New Cycling Cap

Two and three years ago Ryan and I made a spring cycling trip to watch a couple stages of the Tour de Georgia and then ride near Asheville, NC (links: 2007 and 2008). We rented a cargo van and built a bunk in the back to hold a mattress and our bikes. They were great trips and we missed out on such a trip this year, but we recently began thinking about a 2010 spring cycling trip.

The cargo van was a fun and utilitarian option for hauling our bikes and for camping, but I began to think the $250 rental fee could be avoided. It occurred to me a truck cap for my truck may allow a similar setup to what we had with the cargo van. Knowing a new truck cap would cost $800 or more I navigated to www.searchtempest.com, a site that searches regional craigslist pages.

Searching for "dakota cap" resulted in many Dodge Dakota truck caps for sale. Problem was finding the correct size for a truck of my year with a quad cab and finding a tolerable color. The prices ranged from $75 to $600 or more. Caps at the low end of the price range were the aluminum type for older model year trucks. There were some fiberglass caps in the $200 range that looked pretty decent but none were hunter green. Katie began to worry I'd be one of those guys that drives a truck with a mismatched cap. Really, how bad would a light purple truck cap look on a dark green truck?

After giving up for a couple weeks I returned to searchtempest and was excited to find a listing for a good condition dark green fiberglass cap that came off a 1998 Dakota quad cab. It was listed for $150, near Coshocton. A little research on the web told me model years 1998 through 2004 quad cab Dakotas would use the same cap. Sweet!

I emailed the seller asking for pictures and he sent back some cell phone images that gave me further confidence his cap would work for me. He lowered the price to $125 saying the pictures didn't do the cap justice. We talked on the phone and he said the cap had some scratches from a fallen tree branch but it was intact and otherwise in pretty good shape. For $125 I figured I couldn't go too wrong.

First glimpse of the truck wearing a cap, cell phone

picture on the way home from Coshocton.

Last night I drove an hour south to pickup the cap. The seller and his son were very friendly and helped me set the cap on the truck and clamp it in place. We all agreed it was a perfect match in size and color. The cap has some scracthes and dings but being made of fiberglass, it's not going to rust. A little touchup paint will hide the white fiberglass showing through the paint.

Now I need to come up with a design for a platform in the back. I've got some ideas that would allow the bikes to ride in the back while driving and for sleeping the bikes would be stuffed into the cab. I also have some ideas about how to best utilize the space in the extended cab of the truck.

Alright... another project to day dream about!