New England B.S. Thread

This is exactly what I have done for 13 years of Tacoma ownership. But a word of advice if you don't have a toneau cover or something, wrap them in trash bags and duct tape them shut or something. The package is not watertight. I found that out when I wanted to use one for traction on an icy driveway and it was a solid block of sand ice. Not an issue if it's above freezing but this day it was not.

 

I put sand bags in the bed of mine last winter. With the bed mat, the bags didn't budge.

Didn't bother this year. The added traction wasn't enough for me to justify hauling around 200 lbs...I still got impatient and just put it in 4Hi.

 

They didn't budge on the bed mat you say??!! Might have to pick up one of those.

 

You say that like it's a bad thing.


I used to have a ton of music I ripped from CDs. It's still on a hard drive somewhere in the house, but I kind of abandoned it. It was a pain to sort, keep album art consistent, etc.

I have a Spotify subscription, which I use a lot at home and work. I also have an XM subscription which is what I usually use in the truck. I do have a flash drive of music plugged into the truck all the time, but I rarely use it. It's all full albums, so if you shuffle through you'll get 5 lousy obscure songs to every 1 good one.

 

Yup, didn't budge. Almost nothing moves on that mat. Easily one of the best purchases I've made for the truck.

 

I think I'm sold. Unchained has a deal on that, so going to grab one.

 

The mat itself is pretty hefty, so it adds some weight too. Added benefit for what you're looking to achieve!

 

Win/win right there!

 

Ha ha. Definately didn't mean that. It's just when I'm ready to hear thunder road and freefalling pops out, tends to annoy me sometimes. Then I realize what a 1st world problem that is, give myself a mental slap and get back to what I'm doing.

 

Bed mats are awesome but if you get into an accident, or really panic stop, it's not a matter of things sliding on the mat, things get air born and torpedo into the front of the bed. A bed mat is not a replacement for securing stuff in the bed in my opinion.

 

Yeah, I used to strap my sand bags down because 80lb bags of frozen sand makes a hell of a projectile.

 

^^^ I concur. It can make for a bad day if something comes flying through the back window in an accident. Back in the day, I witnessed what happens when 6x9 speakers sitting on the rear packaging shelf will do after the car hits something. No Bueno...

 

I've gone redneck for weights in the plow truck this winter; I took a few 4-foot firewood logs from next year's stack and tossed them in there, and strapped them in place.

 

Ain't nothing wrong with that!

Although I'm sure ARB would make you something that would be expensive to buy and more expensive to ship!

 

Whatever works! I usually use steel tractor weights but lately figure the cap will give me enough weight.

 

Yeah, between the weight of the plow, the weight of the ballast I throw in the back, and the skinny, aggressive, studded tires I run in the winter, that truck is a tank in the snow. Half the time I don't even need 4x4 while I'm plowing.

 

I had a couple 50lbs bags of sand in mine. They both opened up making a mess.

 

I have a hard cover so not too worried about stuff flying at the window.

But will definitely look into possibly the H frame thing, or the bed mat, to "help" keep bags in place. This is the first year I'm putting serious thought into adding weight to the back for driving in the snow, since I got snow tires. Really should have done it for sure when I was just running "regular" tires more than now, but whatever. Better late than never.

 

I used to load my 2wd Cummins Dodge with about 250lbs of sand and even that was sometimes not enough for that beast. My Taco however, was fine last winter, with just the cap. I even drove it up to Cannon in the middle of a blizzard to go skiing and had no complaints.

 

Out of curiosity... how much do one of those caps normally weigh?!