Pickup truck utility rack

A utility rack for a pickup truck having a cab and a longitudinal rearwardly projecting cargo bed, the cargo bed having longitudinally extending parallel side walls terminating upwardly in an inverted U-shape, a forward wall and a tailgate, said rack comprising:

• forward and rearward pairs of clamp bracket means secured in aligned relation transversely of said cargo bed to the forward and rearward end portions, respectively, of said side walls;
• forward and rearward upright substantially H-shaped stanchion units including pairs of posts with each pair of posts of said pairs of posts connected by a top rail and connected respectively with the forward and rearward pairs of said clamp bracket means;
• panel means hingedly connected between said forward stanchion posts for vertical pivoting movement about a horizontal hinge axis toward and away from the vertical plane formed by said forward stanchion;
• strand means connecting said panel with said forward stanchion for limiting movement of said panel from said vertical plane to substantially 90.degree.;
• a guide tube vertically slidably surrounding each post of said rearward stanchion pair of posts;
• a bottom rail extending between and secured to said guide tubes;
• and,
• a stop secured to the periphery of each post of said rearward stanchion pair of posts for limiting downward sliding movement of said bottom rail to the horizontal plane of said panel hinge axis.