How To: Bedside Utility Racks

[bryce88]

VERY nice! That looks great!

Thanks man. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Should prove useful.

 

[Moparfanatic21]

Well if you decide to take the project on, let me know if you have any questions!

Oh I definitely will! Easier to try on my second gen to see if it will interfer with what I haul, beds are easier and cheaper to find then my 4th gen lol

 

[bryce88]

I posted this in the exterior section but it probably fits better in the DIY, so sorry if you're seeing this twice.
I wanted a place to mount some tools and make it somewhat modular to adapt to my needs. So I picked up a 24"x48" piece of HDPE on eBay. I like the idea of polymer because it's just as easy to work with as wood but stands up to weather without any need for sealing or painting etc.

Transferring the template to the HDPE


Cutting it out with a jigsaw




Drilling the mounting holes


I did some experimenting with a molle pattern but because the material is so thick it's not going to work for a lot of pouches since they're designed to work on the thickness of nylon webbing. I'm glad I did some experimenting because it would have been a lot harder to cut a molle pattern and it wouldn't have even been useful!


I decided to just do round holes. This is a 1" grid I printed off to use as a guide


Used a center punch to start all the holes and to transfer the pattern onto the panel


Drilling the holes. Over 500 of them... I'm glad I have drill press. The ones it couldn't reach I just finished up with a cordless drill.


Ok, now the part where there's no turning back. Drilling into the bed of your truck. After using shims etc. to get the panel placed where I wanted it, I used a punch through the mounting holes to mark where to drill. Then, using a step bit, I drilled holes that were 11/32" wide which was perfect for the rivnuts I have. They need to be nice and snug to work correctly.



I used a little black silicone adhesive to kind of seal the hole to prevent water from getting behind there on the bare metal.


All mounted up they turned out looking pretty clean. *Pro Tip - run a tap into the rivnuts after mounting them to clean up the threads, sometimes they can get a little squished or bent and you'll get your bolt stuck and then if you crank on it, you'll spin the rivnut which is bad news. (Don't ask me how I know)



Now to cut the standoffs. I bought a nylon rod on eBay and cut two different sizes. A short and a long for the indentations on the side of the bed. That way everything ends up nice and flat.


Drilled holes in them


All the standoffs ready to go. You can kind of see how they work in these photos.



Now the fun part. I placed the tools where I wanted them and mounted the quickfists.


All mounted up!



I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I'm still planning to mount a pouch in that leftover area for ratchet straps etc. So that is still to come.

 

[Purplert]

Amazing ! Kudos !


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[bryce88]

Amazing ! Kudos !


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Thanks!

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[Goose_1327]

Anymore thought on starting to market these?


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[konfuzed]

I did the same thing with a net my in laws got me for Christmas last year. I already had a bed cover so I figured I'd use it for a separator. I ran led strip lights down the top of the bed and wired it to a switch in the bed, along with 2 12v outputs. I have a inverter in my toolbox. I had pole holder for a boat that I mounted to the side of mine. So i always have a rod for any fishing hole i come across.
I really want a pegboard like you made. That's ******* awesome! Do you still have the dimensions?

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[Panhandle461]

Following


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[McBroom]

I posted this in the exterior section but it probably fits better in the DIY, so sorry if you're seeing this twice.
I wanted a place to mount some tools and make it somewhat modular to adapt to my needs. So I picked up a 24"x48" piece of HDPE on eBay. I like the idea of polymer because it's just as easy to work with as wood but stands up to weather without any need for sealing or painting etc.

Transferring the template to the HDPE


Cutting it out with a jigsaw




Drilling the mounting holes


I did some experimenting with a molle pattern but because the material is so thick it's not going to work for a lot of pouches since they're designed to work on the thickness of nylon webbing. I'm glad I did some experimenting because it would have been a lot harder to cut a molle pattern and it wouldn't have even been useful!


I decided to just do round holes. This is a 1" grid I printed off to use as a guide


Used a center punch to start all the holes and to transfer the pattern onto the panel


Drilling the holes. Over 500 of them... I'm glad I have drill press. The ones it couldn't reach I just finished up with a cordless drill.


Ok, now the part where there's no turning back. Drilling into the bed of your truck. After using shims etc. to get the panel placed where I wanted it, I used a punch through the mounting holes to mark where to drill. Then, using a step bit, I drilled holes that were 11/32" wide which was perfect for the rivnuts I have. They need to be nice and snug to work correctly.



I used a little black silicone adhesive to kind of seal the hole to prevent water from getting behind there on the bare metal.


All mounted up they turned out looking pretty clean. *Pro Tip - run a tap into the rivnuts after mounting them to clean up the threads, sometimes they can get a little squished or bent and you'll get your bolt stuck and then if you crank on it, you'll spin the rivnut which is bad news. (Don't ask me how I know)



Now to cut the standoffs. I bought a nylon rod on eBay and cut two different sizes. A short and a long for the indentations on the side of the bed. That way everything ends up nice and flat.


