Hondo Garage's New Thing

Woot! Status changed!

Anyone know about how long the powder coating takes? I thought it was 1 or 2 weeks

 

what size are your tires and do you have a lift?

 

No lift.
265 75 16 ko2

 

You move into “Components Produced?”

 

Thanks for this! The cross bars are a little over 2 inches tall right? I think I’ll be able to fit in the garage at work without anything on top.

 

Into components produced notified along with an email saying parts are heading to PC

 

Love some Component Produced, just made "In Production Notified" Mon.

 

I think I’ve reposted it a half dozen times. Every time someone asks lol.... too many responses on this thread everything always gets lost. Plus man there’s A LOT of new people on here almost daily now.

 

For the people that have the "upgraded" black lined larger bed panel... Do you have the aluminum C-channel all around the edge? I swapped my original one for the black one not realizing it wasn't supported around the edges. Now I need to make sure the bare side is always on top of one of the supporting edges. I might just add the C-channel myself.

 

If I recall correctly the reason they switched to line-x on the panel was to avoid having to install the trim on the outside edges (time/labor savings). This also resulted in not scratching the tent material up if you rotate the panel into "bunk mode".

My 25x50 panel is coated and one long side has a lip on it to support the smaller 25x25 panels. Not clear why you would need the other edges "supported"???

 

Yeah sounds like it works the same way still to me - I wasn't sure if SJAY was trying to say his original panel had the lip on both long sides or what?

 

Example... I’m in full size bed mode. The lip side of the big panel is facing the rear as it should to support the rear panels. If I remove the small panels and slide the middle panel towards the back I need to make sure I turn it around first. I forgot to do this one time and climbed up to close the rear tent window. The un-channeled side flexed a lot under load. It will probably hold a lot of weight before breaking but it sure didn’t feel good.

 

I understand now!

I think I've sat on mine with it like that, but wasn't paying attention to flexing. Good one to ask someone at GFC about perhaps.

If I were a camper my wet weight would only be ~160lbs, so not the best test case for heavy panel loading.

 

Picture example.

If I sat on this right now it would flex like crazy. Original panel had a c-channel that would have supported it.

 

The GFC has been great for our family and its great that my wife and kids love it as well. Here's a pic of the cake they made for me this week. Pretty stoked.

My wife also supported me getting an awning for the camper for my birthday. Thanks to @YOTA 4X4 for some good awning advice.

Back to the cake, I know my truck is still stock, but some slightly bigger tires would have been nice! no?

 

I've been slacking on finishing my half-ish width 80/20 bench - but- I attached my prototype only to the accessory rail with some very basic angle iron and flat bar brackets.

I am going to add a tab to one of the lower corners near the tailgate to one of the bed bolts shared with my bedside stiffeners, but that's just for overkill sake. If your 80/20 creation is rigid enough on it's own you just need to keep it from moving around while underway.

Poor quality picture of what I tested so far:


I sized things so I could sleep downstairs with the long cushion and a small panel (~25x75 space), or use cushions on top of the bench and against the tube frame as a couch.

 

Ace:

I'm planning a 1/2 system myself. My current plan for tie down is:

Use the bolts that hold the bed down and the bolt that holds the 'tie down'. I'm planning to head to the hardware store today or tomorrow to get bolts that are 1/2" or so longer to account for the plywood. My idea is to put 'flanges' on the plywood base that reach the bolts ahead and behind the wheel well.

I just installed the 'bed rail' on the forward part of the bed. I will put 2 bolts through the cabinet and anchor them to this forward bed rail.

I'm pretty sure this will be sufficient to hold everything down.

You've got things pretty well dialed in and probably don't need my dos centavos. But, as much as I've 'borrowed' from your posts I thought I should chime in.

 

I bought some of these which worked great for securing my deck to the bed mounting bolts:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/USP-2-in-x-5-1875-in-Steel-Concrete-Angle/3692046

 

Decked systems requires a few holds to be drilled into the bed of the Taco. I believe on full sized truck they only use the tie downs.

Drilling into the Taco bed isn’t too bad though because it’s composite so rust isn’t an issue. If i remember right I drilled 6 holes, 3 on each side with a backer plate on each side.