colonel00
Quintessential Chatty Farker
As many UDS owners know, it can be a pain to swap out racks full of meat if you have a UDS with dual racks. Usually there is some tilting to get that second rack out because of the bolts that hold the top rack. So, I was inspired by another post/thread I saw (I apologize but I cannot find it off hand but please take credit if it was your idea) where somebody used bolts as legs under the rack. Thus, you only needed to support the bottom rack in the drum. When it came time to swap, you just lift the top one off, set on the ground (the legs provide clearance), and pull out the other rack. I liked the idea a lot but thought the bolts would be a little unsteady and they took up some real estate on the rack.
So, tooling around today I grabbed some 1/2" pipe I had laying around and cut off some sections. I cut 7' sections with the idea to keep 6" gap between the grates. I notched one end of the cut pipe with a cut off disk just deep enough to fit around the outside wire of the rack. On the other end of the pipe I notched it down about 1/2-3/4" and then spread it apart a bit to allow for easier stacking. At this point I did "cheat" a bit by welding them to the rack (still kinda ugly welds pre-cleanup in the pics). The legs aren't perfectly straight as the racks are actually slightly different sizes. But, as long as I keep them as a set they will work.
I also plan to attemt to do this with threaded steel in an effort to have a no-weld option for those interested that do not have a welder. I think you could just cut out the top deep enough to slide over the rack. Then just have a nut and washer on each side to hold it in place.
Oh yeah, pics...
So, tooling around today I grabbed some 1/2" pipe I had laying around and cut off some sections. I cut 7' sections with the idea to keep 6" gap between the grates. I notched one end of the cut pipe with a cut off disk just deep enough to fit around the outside wire of the rack. On the other end of the pipe I notched it down about 1/2-3/4" and then spread it apart a bit to allow for easier stacking. At this point I did "cheat" a bit by welding them to the rack (still kinda ugly welds pre-cleanup in the pics). The legs aren't perfectly straight as the racks are actually slightly different sizes. But, as long as I keep them as a set they will work.
I also plan to attemt to do this with threaded steel in an effort to have a no-weld option for those interested that do not have a welder. I think you could just cut out the top deep enough to slide over the rack. Then just have a nut and washer on each side to hold it in place.
Oh yeah, pics...