Drilled holes in them


All the standoffs ready to go. You can kind of see how they work in these photos.



Now the fun part. I placed the tools where I wanted them and mounted the quickfists.


All mounted up!



I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I'm still planning to mount a pouch in that leftover area for ratchet straps etc. So that is still to come.

What size holes did you drill for the pegboard? 5/16" would be my guess??

Blue Mule

 

[jpHemi3]

That is a Professionally done Job dude! Nice!

 

[LemmysDad]

Love the rack, cringed a little at the drilling the bed wall, but it looks great. As a side note, that Fiskars splittin axe is the kitties *******. I love mine.

 

[Leif_Ram2017]

I've looked at this thread a few times. Looks like a lot of work! But I think I'm gonna get started on one this weekend.

A couple questions:

1. The 1/2" HVPE looks like overkill to me. Do you think 3/8" or maybe even 1/4" HVPE would be rigid enough? I guess it would kind of depend on the # of mounting points. But it looks like you have plenty.
   
2. What diameter hole did you use for your 'peg board'? And was there any logic behind that size?
   
3. I'd love to see what you ended up doing for your ratchet straps. Any pics?

Thanks,
Leif

 

[bryce88]

I've looked at this thread a few times. Looks like a lot of work! But I think I'm gonna get started on one this weekend.

A couple questions:

1. The 1/2" HVPE looks like overkill to me. Do you think 3/8" or maybe even 1/4" HVPE would be rigid enough? I guess it would kind of depend on the # of mounting points. But it looks like you have plenty.
   
2. What diameter hole did you use for your 'peg board'? And was there any logic behind that size?
   
3. I'd love to see what you ended up doing for your ratchet straps. Any pics?

Thanks,
Leif

Yeah it just depends on how rigid you want the panel to be. It does have a little flex to it with the spacing I have between mounting points you could do thinner and I don't think it would break or anything but you'd just have more flex. So, just a personal preference thing.

I don't remember the diameter of the holes I drilled but the thought originally was to do a molle pattern so the holes were sized for that.

To be honest if I were to do it again, I don't know that I would even do the holes. It's too much of a hassle to unbolt everything to access the back of the panel to attach nuts so I think I'd let it remain solid and just screw directly to it with drywall screws to attach quickfists. Then you can move the quick fists around when you need to really easily but they'd still be really secure. In fact I did that to attach a hatchet and it works great. So, if you go that direction you're definitely going to want the 1/2" HDPE to give some meat for the screws to bite into.

I did end up attaching a pouch for ratchet straps I'll post some pictures of that for you.







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[Toddbigboytruck]

So I'm starting a project. I want to increase the utility off my bed by adding some bedside racks to the inside walls. I want to be able to mount a shovel, axe and other things in there under my tonneau cover to keep in there all the time. My plan is to use 1/2" HDPE and cut out holes in a molle pattern so I can use molle pouches or also mount quickfists for handled tools. I'm planning on using rivet nuts to attach it around the perimeter and I have a nylon cylinder with a 1" diameter that I'll use as standoffs at varying depths because the side of the bed has different depths in different places.

The piece of HDPE that I have is 24"x 48" so that's why it's not running the entire length of the bed. Which I'm fine with because the head of my shovel can hang off the end and that part of the rack is hard to access anyway.

I'm also planning to incorporate some bed lighting under the rail after the rack is in.

Let me know your thoughts! Any ideas or advice would be welcome. I'll keep posting and keep this thread updated as I make progress on the project.

but where did the fire extinguishers go?

Here are some pictures of the cardboard pattern that I've started.




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I was just wondering what size bed do you have. Love it great work Two thumbs up

 

[bryce88]

I was just wondering what size bed do you have. Love it great work Two thumbs up

I have the 5'-7" Bed

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[Toddbigboytruck]

I have the 5'-7" Bed

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Thank you

 

[Socalramfan]

Did you ever do anything with the other side? Great inspiration and job !!!

 

[bryce88]

Did you ever do anything with the other side? Great inspiration and job !!!

No I didn't. I haven't had a need to mount anything over there, but I did add a tailgate net set in about two feet that holds back things like duffle bags and coolers and I added some attachement points for an adjustable bungee that I use to secure groceries. The nice thing is it all folds up with my tonneau cover when need the whole bed. I can give more details about how this all works if people are interested but it works great! here's how it turned out:


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[rzims]

very nice work! I've been looking at ideas for mounting a shovel, ax, maxtrax and hi-lift jack and this looks like a great idea.
I was thinking linex'd plywood but the plastic looks good.
Also thinking I didn't need the holes and would just screw the quick fists directly to the plywood.

Thanks for the inspiration and really nice job!

 

[Leif_Ram2017]

Any trick to tracing the profile of the wheel well? Did you do just do a little trial and error, eyeballing it, until it looked just right?