Flatbed Information Thread

Converter is attached to the turn signals and brake light wires. Everything else is wired straight to the OEM harness. Looking into recreating the pinstriping on the headache rack and siding so I've left them unpainted for now. Still need to paint the side rail inserts and the toolbox.

I went overkill and heatshrinked, wire loomed, and zip tied everything I added. Don't want to rewire anytime soon.
Hopefully the inspection doesn't get me for the rack blocking half my third brake light.

 

Had the Ute now for two years and love and use the hell out of it. This summer I worked on filling the dead spaces underneath. There is an eight gallon grey water tank up front, made from 7” sewer pipe. Behind that an Aviair compressor with 2.5 gallon tank and ports on both sides. I just installed the side boxes from Triple M, and between them at the rear is a two by two ish flat shelf for throwing in fire wood or the grill.





Lights were a problem too. I get a hyper blink when I use the brakes and signal at the same time!

 

love the water tank idea in that empty space!

 

As far as adding resistors to stop the hyperflash, you can try asking @MESO or the VLED guys here. Bed looks great by the way!

 

I tried resistors with no luck. I think I need to find a five wire light or add another brake light. Just not super excited about tearing into the wiring again.

 

The guys at E-trailer might be able to help since they seem to sell the lights here. GL!

 

I stopped my hyperflash completely with a different flasher under my dash. Not sure if that's a thing on a 2nd/3rd gen.

 

That's a thought. I did read somewhere about modding the resistor in the flasher unit. I hear the unit is a pain in the ass to get to. It's on my list..

 

Just picked up my aluma bed (7hr round trip to dealer). Got a 66077 rather than an 81087. I think the 66077 is very close to the Gen 1 bed size-just wish it did not pinch in to 57” at the cab. The 81087 would have been a lot wider than my cab-even if it pinched down to 72” at the front. I preferred the rub rails and removable side rails of the Aluma to the UTE. Will try to get it installed before Thanksgiving. Meanwhile also want a new front bumper and suspension. Deciding on the rest suspension will be the death of me.

sadly I do not have the time or skill for much diy wrenching. I do have a custom shop down the street that is hungry for business. He does some beautiful high dollar restores and car show vehicles, but is into lifted trucks. Price wise he did me right on a small lift earlier this year on a 2000 Chevy (stepsons truck) the Tacoma is my toy. I am going to get it sprayed with bed liner before putting it on.
—-
Although I don’t wrench, I do build other things. I made a topper last spring for my big truck. It worked well enough for a 3500 mile trip, which included some overlanding (and probably a 3k+ trip work trip coming up after Thanksgiving), but I want to steal the hardware off of it and build a new load bearing body for it (it was not strong enough for a roof rack). While sized to fit inside a F250 bed over the wheel wells - I think it will be a pretty good fit for for the 66077 (other than height-which was great inside, but a bit much on the road). Having 1 topper for both trucks is a nice bonus. Will test fit it once the bed is on the truck and then start that rebuild. I also have trailers it fits on, but it wastes a lot of space doing that.
—-
Will do my best to take a few work in process pictures. I have a build thread elsewhere on the last topper - but that site is not politically correct and I suspect cross linking to it would probably violate a code of conduct here (plus in my mind it is a failed build).

 

I like it. Nice job

 

I have a pretty extensive flatbed build thread over on a power washing forum. Wish a lot of these posts had been available when I started my build last fall.

Here’s the link.
https://pressurewashingresource.com...ile-3-0-aka-truck-norris/16040/173?u=infinity

The build doesn’t get under way until post 170 something, but feel free to scroll to the top if you need something to help you fall asleep.

Some quick notes on my build:

The Aluma beds are cheap for a reason. The welds look like they were done by monkeys. So far no stress cracks, though. And I like how lightweight they are: 225#
The Aluma 68087 (68”x87”) is really too narrow for today’s Tacoma. It’s probably the perfect size for a first gen, though.
I’ve seen mention of Alcom as a possible alternative in other threads here. The perfect deck width in my mind would be around 74-76”, so the side rails are on the outsides of the tires.

 

nice. Nothing wrong with another option.
The utebed seems to be completed bolted together compared to your welded one. Don’t know which is better and I’m sure there is pros and cons to each. As long as it works right.

looks slick!

 

Excellent thread. Eventually if my bed takes a dump, I'm going flat!!! LONG BED FLAT

 

Thank you sir. Been addicted to try my hand at one.

 

A question for everyone following this thread... what did you do with your takeoff bed? If you sold it, how much did you get for it?

I have my brand new (2019) takeoff bed in storage. A friend has been attempting to sell it on consignment for me for over a year now. We’re in a very rural area, so I’m sure demand here is quite low.

 

Terribly enough I ended up scraping mine. Had the cut bedsides and nobody wanted it. Sold what I could off of it and that was it.

a 2019 bed should sell though.

 

I have to think there would be more chance of someone needing a crash replacement in a more suburban area.

 

I got $1000 with a couple of light pinstripes and a dent in the tailgate. It was three or four months old and went from Seattle to Portland OR , so probably a reasonable market in the large conurbation.

 

Mine is going into the barn for now - but suspect I will try putting it on craigslist eventually. Might get some beer money for it

 

So I've been thinking doing this, I have a decker system ( that would go) and have a up top rack and 23zero( have to figure out how to keep those). Any of you see any positive mpg increase, or other benefits?