Picked up the GFC in Montana a couple weeks ago and slowly crossing items off the list to get it ready.
Goals: Full-time traveling starting in March 2023. Traveling around the western US and a bit of Canada with the skis for resort hopping and backcountry explorations through the spring season. Followed by a transition to bikes and hiking as the weather warms up.
Completed:
Tires: Toyo AT3 265/70/R16
GFC installation
Overland Softgoods sheets (great for cozy-ing up the tent space over the stock mattress cover material)
To Do:
Chinese diesel heater setup
Truck bed organization system (bins and shelves)
Suspension upgrade to reduce sag
Custom ski rack
The ski rack arrived today and I was able to do an initial test fit. I’m pretty happy with how it came together for a first try. Needs a few small adjustments. deburring, and then some paint.
I also built a very basic small shelf to help extend the gear storage space at the front of the bed into the vertical for more efficiency.
What do you want to know about the rack? It’s a couple laser-cut and bent pieces of mild steel for the base and ski holding brackets. I designed for the Voile straps to weave into the brackets to pad the ski surfaces, protect the edges from banging around, and lock them down.
It’s a rad design! I guess I’ve got a few questions haha. I’ve got a six foot bed and am picking up my camper in a couple of weeks and being able to store skis inside like this would be incredible.
Did you do all the machining yourself? How does it mount? It looks like there could be room for a couple more pairs of skis, is that possible? Can I buy one from you?
I designed it and sent the files to SendCutSend for cutting and bending. It mounts to the interior wellnuts in the frame (I’m not super happy with this and would strongly advocate for a V3 GFC feature to include interior T-tracks), but it seems stable enough when loaded up.
Depending how you want to organize your skis you and rest of the bed you could probably fit 1 and maybe 2 more pairs. I plan to use the bottom sections to mount poles and other tools. Ski’s are currently spaced 6" apart vertically which leaves enough room to get them in and out without too much hassle with bindings interlocking or anything.
The cost to get this made at low volumes is probably not worth it to sell depending what your expectations are for price. Worth it for me because I didnt have any other solution that fit my needs this exactly. I’d be open to sharing the files with you if you want to place your own order.
Thanks for the detailed reply. I would definitely be interested in learning how much it cost you if you are willing to share that info you could send me a DM. I am mostly just amazed at the design and how you have it set up, haven’t seen anything exactly like it. Storing skis on the outside is obviously better for space management, but for security purposes and peace of mind on longer trips it would be killer. Appreciate your time sharing this with me! Picking up my camper in a couple of weeks and want to go for a similar set up. The bench + under storage in the back is rad, probably equal storage with way less effort than a full drawer build. Anyways cheers, sick truck, sick ski rack, sick setup1
I’m on the tail end of wrapping up my 3+ month loop around the west:
CA → OR → WA → British Columbia → Banff, Alberta → MT → WY → CO → NM → UT → back to CA.
I’ve been using and learning how to live/ski/hike/camp full time with the GFC during this trip, and overall it did great! I think a Sprinter or Transit van would certainly be the better move during the winter months as camp cooking on the tailgate or similar was somewhat less than fun in the adverse weather conditions. Overall my setup was sufficient for the trip, but I’ve got quite a few ideas and opinions on how to improve the system for future trips. Although I think it will be a while until I do another trip of similar length.
Some truck photos from the journey (not in order):
