My Custom Bed Organizer

A few weeks ago I got sick of all the small things rolling around my bed. Not sure if it's me or my wife but, no matter how many times I make sure everything is straight and stacked, I open my tailgate to find everything everywhere.

I set out to make a low cost organizer that I can bolt right to the bed rails that will help keep my stuff in one place. In this case, shovel, chuck-it, ice scrapers, and come along. I settled on this design using bent sheet metal, a 6" abs pipe and some hose clamps. It should all fit under my tonneau cover and keep my things from rattling. Since I get a discount by ordering quantities >1 from the sheet metal shop, I decided to make one to go over each wheel well.

I bought this 6" pipe to hold everything, this was the smallest that would fit the come along. I tossed it in the bed to mock it up over the wheel well:


3D Printed two iterations of hollow prototypes to check fitment:

Final bent sheet metal parts getting primed:


When painted and bolted in, it should look something like this (also printed thumb screw adapter for the hardware so I can easily take it off if it's ever in the way):


I'll upload photos of the finished product after the paint cures and I am able to install. This has me thinking, maybe I should make another with a 2" pipe to protect/hold my fly rods during camping trips...

 

how much angle can you tilt the brackets for exactly what you said, fishing rods or other longer items?

 

With the slots that are on there now, I could probably tilt it enough to get a long pipe to hang out the back of the bed. I was imagining something like this using a pvc pipe and a bent stainless box for the rod holder though:



Not ideal because I'd have to at least break my 9ft in half, but better than worrying about it getting broken I guess.
I think I could also tilt this version and get a full length, but it would look pretty funny sticking out back of my short bed haha.

 

Looks good.

This would be good for folks building black abs pipe water tanks as well.

 

Yeah definitely, I didn't even think of that option. In that situation I'd want to do some actual engineering calcs to account for the weight of the water and make sure everything is safe, but I think two brackets would probably be more than enough strength. I wonder what the bed rails are rated to.

 

Agree on two brackets.

Rough calcs for weight; 5.5ft of 6inch pipe should be about 8 gallons of volume. 8 gallons of water at 8.34 lbs = +/- 66lbs of water

 

Have had these in my bed for a month or two now. Working great for organization. The three hose clamps seem sturdy enough as well.