Day 1 of Bozeman, Montana Snowboard / Snowmobile Trip --> Load Em Up...

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Sled in the box with the snowboard rack mounted.

 Looking at the top rack.

2 snowboard carrier rack. Rocket Box filled with 2 snowboards, 2 sets of snowshoes and Black Diamond ski poles. On the far right is the snowmobile ramp to load the snowmobile into the box of the truck.

It was a tight fit for everything up top, now I have it set up for future trips. The rack was put to the test with 1000 miles overnight in a snow storm with 30-40 mph headwinds and speeds up to 85 mph. Set it up right and you eliminate problems on the road.

 8:00 pm, everything loaded as the snow fell and and ready to take-off on a 1000 mile overnight trip to Bozeman, Montana.

 This is a shot of the truck at a wayside rest stop in the middle of North Dakota. Temp was -10 degrees. Caught a 2 hour nap at 5:00 am in the truck and then continued on. Snow and sub-zero temps with 30-40 mph winds made the travel challenging.

 Shortly after daylight in North Dakota with cold temps snow and wind.

 More Snow and wind.

Then the temps started to rise and the roads really started to ice up and became totally snow and ice covered. Shortly after we traveled through North Dakota, the Highway Patrol closed part of I-94. The highways became solid ice and numerous cars in the ditch.

We were able to keep moving and arrived in Bozeman, Montana in the afternoon. Snowboarding tomorrow at Bridger Bowl. Snow conditions should be very good with over 3 feet of new snow last week.

Yakima Bike and Snowboard Rack System Mounted on a Ford F150

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I am using the Yakima track system on my F150 with the 6.5 foot box and also have used it on the 5.5 foot box F150. I have used this track set-up on my F350s and my 3/4 ton Dodge in the past. The key is to have a versatile set-up. The initial set-up involves purchasing the pieces that you need first and then add on to it. The main components are the track, I would recommend buying the longer track. You can always cut them down to fit and I use the shorter pieces to make a short double track. I bought the widest bars because you can always cut them down. I have 10 of the towers so I can mount them all and move the bars on the track and leave the towers in place. I have 1 set of towers that are 32 inches apart. The 32 inches is the distance to mount my Yakima rocket box and it is the distance to mount my snowboards for the bindings to fit.      

With the turn of a key and you can lift the cross-bars out and have the whole pick-up box open.

This is a shot of the double track. I use a double track for a short bar, the reason for a short bar is to carry a motorcycle in my pick-up along with 4 bikes on the rack. The reason that you need a double track is that the towers will swivel and you don't want the tower to swivel. So with a short bar the 2 towers anchor the bar which are 18 inches long on each side of the truck.

I decided this year to simplify the bike mounting system, I removed the fork mounts from the wheel tray of the bike rack. Then I use the 2 straps on the rear wheel on the back bar. This way I can remove each bar separately if I need the whole pick-up box space.

A very clean and simple bike set up. This mount system is very strong and versatile.

I have 4 fork mounts on this rack and there is room to add 2 more for a total of 6 bikes on this set-up.

I also have a roof rack system that I can mount on the roof if I need more rack space and I can carry my Yakima Rocket Box on the roof for more storage. I like the track rack on the pick-up box because it keeps the bikes and snowboards down out of the wind and it is so easy to set the bikes on the rack.