Cheap bedrail trick

just a link to a thread I came across on expedition portal, may have been done here, but I haven't seen it.

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24348

 

good find and another good forum too

 

gonna have to pick me up some of that hardware, could always come in handy

 

I have been playing around with some different unistrut deals.
Unistrut makes all kinds of neet stuff for brackets and mount systems.
The nuts come in 1/4", 3/8", and I think 1/2" threads for your fastening pleasure.

 

thanks for sharing

 

Cool.

 

no problem guys, glad to help

 

you know i thought about something like that...i use those funky things with the sprins on for a big projector/promethean board all in one unit and thought that they could be used for my truck rails but i didnt know where to buy them or what they were called!!
thanks for this !!!!

 

I played around with this when I mounted my tool box. I didn't go with it because I wanted to slide the box along the rails and the unistrut thing was too fat and bound up on the bolts that attach the rail to the truck. This app is well done. Good find. I forgot I had those in my shop with the springs cut off. Might need to ues them.

 

This is some of the problems with the strut nuts for 1 5/8" strut.
Unistrut make 3 sizes of strut 13/16", 1 1/4", and 1 5/8".
The 1 5/8" is the most often used.
The rails in the Tacoma look close to the 1 1/4" size strut.

I am trying to get some 1 1/4" strut nuts to use so they can turn and lock into the rails correctly.

The other way is to change the strut in the truck to 1 5/8".
Project time

 

Went to Home Depot today to get the hardware.

I was able to make 4 tie downs w/ 3/8" hardware for $13.
Took all of 10 mins to put in place.

Awesome.

 

what do you guys think the holding strength is compared to the stock ones?

 

I plan to give it a good yankin' tonight (the bed ties ). I'll let you know what I find out. I imagine they are strong. When fully tightened, the unistrut nuts get cocked at an angle and rests nicely against the inside of the bed rails, so I wouldn't be too worried.

 

Very good find. They are probably stronger than the stock ones. You could weld the eyebolt closed to make it even stronger, but that would probably be unnecessary. The factory rail would be the weakest link I would guess.