Truck Bed Mount Suggestions?

MrHandWash

MrHandWash

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So, I've finally picked out my supplies and think I've found a suitable list to make things all fit in the back of a truck bed. My concern is how can I ratchet down my water tank and generator? Assuming I'd have to custom drill D-rings or something to secure them?

Any advice on these items? Not too familiar to truck items, not sure what route to take. I basically need something with an open hole large enough to slide a 1-2" nylon secure strap through so I can ratchet it down to avoid loss of center balance (Mainly with my water and generator since they'll be taking up most of my room).

I have seen a previous post where: Ehuth1 used 2 industrial pallets to secure his gear. I however am wanting a tonneau to roll over my supplies to avoid theft since I don't have a garage. It's problematic because I can't have anything sticking above my truck bed, clearance issues with tonneau.
 
I'm going to assume that you will need to cut in some holes in your bed. Do you have any hooks or anything in the bed that you could use? Perhaps create an X pattern with straps to your current hooks? Just throwing some ideas you way that you have probably already considered.

I wouldn't want to go cutting holes in my truck bed, but that's me. Ever think of getting a truck cap instead of a tonneau cover? Gives you more room to store and they lock easily. If your going for a soft cover, those are easy to break into (even if it locks). Just my thoughts. When you finally get everything in there and your set up finished, post up some pics. I'd like to see how you ended up doing things!
 
Hmmm, yeah I might get a hard tonneau or something that's solid and can be locked. I was just going for cost efficiency and go soft, but I'd rather not risk getting hacked into. Good point SeaJay.

I have considered a truck cap, but I am wanting to mostly just unfold my tonneau and pull out my Nomad washer, and pre-wrinse, fill up my buckets and clean it, then rinse again with the PW, etc... I'm going to need access to my bed to just reach in there with the way I'm going to have it set up.

Atm I am tempted to go to a truck bed installer in the area and ask for pointers and products. I already know about cargo bed gates, and rail spacers for truck beds. I need to actually secure stuff and just need some general answers from someone that knows how to do it.

Supplies in bed will include:
  • Nomad Power Washer
  • 2 Gal Air Compressor
  • 2000 Watt Generator
  • AG Vacuum
  • 40-50 Gallon Flat Water Tank
  • 2-3 Grit Guard Buckets

Inside I'll just have small plastic storage 2 drawer bin for MF towels/pads, DA/Rotary, Mini Extractor, all perishable products (if I can call them that :P)

Those items will be minimum, I'm thinking I can get a couple cargo spacers in there somewhere to organize storage bottles. It's going to be a very tedious task, however after about 3 months of supplies browsing, I think I've literally found the smallest of every type of product and for the best price. I've budgeted less than $1500 for all major machines and water tank for this operation. Yes, poor mans budget but I'll still have all the supplies and everything will be brand new. When I get this thing up and running I'll definitely get a pic and maybe post a detailed guide for people wanting to start small.
 
I have no advice on how to secure it because I'm not a handy man. Just please make sure you get it down securely lol. I was driving on the interstate one time and some guy driving a truck didn't have his water tank secured and it flew out at a speed of 75 MPH and almost hit my Camaro. Luckily I hit my brakes and it missed me. It ended up hitting a semi then into a Toyota Corolla.
 
Well a hard tonneau cover is going to lift up on the tail gate side and leave you limited room on the sides to actually get in and out. Just from the couple that I've seen they don't leave a whole lot of clearance for you. Of course your on a budget, so you may need to go with the soft tonneau cover just to stick with your budget. The hard covers and a bed cap can both be rather expensive. You definitely may want to go to a local company that does this kind of stuff and at least talk to an expert. I'm really surprised that no one on this forum has chimed in with their set up. I'm sure there are some mobile detailers with similar set ups.

Let us know what you decide on.
 
how about something like one of these? I googled "high strength D rings" and clicked images to browse some different ideas.

