Truck Bed storage - DIY weirdo solutions

I need to work out a storage solution for the long bed too fiddy I just bought. In all reality, a camper shell is probably the ideal solution for storing what I want to store, but the draw backs will keep me from going that route. Draw backs include godawful rear visibility, particularly for boat launching, horrible appearance on the brick body fords (older grampa-esque designs) and stupid high prices for what I really want (full fiberglass with hing up side windows, color matched $$$$$$$).

My goals are to transport stuff in the bed (like luggage) that needs to stay dry and to keep stuff out of sight even if it's not super secure. I don't want to have to wrap the luggage in hefty bags and chain lock it to the truck to go in somewhere and have dinner while travelling.

What I'm thinking right now is a low profile roll-up tonneau cover (like this. They are mostly water tight with some work but easy to roll up if I need to pile stuff in the bed. They also keep prying eyes off my stuff, but they aren't any more secure than a convertible. Which is to say, not. I think I would look into hard mounting some kind of storage box inside the bed, probably a medium sized poly one of some kind for some added security.

Here's where things get weird.

I need to transport bicycles on a regular basis. I can easily throw one in the back and cover it with the tonneau, but if we're towing the camper and the bed has luggage and stuff in it, I need to mount external. Which brings us to the roof rack I built for the outgoing Explorer:

It has a nice bike mount on each side and is a damn handy gear basket that's a full 6' long.

I want to mount it over the bed on cross bars so it just clears the tonneau cover. It would have some kind of quick release or 4 bolts so it could be removed easily to haul tall cargo.

And that brings me to the bed rail caps. The truck currently has the chrome tube style bed rails on the back. Not my fave. I'm wondering how it would look to replace them with sections of Unistrut. Cut the unistrut at a 45 toward the back of the bed and mount it solid side down with the open part of the cross section toward the bed. If they were spray painted silver, they'd look kind of like normal bedrails, right? I could also use them as tie down points when needed. And you could actually slide a heavy piece of plywood in to create a deck, if you needed to hang out in a lawn chair. or something.

I'm also think of incorporating a headache rack behind the cab that could hold a couple flood lights, again for general cargo and boat work. Low profile, simple.

How crazy does this sound? Too ghetto?

Here's the truck:

I usually just toss a roof top cargo box in the back if I need dry storage quickly.

Embrace the grandpa and get an aluminum topper. The fiberglass ones are so heavy that you have to leave it on all the time but an aluminum one you can just take on and off as you need it. Easier to find one with opening side windows too.

Seems to me that if you do a soft tonneau like a Truxedo Lo Pro that leaves the top of the bed rails exposed, you could have it in place but still put a temporary rack above it:

This is the same idea, but properly ghetto. Roll up toneau with a 'rack' in the stake pockets. I've done this more than once. It has occurred to me each time that a more proper permanent solution like you propose would be nice, but I haven't gotten around to it. So yes, the theory works well.
If I could make a suggestion? Figure out a way to attach some sort of tall mirror image of the headache rack at the back of your rack. Pockets, bolt on, whatever. Now you can carry ladders or kayaks or other silly long things.

That truck isn't gonna work for you. You might as well just give it to me. I'll be right over.

Have you considered the hard roll up tonneau cover? Also, McGard makes a little doodad that can keep your tailgate from wandering away. It's like a heavy-duty hose clamp with a key to tighten it. Those tailgates are pitifully easy to remove.

Maybe the roof rack can go on the roof of the pickup, with the excess length supported by struts down to the bed sides-- kinda like the ladder carriers you see on work trucks?

Also, can the bikes go in or on top of the camper?

I had a hard roll up tonneau on a Ranger-- the front box takes up a lot of room whether you are using it or not. You might be better off with a hard tonneau with gas struts, depending on how you solve your other problems. Would at least be more secure.

A quick google brings these ideas:
http://www.f150forum.com/f38/thule-roof-rack-install-problems-149471/index2/

How about a ladder rack? I was thinking of putting one on my Dually before I sold it. I was going to enclose the bed area, kinda like a camper top. It would give you some security and dry storage, plus you would have the rack to put stuff on. Usually easy to find on CL, plenty of work trucks had them.

Oldopelguy:I'm actually getting a topper from my dad that's exactly that. If I fall in love...

Tom- that's exactly how the linked one mounts, but it's $200 cheaper and reviewed just as well.

Mazdeuce- exactly! I'm not at all opposed to additional and temporary racks and rigging. Sounds like a good idea.

Snail- you wish!

Basil- bikes at cab or camper height on that truck is just too high to lift a 30lb bike. Plus, keeping things cab height helps the mpgs. (Yeah, I know) The hard roll ups are ideal but too pricey for a $3k truck, and the fiberglass ones are way too hard to deal with.

John- kinda like the second two, but with a gear basket too.

81camaro- thought about that, but it has the same down sides as a topper with more hassle if you try to enclose it. Also looked at the Snugtop canvas topper, same issues.

So..I'm hearing that I'm not crazy. I may go ahead and order the tonneau then.

