Bed Basket Project

I've been planning to build one of these things for months and everything finally lined up to give me enough time to get the steel, and grab a buddy to weld it.

This basket is ganna house all my off road stuff, like spare tire, hi jack, tow straps, gas cans, fire extinguisher ect.

It's a pretty basic design, and fits perfect in the bed. We're ganna use the factory bed rails to attach it, that way i can take it off when i don't need it (like driving to school...it's 1 mile away.)

basic frame. 42x48


the four pegs sticking out are the attachment points to the bed rails
the pegs and the cross member they line up with are a thicker gauge than the rest of the basket for added support


the test fit! it's the perfect size for the bed. all thats left is to add the 6" lip that will hold everything in.


when it's done it'll the bottom will lay flush with the bed.


sorry for the crappy cell phone pics, but you get the idea. when I finish it (hopefully monday) i'll bring my camera

 

looks good bro

 

Looking good bro! So pictures loaded up!! Like to see it all put together!!

 

Thanks guys. I should have it finished by tomorrow, then i just have to figure out the mounts for everything. I'm ganna try and make this thing pretty tamper proof, so if any one has any suggestions on sturdy mounts for a hi jack and jerry cans that would be a lot of help.

 

thats badass i like that alot.

 

Bump.

any ideas on mounting all the gear? I'm a little worried that if I mount a fire extinguisher on the back it'll explode in the hot sun

 

I like it! Nice job on it. I would personally just put the fire extinguisher in the cab...

 

A fire extinguisher won't explode in the heat. However, it can corrode. Keep it in the cab where it'll stay dry.

 

yah, good point.....now it's almost almost done. probly just 30 min. of welding to finish it up. I also figure out the mounting brackets so all i have to do is decide on how to mount the tire and hi jack. The jerry cans should be pretty easy though

 

Dam you now i want one. Looks great

 

Look nice.

 

If you can weld or know some one who can, then it's easy. All the metal for this cost me like $53

 

looks good can't wait to see the finished product.

 

Go with a Marine Grade extinguisher. I have one and work by the beach. No problems mounted on my roll bar in the bed. Most components are high quality plastic so they cant corrode. If its approved by USCG its good enough for me, Boat safety isnt a laughing matter.

 

ahh so I finished yesterday. It holds up great, with the spare tire, fire extinguisher and gas cans mounted. I just need to make a strap to hold in the cans. and then get a jack and mount for that.

To attach the basket to the bed I used the bed rails. made an L shaped bracket and drilled a whole through it. then welded a bolt to a slice of flat stock to go in the rail. so now I can put it in and take it off myself.

ohh and the reason I mounted the cans on the same side was so that I could still see out my back window.....it's reduced down to 1/3 of the window, but it's better than nothing.





I'm painting it right now. so i'll post pics of that later today or tomorrow

 

okay, well i finished that faster than I thought, so here are the painted pics



this is a pic of the brackets i made to bolt in into the bed




and i restored the jerry cans a lot. they were faded, chipped and the inside was coated in oil. So after cleaning them up they look like this

and they are dated and marked USMC 1979

 

okay, so now it's all done and i have everything mounted!!









all in all, it's very sturdy. it can carry 200 lb of gear easy. it fits in the bed perfect and is super easy to take off.

now i just need to get out and use it

 

Very nice looking, are you taking orders?

Good job...

 

Jerry cans on the right to offset Taco Lean?

 

That shit looks really good.. so yea.. how much would one of these cost.. It would def be awesome for the URE trip coming up.. I could take off the Tonneau cover and slip that on..