My dad has a second gen dakota and hauls a canoe that sits well on this campers cross bars but really needs another bar near the front of the cab to eliminate the need to run straps over the front of his truck. Have been looking. But finding nothing. Any help locating it would be great.

 

I've looked at these TracRac racks for a while. There's the TracRac T-Rac-Pro And there's a Cantilever add-on.

http://www.ultimatetruck.com/product...27&model=20372

http://www.ultimatetruck.com/product...ial_cantilever

I haven't used them, so I can't endorse them, but these might help narrow-down what your'e looking for. I googled for Dakota removable contractor rack, or something like that. I had these bookmarked on this computer.

JC Whitney has a few as well. Hope this helps.

 

Sorry, just found the JC Whitney link:
http://www.jcwhitney.com/Dodge-Dakot...-600001482.jcw

 

while I do appreciate the effort this truck has a camper shell on its bed and really just needs a removable crossbar that can be installed over the drivers and passenger doors.

 

No more help?

 

Ah, I didn't catch that it had a camper/topper on back. You could try checking-out JC-Whitney, or a local welding/fabrication shop. The manufacturer of the topper would be where I would start asking. If the truck just has a topper/camper on the back with cross-bars on it, I've never heard of an over-cab extension for them. Most camper/toppers like that aren't rated for much weight, much-less the pull, like what would be added by extending a lever like that would function as. At or near highway speeds, the extension would start acting like a claw-hammer pulling nails, and if it oscillated, that'd be worse.

You might try looking for just over-cab racks, without looking for an extension to the existing racks on the topper. That would give you the mounting points for over the cab, without adding the mechanical advantage to damage the topper.

Sorry for delays, I work both EDT and JST hours.