Last season trapping off the four wheeler convinced me I needed something on the front rack to contain some of the items I carry every day, dirty traps, coyotes, cats, etc. In the box on the back of my ATV I carry a tote of clean traps, a tote of waxed sand and my setting equipment.

I finished up welding the expanded metal today, cleaned it up and got a coat of primer on it. I’ll get some flat black on it and get it mounted this week. I’ll add some more pictures when I get it mounted.

And it will second as a roll bar.

Good work! Looks great!

Yup, nice job

It was a lengthy process welding that expanded metal. I welded every diamond to the square tubing. Ran out of solid wire halfway through and had to switch to flux core wire. I think my next trip to town I’ll get the 10 pound roll of solid wire. Those little spools run out quick on stuff like this.

I try my best to minimize the weight of my front and back carrying boxes. Since I work them hard during the season I hope to minimize the weight as much as possible.

My front box is a specialty box I designed, that also has a built in swing down tray with chains which is where I carry all my catches for the day and on the top of the rear box as needed.

The front needs to be durable to hold buckets of dirt / peat and hand tools etc. My rear packer is light weight, durable and sheds rain and snow well.

Your basket looks durable enough but we all tend to overload them at times just because it is handy to do so.

As long as the ATV frame tubing holds up you are good. I have had some problems in the past with that thin tubing breaking due to the stress.

Keep an eye on the mounting areas every season and keep it free of any rust and lubed up. It will buy you some time.

I have used four wheelers in the past that had light racks both front and back and were often damaged due to overloading. My 2007 Arctic Cat 650 TRV I bought new and it’s been a tank. I used it hard in Alaska and hard last year trapping here in Idaho. It’s hauled a full moose, in quarters, two caribou in one trip and towed hundreds of birch and spruce logs out of the woods. The only maintenance it has required has been oil changes and brakes. And a battery a couple times.

Last year on set up days I’d have two totes of traps (2 dozen #3s per tote) on the front and two totes (100 pounds each) of waxed sand on the back. I guess I’m still Alaskan at heart we overload everything, our backpacks, canoes, boats, four wheelers, pickups and airplanes.

I’ll post a picture of it after church today.

Excellent advice, I've broken racks, I've also broken the mounting tabs factory welded to the frame that the racks bolt to. ATVs tend to be built light and have problems holding up to everyday working use. Mine tend to have a lot of reinforcement on them after a few years, usually scabbed on at the end of the day, after a broke it and need it the next day. It is always tempting, and often useful to extend your storage designs out past the front of the front rack or the back of the rear rack. This provides more storage and can be very helpful, but it also puts a lot more stress on lightly built ATV parts.

That’s my ATV with the two up seat. My wife and I like to go for evening rides that double as scouting trips of the farms nearby. There are several parcels close to town I can check with just the four wheeler.

The second picture is the ATV with the box on it. That’s what it looks like for trapping season. Minus all the totes.





The front rack is pretty stout. In 18 years it hasn’t failed me. The box is pretty good sized. I can get a tote of traps and a tote of waxed sand and still have room for my setting tools and some snares.





There’s a whole moose, quartered on the ATV. Front and back racks both loaded.

I've ran the Arctic Cat TBX for a lot a of years. Same frame as your TRV, just with a dump bed instead of a passenger seat and built in storage in the rear fenders instead of a place for a passengers legs and feet. You have the good front rack, the one that started out as a big advertising/selling point, then quickly went on to become an "aftermarket add-on" for quite a bit of extra money. It is stout, I've got one and switched it from fourwheeler to fourwheeler when I bought a newer one. Took me until the third fourwheeler I believe to break it. I don't think I've actually broken the tubing on that one, but I've broken the mounting legs off and had to reweld them and add bracing to them. And broken the mounting parts that are part of the frame that the rack bolts to off also. That chainsaw carrier Arctic Cat offered is great, but hang too heavy a saw off the front of that rack in it (and constantly have a box on the rack loaded also) and bounce around through enough waterbars and eventually something is going to give. I've taken to both packing a smaller saw and taking it off whenever I load the atv up and never hauling it on the trailer with the saw hanging in the holder and it has certainly helped with rack related issues.

Built all my boxes out of wood. Need to build my next set like yours. Strong work.