x 36" x 1/8" aluminum flat bars for $5/ea. I grabbed two thinking this would be enough to make two holders long enough to hold two guns. I was wrong! I have almost 20" left out of the 2nd bar, but that's wasn't enough to make 2 more sets of hooks. So, this ended up holding only one gun. I may try to add a 2nd set of hooks later. Maybe not.
I bent the hooks first since I didn't know how much of the bar they were going to use. I bent these using a 2" diameter piece of round bar. I had to come up with a way to help hold the bar while I bent it. It ain't pretty, but it worked.
From the start of the turn, out to the tip, is 6" long. I bent both hooks on each end of one flat bar, and then decided to just cut it in half. This left a 12" long "tail" for me to use to mount the hooks on the cross bars. The cross bars, that are held in place by the headrests, are 8" long. The hole spacing on my headrests is 5-7/8" center-to-center and I opened up the holes to 1/2" dia. This gives almost 1/8" of play as the headrest posts are slightly larger than 3/8". I used (2) 1/8" x 1/2" pop rivets to hold the two pieces together and the connection is pretty tight.
I've since added some 3/4" x 7/16" vinyl weather stripping to the inside of the hooks for padding. Not sure if this enough, but we'll see how it rides in a couple weeks.
One thing I have noticed, is this current setup will not hold shorter rifles like youth models or carbines. This is because the hooks are mounted in the center of the cross bars. I may move each hook 1-1/2" inward at a later date. It seems to hold my 22-250 just fine, but I haven't tried the AR in this yet. I think it's also a bit too far for my bow.
So far, I'm in this for less than $20 including the weather stripping.
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