Creation is Inspiration

By Kelton Anderson ● Arcane Outdoor Development ● Homedale

Most people strive to find something that defines them, something to call their own, something they created. Seven years of fabrication, building other people’s designs, influenced my owncreation.

Overlanding, outdoorsmanship, and love of all things nature, I decided to build something that would improve my life outdoors. I needed a way to secure all my gear as well as mount tools and stillhavefullaccesstomytruckbed.

Looking through existing designs I saw one major flaw; I bring four wheelers hunting and a bed rack restricts the height I can load in my truck. Everything until now has been fixed in place or unsupported without the top rack. This influenced a modular rack where the side panels are independently supported without the top portion, enablinghigherloads.

The first rack was made out of scraps, was a rather heavy design but guaranteed not to fail. Made entirely out of steel, including a back gate and a headache rack, it was bulky but functioned very well. I put this design through the ringer camping, hunting and on countless mountain excursions. I quickly fell in love with the the ability to stack firewood without ratchet straps, load up at the local hardware store to do home renovations, and hauling gear to a camp spot, but wantedmoremountingcapabilities.

The Mark II was sleek, almost a third of the weight and had more mounting options. It quickly became everything I was looking for in a bed rack but still didn’tfeelperfected.

At this point, I had the Mark II on my truck for a year and not a single fault. It’ssturdy,lightweight,andstrongbut it still felt like there could be more done to clean it up. At the time I couldn’t placemyfingeronit.

So I used it. Day in and day out I put more and more weight, stuffed it full and went on even more rough roads. Trying to get this design to failunsuccessfully.The only thing I wanted toimprovewastheassemblyprocess.I began to take notes. Little napkin sketches here and there and digital prototypes. I finally found what I was lookingforandtheMarkIIIwasborn.

Maintaining the same basic concept and design, I added more mounting locations, even on the underside of the top rack for roof mounted accessories, and perfected some fabrication processes. This rack, including the headache rack and the optional back gate,iscompletelymodular.

Thetoprackcanberemoved,leavingthe side panels independent. It allows for a taller load, such as a four-wheeler, while still keeping essentials mounted on the sides. It fits virtually every small sized truck, such as the Tacoma or Colorado, and can be built for a full size truck. This rackwillholditsown.

Being a lone fabricator I back my work. Every weld I do is personal and if one fails at any point I’m more than happy to repair for no extra charge. I take pride in my work and it shows in the product as this is my creation. This is the thing that is uniquely mine and defines who I am. With this said my only hope is that otherslovethisrackasmuchasIhave!

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