Hey, Guys. I came across a guy who has a Shelby Baja Raptor. He has the factory chase rack that came with the truck. After a while, his bed/fender flare cracked. This had me thinking about the GFC. Has anyone seen this with a GFC on the Gen2 Raptor? This has me concerned, as the GFC on the Raptor doesn’t attach to normal bed tracks. It has a minimal attachment point under the bed rail lip. I’m wondering if this will put too much stress on the bed long term, and cause the aluminum to split. Anyhow, here is a link to watch.
I saw that earlier also. I believe the torsional weight (?) of the 37” tire hanging on the bed rail was the cause of the bed cracking.
As far as the GFC, you have the entire weight resting along 3 bed rails (not the tailgate) solidly mounted. The GFC is not mounted to just one very small footprint.
Besides being an aesthetic sin against humanity, that “chase rack” has a pretty big design flaw with the tire mounts being cantilevered out like that. Unless the tires are also strapped to the bed the weight of those tires wanting to move up and down will eventually destroy all it touches.
The GFC spreads the load out over the entire length so doesn’t suffer that problem. That said, if you use your truck hard off road, all beds will eventually crack (maybe not as bad as that though) without some form of reinforcement. That’s not a design flaw it’s the reality of using your equipment hard. On our Long Travel Tacoma, and on our race truck, we have to weld up a crack or replace bent bolts after every big Baja trip. Here’s an example of bed reinforcement done right:
Thank you for the response! That reinforcement looks legit. I’d like to do something on my Raptor, but I need to find a company to work around my Decked drawer system.
