For those looking to mount to the bed rail

So I've been going nuts trying to find a way to mount my hi lift to the rail and other stuff like quickfist etc, I don't want to pay the $90+ for the hi lift mount from vendors either so...

So few weeks ago was doing shut downs changing out MCCs

a lot of the brackets inside the gear that held the control cells and whole unit together look a lot like the brackets from relentless fab. All I need to do is paint them and trim a tiny bit of metal. Then just drill some holes to mount to the rail and put a bolt through to hold the hi lift. (will post pictures when done)

So the problem then was finding what I can use to mount as the T nuts are not cheap to get here. five are roughly $25.
So went to home depot, lowes, action trucks, and some other canadian stores that I figured I could try. Went in with the bolt from one of the bed cleats to see if anyone had a T bolt similar and well...you can get identical T bolts from Fastenal, but they will only sell by the box of 100 and I don't need that many, and they require you to have an account which I do not have. So got the guys at brafasco (not sure if its canadian or not but its just another construction supplier mostly for hardware) to help find something and one of them came up with this.


5/16th grade 5 steel hex nut and a weld nut. can't remember the exact load rating of 5/16th but should be up around 500lbs and I'll be using 4 just for the hi lift.

The weld nut is the same size as the T head of the T bolt for the cleats.
12 bolts and nuts cost me $13

Should work perfect for mounting light things to the rails.
So for those looking for a cheap alternative, 5/16th weld nuts are identical size as the T bolts used for the cleats from factory and 5/16 almost fit on the T nut from the cleat, just threads were different (guessing toyota stuff is metric M8)

 

What is it that you do for work? When I see shut downs I think of my exact job (pool maintenance worker). As we have the same MCCs here at one of the community centers.

I'm based out of Vancouver also, which province are you in?

 

Did this for 4 bucks

 

Milling machine T slot nuts work great to Granger sells them

 

Commercial/Industrial electrician.
That MCC was in Eaton Centre in Toronto (sure you've heard of the mall)
And ya I'm in Toronto, Ontario, but go all over Ontario for work.

 

they do but I can't seem to source them for a decent price in a 3/8 or preferably M10 size as I'd rather keep everything metric.

 

I've got a tonneau cover so needs to be off-set lower.

 

Ah makes sense I was in the OPP process so I'm very familiar with Ontario and that region.

 

Following to see what yall come up with..

 

here's the parts I took.

I have 4 of the long bar things that I plan on making into a quick fist mount
and
3 of the other ones, two of them are going to be for the hi lift.
Little bit of bending and should be very similar to the fabricated ones in terms of bends at least from what I've seen in pictures.
all of this was scrap metal/garbage so cost me nothing.

 

just looked at this again what size rod did you use for that?
Looks like 3/8

 

Honestly I'm not even sure. I just went to the hardware section and grabbed some stuff I thought would work. I went driving yesterday after I did it and the jack came loose. I think I need to add two more "mounts".

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/diy-hi-lift-and-tool-mounts.260147/

 

That's a lot of weight on that rail though.

 

yeah, sure, if you want to pay 4x retail.

 

how did you attach to the rod?

If its 3/8 or 1/2 has more than enough strength to hold a hi lift. It coming loose makes me think it needs lock washers to prevent it from coming loose from vibration.

 

saw that one
but wasn't overly fond of only having 2 anchor points holding as I'm concerned the mount itself could turn/move.
Having two anchors per mount will prevent it from spinning