I took the chrome tubes off tonight and it's already better.

In the spirit of GRM, my convenient, low budget method is cheap, actually free if you already have a bedliner,and can haul up to 6 bikes with a Ridgline.

Well, sure, but it becomes much less effective with a bed full of other luggage and gear in monsoon rain while towing a camper. Or when you don't want your bike stolen.

sill question. could you not just mount the bikes to the rear of the camper trailer or in the front above the tanks, if you have them?

like

or even to the front of the truck

Or do what we do and just put them inside the camper.

Pop up camper, so that's a no go. Besides, that doesn't involve building useless stuff.

In reply to ultraclyde:

Fold up back seat, trunk under bed and large cable lock through frames and bed tiedown. ; )

Understand that it will not work in your situation. Just sharing my experiences with 4 kids and a wife who are all cyclists. We have tried most of the other solutions and have gravitated back to this. Have 2 friends who have trashed expensive bikes with the roof racks, multibike trailer hitches are painful as well etc

I have seen more than one bike destroyed on a roof rack, luckily not any of mine. I rarely used the one on the Exploder, the bike usually got thrown in the back because I was travelling by myself. Also, I don't park the truck indoors, so there's distinctly less chance of taking one out. On the pickup, though, that's one of the reasons I want to mount them at top of bed, just to keep the overall height down. My road bike fits in the extended cab pretty well with the front wheel off, but the mtb and the gravel adventure bike are too long.

On a day-to-day basis for after work rides and most other stuff, throwing the bike in the bed is the obvious and easy answer. It will really be rare that I need to put the bike in a rack on the back, mostly just for family trips. Those will probably include the dog in the extended cab, wife in the passenger seat, and lots of gear in the bed plus a trailer - either sailboat or pop up camper- hence the odd requirements.

Giving the dog room to ride in the same situation was actually the reason for the roof rack on the Exploder. For years I ran a piece of plywood in the back with fork traps for 3 bikes and it worked great. Once you put bikes and gear in, though, there's not much room for a bouncy 70lb dog. If it weren't for our goal of buying a big sailboat I wouldn't be getting rid of the Ex. It's the perfect vehicle for 90% of what I do, but when the other 10% becomes towing 8k lbs 4 hours to the coast...sadly she's just out classed.

The other motivator is just an opportunity to fab something useful and cool looking since I'm probably not going to ever build an ExpeditionPortal worthy off road rig.

Just make it a giant trunk.

Stake pocket mounted bike rack seems like a cool solution.

I've got a cycling friend that had a fiberglass tonneau on a short bed 150 that we traveled in for rides. After dealing with his I swore I would never own one. It was ALWAYS in the way. But basically, yeah, I'm turning the bed into a big trunk. But with a canvas cover.

Access Vanish tonneau cover ordered! Out for under $300 shipped. I'll probably stop by Lowes on the way home today and pick up a couple pieces of unistrut. We'll see what happens.

I would argue that soft tonneau covers are more secure than caps from a practical standpoint. A LOT of theft out of vehicles is theft of opportunity. People see something, they take it. You can see into a topper, you can't see what's under a tonneau. Get a tailgate lock (they must make one for your truck) and now someone has to knife the cover to even check to see if there's anything worth stealing and that is a very very low probability situation. If I regularly parked on the street at night I might feel different, but I'm very comfortable with my cover stopping theft.

Have one of these on my Eff Tree Fiddy, and it's been very useful,

http://www.softopper.com/?gclid=CPHyloyXrMoCFQMJaQodtH0LPQ

my FIL uses soft top covers and I have come around to see how awesome they are. He has been using them for 10+ years with no hassles. Lock the tailgate and don't worry. He has 'truxedo' ones. Easy to use, keeps stuff dry for the most part.

Now, the one thing that will really help you in almost all cases, is to throw a broom handle with a hook on the end in the bed. With any cover, you can no longer reach over the side to grab something, and stuff slides forward away from the tailgate. Grab your broom handle, use the hook to retrieve anything from the bed by sliding it back toward you at the tailgate. (Also his idea).

Tailgate doesn't currently lock, but one of my future convenience upgrades is going to be an internal power lock that wires into the power door locks. A little pricey right now, but it's on the list. They actually sell specific poles with hooks for that purpose. Which sort of blows my mind given how common broom handles are. Or I'll just throw the boat hook in there. I also think a set of cheap LED lights under the rails are in order, along with a 12v power point and a 120v inverter eventually.

of course, I may need to upgrade the alternator too...

volvoclearinghouse wrote: Have one of these on my Eff Tree Fiddy, and it's been very useful, http://www.softopper.com/?gclid=CPHyloyXrMoCFQMJaQodtH0LPQ

I looked at those. I like the concept and love the way they look on short bed trucks, but I just don't like them on the long bed like the picture. Something about all the bows bothers me. Of course, if the tonneau cover is a bust, they're my next choice.

Ultraclyde, not sure if you saw it but I sent you a PM last night