Mounting a Floor Jack in Your Bed

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Well I ended up making my own "mount" if you will, and it cost me $40. I purchased 3x Angle Brackets made of 7 Gauge Metal so they were plenty strong and secured them in my bed with grade 8 hardware. The brackets keep my floor jack cornered in my bed, and I have a ratchet strap on top of it that keeps it held down. I went over a few speed bumps at good speed and hear no rattling or anything back there so it seems to be working well. Only the trails will tell the true story though. Im happy the way it came out as functionality was my primary concern and it seems to be working great thus far. Its dark now but ill try to remember to post pics tomorrow.

 

Nice!

I will say the metal and bolts you got are overkill but hey at least it will NEVER EVER break on ya haha

 

LOL. Yea Im not too familiar with the strength of particular metals but I know many bumpers are made of 7 gauge and lots of mounting hardware is grade 8 so I figured this would hold. Like you said though, at least itll never break. And if thats really the case, the only thing that can go wrong with my little design (I think) is the ratchet strap snapping or coming loose.

Hmm... Maybe I Should get a 2,000# limit strap.

 

Yeah those bolts are the same grade a hi-lift uses. and Wheel studs are normally grade 8. lol And Sliders are normally 11 gauge or 8 gauge

With the strap it doesn't matter as long as it doesn't get sun dried and then break. I'd look for some that either has UV protection or buy a cheap one so if it does go bad its cheap and can be replaced.

 

Will do, thanks.

 

Alright. Here are pics of what I got.

-7 Gauge Metal Brackets
-1/2" Grade 8 Hardware
-200#Limit Ratchet Strap
-Cable Lock with Mater Lock
-HF 2-Ton Racing Jack w/ 18.25" of lift


This is the jack:



Drilled these 3 brackets into my bed



The brackets have two 5/8" holes which I used for the ratchet strap and lock



Placed my bed Mat Over the brackets to provide even more grip for the jack



Jack Fits



Strapped and Locked in



And the Poles fit perfectly behind my rear DC headrests

 

hey Manny...

make sure you keep that floor jack in there at all times... if someone every stumbles in your bed when its empty, those brackets are gonna hurt like a mothafucka...

 

Nicely Done Manny!

 

Those 1/2" grade 8 bolts could each be used to hoist your entire truck off the ground if you screwed one into the right spot, so they're definitely overkill for mounting a bracket. Regular 3/8" stainless that can be bought at HD or Lowes would be overkill for that install.

Only thing I'm wondering is why you're using a racing jack for a PreRunner. You'll use half your lift just getting the saddle to the frame rail. Also be careful, I've heard that HF floor jacks are prone to leaking.

 

1. Better to be overkill then sorry.
2. Not many people use Highlift jacks in the desert, they do but the base of the race jack is much more suitable for his type of wheeling. Although he has sliders most prerunners don't need that kind of armor. Hence why they use a floor jack as they do not have Highlift lift points.
3. His truck isn't long travel. Even at half he will still has plenty of crank left to get the wheels off the ground as he bought the 18"
4. HF floor jacks do leak, but so do many others. As long as he keeps it flat like that he shouldn't have a problem. The only time I heard of HF floor jacks leaking is because they are at a angle on the bed cage.

 

Yea I already acknowledged the overkill. I'm no expert on metal and didn't know exactly what to get so I just got the strongest stuff I could find at home depot. I really don't think it's money wasted, specially when the bolts are only 38 cents. At least it won't break.

I was actually skeptical about the HF jacks when I first started looking at them, but when you really start askin around and looking at posted experiences, you'll come to realize your intuitions are quite wrong. I see many more reported failures with craftsman jacks than HF, so every and any Jack can fail.

You mustve also missed the post when I gave the reason for using a floor Jack (maybe you should actually read the thread), but basically it's easier, I needed a Jack for home, and it's safer than using my sliders. Many of the desert trucks have them mounted in their cages as well, they work great when out in the desert.

 

Great job. Very well made. Rep to you

 

kewl idea. just make sure that strap stays tight and in good condition!! would'nt want a potentialy lethal object flying around back there.

 

Thanks.

Yea thats the only part that scares me. I cant imagine the jack coming lose and flying in the air to hit my truck or someone behind me. Ill just be sure the strap is always in good condition.

 

I'm just wondering why use a racing jack that's designed to get under lowered cars instead of a bigger capacity floor jack with a little higher saddle height but able to provide a little more lift at its max height, it wasn't so much questioning the use of a floor jack at all.

Another jack upgrade that's cheap and easy to do on these trucks is to replace the factory telescoping jack with a 2-ton bottle jack. I had one sitting around when I bought the truck and found out it fits perfectly in the spot for the stock one.

 

Nice job man! Rep your way, maybe I'll attempt this someday.

BTW I just bought a HF jack (3 ton orange one, 20" lift height) and it's a stout floorjack. It's too heavy for the bed of my truck but I have used many floor jacks and I can say that it's just as nice or even better than some of the higher priced one's.

 

Actually my jack isnt really for lowered cars, and now I understand your statement fully. Theres a differece (according to jack manufactures) between a racing jack and a low pro jack. A low profile jack is for what you described, it allows you to get under lower frames and jack points. A racing jack is simply a jack that has a high pump/lift ratio (E.G 6 pumps for 18" of lift) and I have the latter.

Yea my buddy and I went halfers on that one and I love it. the only complaint I have is, when lowering it, it drops my truck quite quickly despite me turning the handle very slowly to make for a smooth let down. Nevertheless though, that thing is awesome, lifts the perfect height for our trucks too.

 

This is what I had made for this Ranger jack I bought. I then bolted this jack and bracket into my tool box to keep it dry and secure from thieves.

 

Do you have a part # on that bottle jack I've been looking for a bottle jack.

Nice mounts