1st gen, building a farm truck wooden rack inside the box.

Is the side of the box double walled? How about bolting to the floor?

This is for a farm truck, we need to move pigs around (we run about 40 at a time) They can easily jump the box and will also throw themselves up against the rack, so we want to be able to bolt upright 2x4 supports inside the box up about 5' above the floor and built a "fence" to keep them in. Our pigs can get up around 300+ lbs. (& they are not stupid ;-)

Can we drill through the sides and floor using carraige bolts?

Is the side walls of the box hollow? If so, can we use fender washers on the outside?

Any farmers out there???

Thanks
Buddhahead Steve

 

I see in your info, that you might have a 2009? This is the 1st gen forum, so you might not get the answers you're expecting here.

As far as 1st gen's are concerned though, the bed sides are doubled walled in the sense that one wall is the inner bed wall, and the outer is fender skin. The floor is a single layer- you can certainly drill and bolt through it, but with the weight you're talking about, I'd also look into ways you could further disperse the weight to the frame rails (also probably add some plate and box the rails) over just the four stock attachment points.

 

The title does say 1st gen, so I have to assume he's go another truck besides the 2009 listed on his sig.

I'm having a little trouble envisioning what you're talking about, but 5' is a LOT of leverage.

I would build something that doesn't rely just on the attachment points for strength. Build it so it would be able to more or less stand on its own and then use rivnuts or some bolts with fender washers just to keep it from moving around. The more attachment points you use, the better.

I have my hi-lift jack rivnutted to the side of my bed with some mounting plate I made, but the way it's mounted, there's hardly any leverage on any one rivnut. Each mount basically triangulates between the side of the bed and the top of bed rail.

Never mind the shit welds:

That said, for a farm truck, might I suggest one of these:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/other-beds-on-1st-gen-tacos.395981/#post-10958355

 

Yep... helping a friend with a 1st Gen 04... the above would be SOoooo kool... but I don't weld and my friend, well let's just say she has a subsistance lifestyle, she sales meat at the local farmers market, which is kool... but she's not raising nut fed Iberico pigs... just vegi/fruit fed Bershires... small farming is not easy, nor lucrative.

On your bracket pictured above, on the lower section you drilled through the wall to the outside and just bolted it down, & then drilled throught the top lip of the box??

I'm thinking, create a 2x4 horizontal side rail across the top of the wheel well, shim & bolt to the inner wall to match the top rail, then run uprights attached to floor ( bracketed to 4 bed mounting points), side rail & top... I'll post pix... wish me luck!

If anyone has any suggestions I am very open to your thoughts...

Thanks to everyone...
Buddhahead Steve

 

Over the years I have made many racks to install in pick up trucks

They just need adjusted to fit different make trucks .

The strength is in the rack the bed just holds it in place. some of the full size ones hauled one horse years ago.

Attach front and rear if need be you can use ratchet straps to the factory tie downs

If you were close I would be glad to help

 

The lower mount does not protrude to the outside of the bed, if that's what you're asking. Those 2 lower bolts have riv-nuts. If you haven't heard of them, they are awesome. See below.


You drill a hole, then insert the rivnut and smash it in place with a special tool (they're cheap, at least they can be). Then you have a fixed nut in place. If you go this route, definitely get stainless steel rivnuts.

$17 Stainless Steel Rivet Nuts Threaded Insert Nutsert Rivnuts 5 Sizes 8-32, 10-24, 1/4"-20, 5/16"-18, 3/8"-16

https://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Th...3d1c8c-2fd2-4f19-aa41-2df022bcb241-spons&th=1

The upper mounts are just drilled and bolted in place with conventional nuts since I can get a wrench on the underside of the rail.

But as @Bivouac said, I'd really suggest making the rack to stand alone and just use the tie-downs or bed-bolts to hold it in place. Even on much larger trucks it's just thin sheet metal (or even plastic). It's not meant to be structural except in the locations where there's structure that reinforces the bed (like at the corner tie-downs).

 

I was doing some research, because pull out strenght is going to be key, vs shear, a lot of articles say go with Plus-Nut for pull out strenght. But is 1/4-20 really strong enough for the task.... I'd fell much better with 3/8 or even 1/2", but I don't think anyone makes them much bigger...