Today, on this 2004 F-250 Super Duty, we will be installing the Bestop Bestrail overhead rack part number B42730-791. We are going to start by assembling the components of the overhead rack system. The first thing we are going to assemble is the legs to the front bracket both left and right. We are going to start with the front left bracket first. We are going to take one of the legs and you can see we have four existing holes here in the left bracket. You want to take one of the legs and you will notice that one end has a flat edge to it, the other end is actually angled. We want the angled side to be down here attaching to the bracket and we want the lower edge in towards the bottom of the bracket here where it will flare up towards the inside of the truck bed here. What we want to do is just align the holes here in the leg with the holes in the bracket. Over here on the side holes we are going to be using the 1/4-20 by 3 1/4 inch flat head screws along with a flat washer and nut. On the inboard side holes, we are going to be using the 1/4-20 by 2 ¼ inch screws along with a flat washer and nut. And we want to repeat that procedure for the front right bracket as well. 1:38
And then next we are going to go ahead and set up the rear brackets. We are going to take the other two legs and both the left and the right rear brackets and install those together similar as to how we did with the front ones. Again, I am going to take one of the legs and I want the angled portion of the leg down at the bottom with the opening of the angle facing inward. And using the same hardware setup we did for the previous legs we are going to go ahead and attach these as well. And again, we want to repeat that procedure for the right side as well. The next step is to go ahead and install the front overhead rack cross member. What we want to do is go ahead and locate two pairs of the left and right overhead rack corner caps and match them together as pairs, which we have already done here. We need a set for each one of the front legs. We are going to install the corner caps to the legs using four of the 1/4-20 by 3 inch socket head screws and four of the ¼ by 20 nylon nuts. We will take a 3/16 allen wrench and tighten those down. We do not want to fully tighten them yet until we get the cross member in. Get it set up and then we will go ahead and tighten them down. We will do the same thing for the other bracket. 3:06
Then we will take one of the cross members and we want to go ahead and align the holes here in the corner cap with the holes here in the cross member. We will be attaching those with the same socket head screws we had used. And now that we have all of the fasteners in place, we can go ahead and go back through and tighten all eight of them down. Okay, and the next thing we are going to do is to go ahead and install the cross member and the gussets into each of the rear legs. What we will do is start by taking the left leg here and we are going to one of the gussets into place and you will not it has got a threaded hole there. What we will do is take one of the 1/4-20 by 3/8 set screws and it into that threaded hole in the gusset just want to loosely install it at this time just enough as to where it will keep the gusset from sliding up and down. Okay, and we will install the other gusset into the other leg. Then we will take the cross member here. We are next going to take the cross member and it into the top side of the gussets. You will note again on the cross member that we have got existing holes here on each end. We want those facing what will end up being the inside and outside of the bed and we will the same set screws that we used at the bottom side. Then we will go ahead and pick the cross member back up here and we are going to install our corner caps like we did on the front cross member. The reason that we left the screws on the gussets loose earlier so we could get these on and aligned properly. Then I am going to go ahead and tighten all eight of those socket headed bolts and then we will follow it up by tightening the set screws on the gussets. 5:16
Okay, now that we have the overhead rack put together, we are going to go ahead and prep our Bestrail system on our truck for the overhead rack itself. What we are going to do is start off by removing the corner caps from the Bestrail system. Go ahead and pull the cap off there. Then we will go ahead and remove the channel extrusion from the front rail. And we will take two of the T-bolt assemblies and slide them into the channel here. Take the first one and slide it all the way across until it hits the corner cap on the other side and we will the second one and leave it right here. Go ahead and re our channel extrusion and put our corner cap back on. And then we will come back to the end of the frame rail here and you can see we have our set screws in place one on each side. You want to go ahead and remove those and you want to two of the T-bolt assemblies into each one of the rails. Then just reinstall our set screws. 6:29
Now we are going to install the front overhead rack assembly. What we are going to do is go ahead and take and our front overhead rack assembly into place. What we are going to do is go ahead and set our left and right brackets onto the T-bolts and we will fasten the studs on the T-bolts using the 5/16 washers and the 5/16 nylon nuts and we are going to do that same thing on the other side as well. And we can go ahead and go through and tighten those down. Okay and then next we can go ahead and install the rear overhead rack assembly. Again, we are just going to align the holes in the rear brackets onto the studs of the T-bolts. Instead of using standard hex nuts to attach the rear rack to the studs we are going to be using adjustable handles. These will thread on just like a regular nut would. Okay once we have got the T-handles installed and have got them nice and tight, our installation is essentially complete. We will give you a quick overview of how to use the T-handles here. The rack itself is obviously adjustable up and down the side rail here. To move the unit you just want to release the T-handles on both sides. With those released, we can simply slide the assembly. Now that we have got them loose, we can simply grab the cross member and slide the unit as far forward or as far rearward as need be for your application. Once you have got it set up, you want to make sure that you tighten the T-handles back down. And with that that will conclude the installation of our Bestop Bestrail overhead rack part number B42730-791.
