Flatbed MkII, off-road mods and BS

I will start. 2014 sky silver. I am selling the current flatbed, and making a longer one. I want it to look more like a 79 series cruiser tray back, plus I could use the extra room. I am gonna make a square tubing removable frame, an put custom sewn canvas over the back that can roll up on the sides. Let me see yalls flatbeds for ideas!


70 series


My bed is currently 6.5 feet of deck space. 70's have 7.8 feet of deck space. Think it would look too goofy i I added a a little over a foot in length? Let me hear yalls opinions.


Biuld starts on page 9

 

I think the current one looks great, that extra foot looks strange even on the truck its supposed to be on.

 

I don't have a flatbed but I would say keeping the length you have looks great. Maybe a little bit longer but the bed on the 70 looks to long imo.

Im mostly here for more pics! lets see your truck. not many tacomas with flatbeds

 

I have a pic of what I am gonna biuld

Except there will be a 8k winch in the center underneath, and the licence plate will be over to the side. On the other side will be a pin jaw recovery point, like this.

This will all be bolted to the frame at the original bumper hole loactions. Sadly I don't have any pics of my truck offroad. I don't have any friends that offroad with me. Hence the reason I have front and rear winches, a locker, soon to be a front limited slip, and 500 dollars worth of recovery gear in the right hand tool box.

 

If you stretch it too far it will give you the T100 look. In all honesty make your truck suit your needs. If you can get a 7-7.5' bed you are that much closer being able to carry a sheet of plywood or gypsum board with ease!

 

In for a friend.

 

@weldertaco ​

 

Well if I stretch it to 7 feet, I can get 24 inch underbed boxes on the back. The other option, which i have pursued to some extent, is to buy a totaled 2014 v6 mt access cab, and switch everything over, and built a full 8 foot bed. Then sell all leftover parts and make my money back. It would all come out about the same. If I had another vehicle to drive I would go that route to have a one of a kind toyota that is priceless.

 

I though he sold his flatbed about a year ago?

 

nah, still wheeling it.​

 

So, this along the lines of something that I've been interested in doing as well. A couple thoughts:

As you go longer with the bed you're going to be reducing your departure angle, at some point it'll just be too much. Under bed boxes behind the rear wheels will only make that worse. Have you looked into finding small under bed boxes that'll fit in front of the rear wheels? Maybe even ammo cans or something?

If you build a bumper/winch tray that is extended out from the rear of the frame, are you concerned about it having too much leverage, i.e. being extended out to far and twisting the frame? Imagine bottoming out one corner of the bumper (there's that departure angle issue again) and having it push up and twist the frame. Also, winching at an angle...

If you were closer, I might be interested in buying that 6.5 bed.

 

I have other plans for the truck too. Dakar leafs with overloads with ome shocks, ome 886 on front with heavy duty shocks, 2 gallon under bed air tank, 40 watt solar panel on quick detach mount, flowmaster 50 2.25 with high mounted rear exit, aFe filter, electric fan kit. Shit I might as well change this to the "flatbed bs thread"

 

Just make it your build thread!

 

You've got more money than me to play with!

 

Well the winch would be underneath right next to the original frame caps. As far as departure angle, the tow hitch will catch way before the bed end will catch. As far as underbed boxes, you are completely correct but I can find any small ones for the front

 

might as well do 37s..
@ChandlerDOOM

 

That's what being 33 with no kids and no wife gets you. But then again money isn't everything. Sometimes it really sucks coming home to a completely empty house. The word rich and the word money are often associated, but that's not the case in reality at all.

 

I know the feels.. then I have to make my own sandwiches???

 

You have what I don't and vise versa. Although our house is paid for...
I was in your shoes 2 years ago, how quick things change.

 

Absolutely not. It has the max tire size on it that I will go right now. I want to be able to leave for barrow point or camping in Panama. My opinion is large tries do not equal long comfortable trips in remote locations without breaking stuff. On a 4 cylinder anyhow