2 place sled deck

Nobody would bat an eye if it were a bed-camper, and by the time you load one of those in a Tacoma with all your gear, bumpers, winch, and e-load tires, I bet you'd be over weight as much or more.

 

According to Toyota the max gross weight for an extended cab 4x4 Tacoma is 1,500#, so UtahYoda is only 20# which is about1/4 tank of gas in one of those sleds.
UtahYoda has removed the weight of the stock bed, tailgate and bumper before adding the sled deck. Removing the stock body parts probably reduced his curb weight by 350-400# and allowed the deck height to be lowered by ~ 1'.

 

Addicus24 makes a good point but I imagine that the the trailer that he referenced was more than 1% over his trucks tow rating.
UtahYoda's rig at 5,520# he is less than 0.5% overweight.

 

I'm only going to make one comment here, but it's an important one. Talk to your insurance agent about this before doing it. If you get in an accident, even if it's not your own fault, you may be denied coverage.

 

Best solution so far!

 

As an update. I drove this all winter last year. And with the terrible snow season we had last year in utah, we spent a lot of time chasing storms in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. I drove the flatbed in every condition you can imagine, and it performed perfectly. Through tight canyons, on the interstate at freeway speeds, and ice packed roads. We never had any close calls or problems with the Tacoma handling the load.

For those of you wondering about the build. Its completely aluminum, with the exception of the painted wood boards as the floor. We removed the stock bed, lights and bumper, to save weight. The flat bed was significantly lighter than the stock bed. We used the original 6 bolt locations to secure the flatbed to the truck. Now that we have it figured out, we can do a complete switch in an hour and a half. So at the end of the season I just put my stock bed back on.

Feel free to hit me up with any other questions.

 

For anyone interested I am selling my Tacoma and Flatbed. The truck currently has the stock bed on it. Contact me for prices if interested.

 

I know this is late but I just put on my single place deck and am super pleased with it. I added air bags to try and take sag out. Sure beats hauling a trailer. Halls my 155 great!

 

Looks awesome man! I’m new to the forum here. But wanted to ask you a little bit about your deck. I have a 16 Toyota Tacoma with the 6 foot box and was wondering how much that deck cost you approximately. And do you have a ramp with it?, and was looking for the specs on the deck I would love to make mine identical to yours!

 

Trailers are not allowed on Teton pass where I live, which brought me to this thread. I can fit 2-3 snowbikes or one snowmobile in my Gen3 long bed Tacoma. I run stage 4 Icon suspension which seems to be able to handle those payloads with ease. My old Gen 2 Short bed was impossible to get a sled on safely and had to pull a trailer. Tow rating is low on the Tacoma so, this limited me to a 2 place uncovered trailer and my sleds always got road grime all over them, even with a salt shield. If you want to carry 2 big mountain sleds without a trailer then you'll just need a Tundra unfortunately. There is seemingly no safe solution for such a light truck even with heavy duty leaf springs or airbags. The front of the truck is just too dang light. Maybe, just maybe, with heavy duty suspension steal front bumper, 6.5' bed, 155" or shorter track length, low ratio gearing and a super light aluminum deck or custom bed it could be done. Somebody out there must have done it. Maybe in Canada or Alaska? If your out there......Show us the way!

 

Sorry I haven't been on Tacoma world in a while! If you still have an interest in the deck specs let me know! It cost me $1000 with ramp and all!