Sorry, I must’ve misunderstood the first time ‘round. That would certainly be an improvement over the stock configuration; still, I’m going to be able to mount the rack just a couple inches behind the cab with the mod I did. I will certainly concede that using the rack as an exhaust mount is an ingenious idea. That thought never crossed have my mind to honest. Did you have to drill holes in the rack to accomplish your mod? I’m very hesitant to put holes in an aluminum box that I just paid $2,600 for that is designed to be weather tight.

Tomorrow, or make that later this morning, I’ll be bolting the rack on, and then Saturday I’m heading to my ace-in-the-hole welder and fab guy to have him make some mods. Instead of drilling holes all over the outer shell of the rack and using eye-bolts, I’m going to have him weld small tabs with holes so I can strap my tarps and maybe a ladder to the top of the rack. I also want to add something to take advantage of all the wasted space in the right and left compartments. Right now there’s just one piece of angle on each side for hanging chains. I’m open to suggestions if you’ve made any such mods to your rack.

hope it not alloy headrack as you call them ,on our logtrucks we have probs with them cracking near chassy mounts ,use steel instead ,can make them different so they not to heavy and saves cops not causing problems

I’ve never seen a headache rack / cabinet made out of anything but aluminum, but of course I’m no expert. I’ve also not heard of them cracking with any regularity. Could it be that off-roading on a daily basis like most log trucks do puts stress on the racks that is not encountered in the typical on-highway operation? I will be adding some additional reinforcement to the base as well as attaching the legs not only via the standard u-bolt system, but also bolting the legs to the rails with brackets.

Even if I went grass burner, the vertical aluminum I-beams of the headache rack would still hit the bunk.

Me either. I thought about it for a year, then a month ago I saw a guy down at the port of Baltimore and that's when the light bulb went on.

Yeah I drilled two holes to accommodate one of those U shaped muffler clamps. I made a rubber gasket and placed it between the aluminum rack and the steel "saddle" of the clamp. This should keep water out but mostly I did it to stop galvanic corrosion from the contact between the dissimilar metals.

Flat fenders like in the pic will hold up very well, and can be put on cheaply enough, just make them strong, if they wiggle they break.

My buddy who still pulls flat put his airlines under the tractor by the tail lights, and then modified the trailer to work with them, he also T'ed the lines so that he could pull a trailer with a regular set up, and also some one could pull his trailer with a regular setup, he used mostly quick fit air couplings, like those used on air tools, pretty slick, wish I had some pics, I'll try to find some

Now THAT would be interesting to see. I've always felt that the glad hand system was under engineered, but never envisioned anything even remotely close to what you just described as a replacement. I’d be very interested to see pics of the system your friend came up with. It’s amazing what some drivers come up with.

I went to my fab shop yesterday to get some aluminum flat bar and was talking to the owner's dad who used to flatbed, and in passing he mentioned that he had actually plumbed his duel exhaust right THROUGH the sides of his rack. I’m assuming that having a prodigy aluminum fab / CNC / welder as a son made his little project a little cheaper and easier than it would be for most other guys. . I would be worried about the heat from the exhaust harming items stored in and on the box, but still it is an intriguing idea.

Getting to galvanic corrosion: aluminum and stainless steel are not actually galvanically compatible because they have significantly different potentials, but the passivity of both can reduce the problem to non-problematical for non-critical applications if the area of the aluminum is greater than the area of the stainless steel (stainless fasteners on aluminum architectural features usually aren't a significant problem, but aluminum pop rivets on stainless steel sheets would be). Also, when I use aluminum in direct contact with steel, I apply a thin coating of Never Seize to the contact points. There is also a great product from ECK (Eck® Dissimilar Metal Protection :: By VANNAY LLC ) that is specifically designed to prevent galvanic corrosion.

The muffler clamp I attached to the rack was steel. Zinc plated probably. I know, I know....I try to use stainless hardware wherever possible, but we had it in stock.

some pics of my dirty old truck....

You can kinda see how even with the stack behind the bunk, the rack is still only 2" away from the bunk.

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...2611085556.jpg
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...2611085337.jpg
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...2611085455.jpg
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...2611085631.jpg
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...2611085850.jpg
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...2611085829.jpg
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...2611085750.jpg
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...2611085657.jpg

u-bolts on a headache rack!!!!! KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!!!