Buckshot
03-11-2007, 07:00 AM
...............Back in 2002 we needed a new car and my wife just had to have a Ford Sport-Trac. She was right that she could get her gardening stuff in there and there was certainly enough luggage room. However for hauling something really 'Pickup Size' the bed was just too dang short.
You can get 48" wide stuff in there but it lays up on top of the wheel wells. I'd seen some of the shortbed pickups running around with those bed extenders that lay out on the tailgate. However they seemed awfully flimsy and just extended the floorspace. I figured I could come up with something a bit more useable.
I drew up some plans and then went to the muffler shop to have some 1.5" muffle pipe bent up.
http://www.fototime.com/9461F54A275F017/standard.jpg
I came up with this. There were already holes for one of these in either side of the tailgate bed ends so I used those as a pivot point. Just like those you buy, this one will flip up inside trhe bed so you can close the tailgate. The reason the top pipe is bent with two 45* angles is so it will clear the rear of the wheel wells when it's flipped over inside the bed. Otherwise it's ride too high and you couldn't close the tonneau.
http://www.fototime.com/07BAA8BAF5A2663/standard.jpg
Here it is out on the ground. My idea for making it better, or more useable had to do with hauling lumber or plywood. I designed it so the top rail would be removeable, as below:
http://www.fototime.com/04DB4C804D14E90/standard.jpg
With the top rail off, the middle rail is the same height as the top of the wheel well archs in the bed. This way plywood will lay flat. To connect them together, in the middle photo you can just see a 1/2" hole through the horizontal pipe over each of the 2 end vertical pipes. Then in the bottom photo 2 more holes in the same place over the 2 central vertical pipes.
There are 2 long bolts to which I'd welded 1.5" OD steel discs after cutting off the hex heads. These are so you can turn them with bare hands. The 2 bolts go down through the vertical pipes and thread into captured nuts inside the middle pipe. In the bottom photo you can just make out the collars surrounding the nuts, and the 2 horizontal pipes fit down over the collars when you put it in place.
The bent "L" pieces at either end of the top rail sit on top of the box sections tieing the 2 bottom rails together. The short leg of the "L" has a hole in it and the top of each box section also has a recessed captured nut. A bolt goes down through the hole of the "L" section and is threaded into the captured nut of the box section. Like the 2 bolts on the center-rear, I didn't want to have to use tools to install or remove them, so each of the side bolts had a 2" long 1/4" bar welded across the hexhead to get ahold of for turning.
The 4 short legs rest on the tailgate, and since the tailgate has a plastic liner I attached a PVC pipe coupling with a couple selftaping tech screws to each leg. Alltogether it took about a day and a half to go get the pipe bent and weld it all together. I spraypainted it metallic silver. It came out pretty nice.
...................Buckshot
You can get 48" wide stuff in there but it lays up on top of the wheel wells. I'd seen some of the shortbed pickups running around with those bed extenders that lay out on the tailgate. However they seemed awfully flimsy and just extended the floorspace. I figured I could come up with something a bit more useable.
I drew up some plans and then went to the muffler shop to have some 1.5" muffle pipe bent up.
http://www.fototime.com/9461F54A275F017/standard.jpg
I came up with this. There were already holes for one of these in either side of the tailgate bed ends so I used those as a pivot point. Just like those you buy, this one will flip up inside trhe bed so you can close the tailgate. The reason the top pipe is bent with two 45* angles is so it will clear the rear of the wheel wells when it's flipped over inside the bed. Otherwise it's ride too high and you couldn't close the tonneau.
http://www.fototime.com/07BAA8BAF5A2663/standard.jpg
Here it is out on the ground. My idea for making it better, or more useable had to do with hauling lumber or plywood. I designed it so the top rail would be removeable, as below:
http://www.fototime.com/04DB4C804D14E90/standard.jpg
With the top rail off, the middle rail is the same height as the top of the wheel well archs in the bed. This way plywood will lay flat. To connect them together, in the middle photo you can just see a 1/2" hole through the horizontal pipe over each of the 2 end vertical pipes. Then in the bottom photo 2 more holes in the same place over the 2 central vertical pipes.
There are 2 long bolts to which I'd welded 1.5" OD steel discs after cutting off the hex heads. These are so you can turn them with bare hands. The 2 bolts go down through the vertical pipes and thread into captured nuts inside the middle pipe. In the bottom photo you can just make out the collars surrounding the nuts, and the 2 horizontal pipes fit down over the collars when you put it in place.
The bent "L" pieces at either end of the top rail sit on top of the box sections tieing the 2 bottom rails together. The short leg of the "L" has a hole in it and the top of each box section also has a recessed captured nut. A bolt goes down through the hole of the "L" section and is threaded into the captured nut of the box section. Like the 2 bolts on the center-rear, I didn't want to have to use tools to install or remove them, so each of the side bolts had a 2" long 1/4" bar welded across the hexhead to get ahold of for turning.
The 4 short legs rest on the tailgate, and since the tailgate has a plastic liner I attached a PVC pipe coupling with a couple selftaping tech screws to each leg. Alltogether it took about a day and a half to go get the pipe bent and weld it all together. I spraypainted it metallic silver. It came out pretty nice.
...................Buckshot