Motivation: The motivation behind this project consists of an issue that my family had ten or so years ago when we were trying to take our three ATV’s to Florence Oregon to the sand dunes. We have a rack that is capable of holding two ATV’s on the truck bed while still pulling the trailer. We wanted to add a third quad on the tailgate somehow but we were never successful on finding a way to do that safely. That is how I came up with the idea to make a rack extension that can be put on the tailgate of the truck that can carry that third ATV. A completely new ATV rack that will hold more than two ATV’s would cost too much and isn’t needed for this case.

 

Function Statement: A device is needed for the tailgate of the truck that extends from the existing vehicle rack to accommodate a third ATV.

 

Requirements: The following is a list design requirements that go along with this project:

·Rack needs to be able to hold the load of a 400lb ATV.

·Large enough to fit an ATV that is 48” x 63”.

·Cost less than $500.

·The rack extension needs to weigh less than 100lbs.

·Rack Max dimensions cannot exceed 60” x 72” x 4”.

·Pin cannot exceed the diameter of 0.5”.

 

Engineering Merit: The Engineering merit comes from the rack that currently exists that is being used. The rack that is being built this year needs to be detachable from the existing rack so that the original rack can still be used by itself.

 

Scope of Effort: The scope of this effort will be focused on the new rack extension. The only minor changes to the original rack will be made to help secure the new rack to the original rack and the truck. No other changes to original rack will be made.

 

Success Criteria: The criteria of this project depends on the following:

·Supports the weight of the ATV.

·Attach and detach from original rack with minimum effort.

·Rack has fixtures to fasten the ATV to the rack securely.

This rack will be successful with these three scenarios because of the ability to be economical for the users of this device by the weight restrictions that were given and the minimum effort to use this rack.

 

ATV Rack Extension Report