If your car
already has a factory-installed luggage rack, all you’ll need is a
couple of two-by-fours, some cord (parachute cord or six-millimeter
rope works well), a couple of mountain-bike inner tubes, and six
two-inch wood bolts with fender washers for each pair of skis you want
to carry.
Place the two-by-fours across your luggage rack
(perpendicular to the length of the car) so they rest on the rack’s
rails. Cut the boards to length so they extend past the rails by at
least a few inches.
Place the two-by-fours back on the ground and set
your skis across them. Rather than stack your skis together, set the
skis side-by-side. The bases of the skis should sit directly on the
wood, with about an inch between them. Use a pencil to mark where your
skis sit on each board.
For each pair of skis, drill three holes in the
front two-by-four and three holes in the rear two-by-four: On each
board, place one hole on the left side of your skis, one in between,
and one on the right side.
Cut the inner tube into sections at least three
inches longer than the width of your skis when they’re sitting
side-by-side. You’ll need two sections of inner tube for each pair of
skis—one for the tips, one for the tails. Drape the cut tube across the
holes. Once you fasten the rubber to the wood (see below), the tube
will hold your ski tips and tails to the two-by-fours.
Using a utility knife, cut a small X in the inner
tube to pass a bolt through it and the hole in the two-by-four. Stretch
the tube across the other holes, cutting Xs for each bolt. The more you
stretch, the tighter the hold on your skis. But don’t overdo it; they
won’t blow off. You just need to keep the skis from sliding around. Use
washers and Loctite adhesive to help keep the nuts from cutting into
the tube and working loose. Repeat for each pair of skis you wish to
carry.
Fasten the two-by-fours to the luggage rack with
the rope or parachute cord using a slipknot cinched down with a series
of overhand knots. Slide your tips and tails between the tubes and the
wood. Commence laughing at others who spent $600 on a rack.
Greg Bridges—a Mt. Bachelor, Oregon–based wooden-kayak builder,
teacher, and expert jury-rigger—has built racks from all manner of
materials. He once accidentally skewered a coyote with a homemade
fishing-rod rack made of rebar on his truck’s bumper.
- SKIING MAGAZINE, OCTOBER 2008
