Cargo Management
For those just joining the thread, I built a rather unconventional bed cage from ABS plastic to hold cargo in place left to right, front to back. What was needed was a way to anchor everything down to the bed itself. My design goals are to keep all cargo secure under a F-1 Bak-Flip, with two 37" spare tires, racing jack, Gas, Water, Shovel, Extinguisher, CO2, other various emergency gear.
As discussed earlier in this thread and upon the advice of some members more knowledgeable than me, it is important to have the load pulled perpendicular to the mount. Since my bed cage is not attached to the bed it was necessary to have multiple tie down points to secure the contents and the rack itself. After surfing the forums, off road magazines et al I came across a company that made specialty tie down systems: Macs Custom Tie Downs, the owner owns a 6.2 White Raptor so there was a nice fit.
I worked with Jami who helped me develop some custom strapping systems. I opted for 11 individual anchor points. These accept their single stud tie down rings.
With all the gear in the truck I marked the optimal locations with blue tape on the top of the Bed Rug. Then I located the recessed Channels and adjusted tape to accommodate this reality. This was the first location compromise. The second compromise(s) came when I was checking under the truck for clearance. Turns out there are a lot to miss between the stock bracing and my RPG frame support. So once again some of the locations needed to change. Measure twice and drill once, required putting the 37” spare back in the truck Bed a few times to make sure all would fit.
Here is picture after slicing thru cover to mark location(s) on the bed itself.
Installing the anchor points is pretty easy, drill, clean openings – I used my dremel, applied generous piece of double sided tape (to backing plate) making sure to clear bolt opening, squarely position backing plate, then complete from inside bed. I used Red Locktight generously and torqued down.
I also added some heavy duty rings to the strongest portion of the box that holds the racing jack and cooler, added a bracket for extinguisher and used an off the shelf ratchet lock down. Also located and locked the shovel down.
CO2 tank is held back against the rack by Mac Cam strap that is also securing gas can and bed rack itself down. It has a second strap going over the top and straight down to the bed.
The tire is held down with a custom “Y” Ratchet Strap.
Observations:
It would have been a lot easier if I had gone with the rail system for the majority of my anchor points rather than individual. This way would have provided more flexibility in location points as the rail could be attached around the braces leaving any point along its length to tie into. For the side positions, the individual points would work great. The single stud tie downs being sewn into the straps make for great operation but difficult to put in or remove in and around the 100Lb tire. I overcame this by trimming the bed rug to open up the access, however I may have been better off using independent (not sewn into strap) locking snap hooks they make. For areas more accessible a simple slice and small cross in the center of the stud location allows for access without trimming.
Ah! some of you may have noticed that one of the fastforward posts showed problems I had when I forgot to strap the cooler down after getting some refreshments while testing... The followup post showed some changes including some additional anchor points for CO2, Racing Jack Box and the Bac-Box. The nature of not posting as stuff happened, but we are pretty much caught up to date now.
Looking forward to the Outlaw Expedition "Day in the Dirt" which I will be running with 3 passengers. Should be a blast - Barstow to Vegas, only $100 whats your excuse?
