DIY Bed Stiffeners?

Anybody make their own bed stiffeners? Seems like I could just use 2 pieces of angle, welded at a 90 then trim excess. I have plenty of angle so I can’t justify $125+ for what would take me less than a couple hours tinkering around in the garage.
Looking for ideas on what others have made.

 

I agree. If you can make your own, why not lol. Exactly what I am going to do

 

If you have the time, tools, materials, and skills.. why wouldn’t you doit? People like me who buy it because im lacking at least 1 of the 4 lol

 

Here's what I did...maybe I should have bought instead.

 

Just need practice is all!

I’m about to attempt making my own very soon

 

Buy the stiffener that are multi purpose, i.e. more tie down points, bottle opener, etc.

 

Did you use a gas welder? That's kinda what my first attempt with oxy acetylene looked like back in the day.

 

Made my own. It was easy enough and good practice.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/diy-bedsides-reinforcement-brackets.485409/

 

Sorry, but that picture made me laugh out loud....

Practice makes perfect. I once had a guy tell me it is only a grinder and a paint job away from a pretty weld.

 

depends on what i have more of, time or money. I have almost a full machine shop in my garage, but i bought mine lol.

 

A grinder and paint makes me the welder I ain't!

 

Nice work! Been planning on doing the same thing.
Knowing how to weld/fabricate pays itself in the long run.

 

I know this thread has been around a while but I just wanted to post this. I spent 35$ on this and a few hours sorting it all out.

$20 for 16"x10" shelf brackets at Home depot.
Can of truck bed spray paint I had laying around.
Hardware 4 bolts washers and lock washers for the bottom to frame.
6 bolts to the side walls with washers and lock washers.


I then bent the ends to match the side walls and sanded and painted.

I didn't want to put the stiffeners on the factory bolt and D-ring because it was set to far back and I didn't want to lose but an inch of usable space. I haven't ran the bottom bolts yet I will here shortly.

 

Welcome to the forum!

Those look good.

Were you experiencing any spreading of the bed sides before adding those? I see you do have some sort of rack in the bed is that why you are adding support?

I ask because, and I'm not trying to be mean just trying to be helpful, but I question whether those shelf brackets will be strong enough to add a great deal of extra strength. Did they have a weight rating? They look like mostly stamped sheet steel and relatively light weight in the pictures. Is the rod that is angled across the 45 degree angle solid or hollow and is it securely welded to the bracket?

 

I love the ingenuity and creativity here! However... Don't want to burst your bubble but I wouldn't put much faith in those brackets. I just so happened to buy the exact same ones recently for a project in the garage so I've seen them in person and am familiar with their construction. The design is such that they are meant to carry a load that pushes the two sides together with the diagonal providing support between the sides so that the 90 deg bend can't get any smaller. The same sort of load you'd get when using them as a shelf bracket (their intended purpose). They are NOT designed to carry much load in the opposite direction where you'd be pulling the sides apart - forces which would open up that 90 deg bend.

The issue is that the diagonal support is only lightly welded into place. When the force is acting to close the 90 deg angle the sides themselves hold the diagonal in place. Even if there were no welds the bracket would hold together. When forces are reversed the only thing holding it together are the tack welds. If the forces are too great or the welds weaken over time the diagonal piece will just come loose. That diagonal is only setup for compression forces, not tension.

Only time and your usage will tell as to how these will work out. They might provide the needed support depending on how strong the forces actually are on the brackets but they may also fail on you and only time will tell.

 

The Shelf brackets were rated at 200lbs each so that is an extra 200lbs of support on each side. That will definable stop any twisting on the trail. I am planning on adding a tent on top of the CBI racks. The 45 degree angle braces are solid steel, not hollow. Also on the inside and bottom I back plated the stiffeners with a solid bolt to bolt piece of 1/8th inch steel as well. The welds are not bad they could have been better but it is a slotted fit weld so I was okay with not tacking them more. If it had just been metal to metal I probably would have reinforced the weld more but...

 

See my post above.

They are actually quite heavy duty brackets when used for a shelf. The sides have a small notch in them and the ends of the diagonals have a small tab. The tabs in the diagonal fit into the notches in the sides - this locates the diagonal. Then the diagonal is tack welded. When compression force is applied the sides keep the diagonal in check and the welds are basically doing nothing and not under stress. When tension force is applied all of this force is translated directly to the welds - which are not structural and instead only to hold the whole thing together so it's not loose.

 

200 lbs is the rating for compression not tension. If you're not loading your bed and going wheeling with it loaded, you might be ok. But if you add any significant load on the side of your bed and go over a bump or two, those welds will break. Those brackets aren't designed to be flexed outwards (beyond 90 degrees) nor were they designed to handle torsional stresses either (twisting motions). Not bashing your idea, but just giving you things to think about. If you wanna keep them, I would try adding larger welds at the very least.

 

Time will tell. I am aware of what the limits are on these. That is why I am eventually going to close the triangle. The welds currently on there are useless with the end result of a solid triangle welded all the way around. This will work for now while I am saving for the rooftop tent and I can hit the trail and have a bit of assurance that there is something there to mitigate any movement.

 

So thinking about torsion and over 90 degrees and this is what I decided to do. Because I like the idea of having them open, back further and less of a footprint I ran another piece of 1/8th inch steel along the top of the 45 degree angle to create a T. Right now I do not have it welded. But I will have the T welded soon. This should prevent both twisting and tow out on the bed.

Now just to clean it up, round the edges, paint it and bolt it on. I think this solves a lot of the concerns and questions.