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I had a couple of roll-up tonneaus, and they worked well. They were aluminum covered in vynil, and were weathertight and locked. Pace Edwards was the brand name, but I'm sure there are some others now. The drawback is they take some space up at the front of the bed, the rails might cover the stake holes on the top of the box. They aren't real cheap either. There's also a hard cover that folds up into thirds that locks, and they would be less expensive if it would work in your application. Check out several truck accessory places to see what's available.
 
I got an s-10 pickup and have done the same thing. I have a 50 gal tank in the back that I just used "eye bolts" and big thick washers. Of course there grade 8 gold ones. It's important to get the washers wide. well I mean to say to spread out the tension on the pickup bed floor. Cause if your going to crash all that has to happen is for what ever your using to strap down the tank is to rip through the sheet metal floor. So you want to spread it out. I think mine are about 2" wide. I wish that they were more like 3 or 4" but didn't find them at ace. oh and I used 3/8" thick eye bolts. Basiclly it is around 200-400lbs of water you have to keep and that is about as much as a big guy in the car is. So I tried to keep it the same as a seat belt setup. But that and I just put two tie down straps on each side and hope for the worse. Lets face it... all your trying to do is keep the water from flying through the back of your truck and hitting you. And well it will certainly destroy your truck if it breaks lose, I don't think you have to worry to much about if flying through the back of your cab and killing you. If so maybe you shouldn't be doing 75 -100 but I don't think it would happen at 65 unless it's head on. Anyway enough of the sad stuff. I do have a canopy that I found on craigslist. Only $200 a big help and highly recommend. Other then that We have about the same setup and it seems to work fine for me. A bit tight but it still works.
 
I'm going with a hard 3-piece more than likely. Thanks for the input folks. I just need to order my generator and take off the peg stand and wheels and hope it fits in the bed :xyxthumbs: Looking at a Sonoma with 17.10 bed depth. My prefered generator is 17.20 inches, but has what looks like a 1-2" peg stand and wheels (both can be taken off). I'm looking at a 1/2" clearance with my generator. Good thing is the it's a 26 amp 4000 watt generator which took me forever to find one that I could actually fit into the bed height for over 10 amps. Everything else was only 2k watts and 10 amps (which most large extractors require 14 from what've seen). Until I find an awesome deal or something I'm just going with a Wagner 905 and Little Green Clean Machine to work on carpets with my generator.

Hopefully with enough measuring and what not, when I get everything scrounged up I can pull it off in one shot. I'll have to buy my supplies, make sure everything stays at least a 1/4" under my bed walls, and then buy a tonneau and I'll be kickin waxes and taking names in no time.

Edit: Thanks for chiming in Maximum, could you PM me some pics or something of how you have your eye bolts and ratchet straps set up? I'd like to see if you could give me the opportunity, how did you install the eye bolts? That's my main concern with all of this, is how to do that. Do I have to drill my holes, run my screws through with a 2-4" backing plate to disperse tension to avoid warping and tearing of my bed? Then I'm assuming run a tension plate underneith the undercarriage and have a bolt on that side as well? I understand the concept to install these... but um, am confuzzled about the process.
 
oh and only problem I see with the "d rings" is that they bolt on top of the truck bed and wouldn't help if you crashed because it wouldn't use the strength of the truck bed to help hold it in, only the strenght of the 4 1/4" bolt washers (and that isn't much). And the truck bed is about 1/4" thick steel. So I would stay away from that and just get some big thick grade 8 washers (there the gold ones) and be sure to stick them under the truck bed, cause that will cause you to use the strength of that 1/4" steel truck bed to hold down the water tank
 
What about a sheet of 3/4 treated plywood, cut to fit your bed so it will not move. Mount all your gear and thru bolt it and then no holes in your bed and rust magnets.
 
Yea I'll PM yea after thanksgiving with some photos of my truck layout and how I did the water tank.
 
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