Hauling Long Lumber

Can you borrow someone's boat trailer for the long boards?

 

Thanks for the tip on Harbor Freight. Turns out there was a Harbor Frieght about 15 mi from my house. Drove up there this morning and picked up the bed extender rack that goes into the hitch reciever.

Then drove to the home improvement store and got the lumber. I tightened it down with some ratchet straps. I let the boards lay flat in the bed and rest on the rack. the 16 ft boards still hung over by about 5 ft. It was like driving a school bus as far as the length goes.

I considered the boat trailor idea, the only person I know with a boat (nearby) is a guy with a large sailboat - and I don't know him well enough to borrow the trailer on short notice.

Did a mock up last night with a 13 ft board thru the back window. It would have worked. Ratchet straps held the board really secure, but I felt that $70 for the rack was maybe a little safer.

Definitely need to install some more D-rings in the bed near the cab. Ended up renting (buying and returning) a couple bags of concrete mix to hold the boards down.

Once again, thanks for the help.

 

For 16' the safest thing to do is to rent a utility trailer. Ask a bud or find a local truck rental like u haul. Remember your trick bed is only 5' long which leaves 11' hangin out. You can also buy a utility trailer and use it for multiple task. Just my .02

 

Edit I realized my last post was a little late. Glad it worked out

 

Good choice.

 

to late for this trip
I've left the tailgate up
boards down behind the cab with something heavy on the end (spare, concrete)
works ok for short trips

 

i did it this way:

16' MDF has no structure to it flops all over the place. Used tie downs in the bed and through the window. Extender is awesome.

 

Found this thread when I was looking for different options. Just wanted to share another idea. I used my 3/4" plywood to support the 12' foot boards and didn't have any issues. 16 footers would have been just fine also using this method. Rather than a bed extender just buy a sheet of plywood and return after you're done if need be.

 

I realize this is an older thread, but figured that this could be useful as people search the topic (as I did earlier today).

Here's what I did to carry a few 16 ft and 8 ft boards. An old blanket to pad the roof, a couple straps wrapped once around the bundles at each tie spot, and some duct tape at the end to hold the 16 footers together. This worked with no problems whatsoever.

 

Lol , dhk

 

Seems legit.

 

wtf is dhk?

 

Wow, 2 pages without a dick joke? I'm a little disappointed.

 

I've used one of these no problems hauling 2x6x16 pressure treated.

 

He's an idiot that used to be on this forum , his account is deleted but there are a few quotes of him in my posts in this thread , I forgot about that guy

 

Was waiting for that pic to appear.

 

Otters have nice fur...
I have a couple of pics in my phone I should dig up.

 

Not 16 footers

 

Gotcha. I figured it was some kind of forum lingo that was over my head. But yeah, I thought briefly about going through the window, but that didn't give me a good feeling. Over the top was super easy. The only potential problems are if its hanging too far back (tail swing), or gets too tall (clearance issues). My route was easy enough given the setup I used.