Little truck, big wood

[Doug Jones]

Not sure if this is the right area to post this,,,
I surely am not the only one with this problem, so once again I turn to you more experienced people for a solution. I have a small Ford Ranger with the step sides. The wheel wells come to the inside of the bed causeing my truck bed to be real narrow (less than 4 feet). I am interseted in trying to make stuff from plywood but cannot haul the plywood without fear of it blowing out of the truck (best price of plywood is 30 miles away). So I ask, if this was your problem or you know of a solution (other than buying a new truck), can you help me out. I was thinking of some sort of home built rack that I could mount to the truck to keep the plywood standing up on the edge and use some sort of clamping system or bungie cords to keep the wood in place as traveling down the road. If you have dealt with this problem and solved it, pics would be nice as so I could have a visual to work from.

Thanks for any help, Doug

[John Miliunas]

Doug, my "hauler" is an S10, extended cab, so I have the "less than 3'" bed and it's only 6' long, to boot! (My buddy came over Sat. to pick up his "new" Grizz jointer with a full-size bed on his truck and it felt like we were throwing a pea into a large salad bowl!) Anyhow, I'm in much the same situation except, my "good deal" suppliers are closer to 40 miles down the road! That said, I've not really had an issue with it. A 4x sheet does fit in between the side panels. I leave the tailgate up, point the sheets down at the front of the bed and let it hang over the tailgate. If I have only thin sheets or drywall to load, I'll typically pick up a couple 8' studs and put them in first to help support the entire length of the sheetgoods. I *know* I'll end up using them for somethingy, anyway! If it's really light material (1/4" sheets) I may go ahead and bungy or strap them down at the tail end, but that's pretty much it. It's really quite stable and, unless it's an unusually heavy load, I don't find my driving habits to change while bringing it home.

[Tyler Howell]

Doug!

Can you sit the ply on the wheel wells. Some of the Am Made mid size trucks have small pockets built in the side to accomidate 2x4/2x6 stock to actually build a little platform for sheet goods. If not a couple 2x6 brackets fore and aft of the wheel well can tranfer the weight to the bed of the truck.
Safest place is down low and solid. There are pix floating the net of sheet goods vs bungee. Sheet goods 10 Bungee 0. .
Good rope, ratcheting straps even C clamps have been used with good success for xfering heavy loads. I used a chain come-along to secure my new PM 66 on the trailor. (mini gloat). works good! Good luck

[Doug Jones]

Just went out and measured, the bed is less than 48" at the widest area. It actually measures 45" across.
Thanks so far for the help.

[Dean Baumgartner]

Doug,
I might try some 2x4's across the bed and then lay the sheets on top with some rope or bungie straps to hold it down. Standing the sheets on edge would I think invite them to become airborne. Actually putting the 2x's down in one corner with the other end up on the side of the box might be best as that way most of the end of the sheet is protected from wind by the cab.

Just a thought.

Dean

[Jamie Buxton]

Doug --

My current truck is a Ford Ranger too. My solution is one I've used in compact pickups for 15 years. I made a platform that fits in the bed of the truck. The top of the platform is just above the wheel wells. Sheet goods slide in on top of the platform. Tieing down takes just one rope from the front of the bed over the rear of the plywood stack, and under the stack back to the front.

The platform is four pieces of plywood standing on edge. The front-to-back pieces are about 6' long. The side-to-side pieces aren't as tall as the front-to-back pieces, so that sheets don't hang up as they slide in. The four pieces are held together with tab-in-slot construction, so the platform assembles and disassembles without tools. Disassambled, the platform is a package about 10"x2"x6' which stands in one corner of the garage. The total construction time was less than an hour, and the thing has outlasted three trucks so far.

Jamie

[Joseph N. Myers]

Jamie,

Any chance of some pictures, assembled and disassembled.

Thanks and regards, Joe

[Ray Thompson]

How well do you like your paint? When I have things that do not fit in the bed I lay them on top of the bed and tie them to the bottom of the fenders on the outside. The big hooks on the rachet tiedowns fit over the edge of the fenders nicely. The problem that arises it that the rachets vibrate at speed and hit the fenders and possibly scratching the paint. The solution I have used to to get an old towel and rip strips about 8-9 inches wide and after the rachets are secured wrap the pieces of towel around them and duct tape them. I use 3 tiedowns, one at the front of the bed, one at the rear, and one at the wheel wells. Probably overkill but there is nothing worse than reloading in the middle of a busy intersection. DAMHIKT I also haul up to and including 20' 2 by stock on my S-10 but that is another tiedown story.

Ray

[Jamie Buxton]

Okay, here's pix of the platform, assembled and knocked down. You probably can't read the measuring tape over the web, but it shows that the truck's width above the wheel wells is 52".

The zig-zagging is not essential to the design. I didn't have a large piece of plywood around the shop when I built this, and the zig-zagging enabled me to stretch the piece I had.

I actually built this rack for a different truck. It outlasted that one, then a second truck, and now lives in this third one. If I were building a new one for the Ranger, I'd probably set the rack's width so that the front-to-back pieces fit down between the ribs of the bed, and are symmetrical in the bed. That's not really necessary, just a little nicer.

[Dennis Peacock]

(My buddy came over Sat. to pick up his "new" Grizz jointer with a full-size bed on his truck and it felt like we were throwing a pea into a large salad bowl!)

LOL!!! Only you John could come up with such a comparison!!!

[John Miliunas]

LOL!!! Only you John could come up with such a comparison!!!

Hey, so I like my veggies!

[Mike Cutler]

Doug. I have a Toyota Tacoma and solved the problem with 5, 2x4's, a hand full of sheet rock screws and four Bessey Tradesman clamps. The rack I constructed sits on top of the bed rails. I clamped an 8ft, 2x4 length wise to the top of each bed rail, and than cut the other 2x4's to approximately 60". I laid the 60" 2x4's across the top of the 2x4's that are clamped to the bed rails, leaving an equal amount of excess length hanging over. I placed one at each end and one in the center, and than screwed them in place. This allows me to put the plywood and sheetrock on top of the bed, and still be able to open and close the tailgate,leaving the bed itself avilable to store more stuff. I clamp the sheetgoods to the 2x4 frame with more clamps, and everthing is rock solid. I moved 100bd/ft of brazillian cherry a few weeks back and nothing shifted at all. Additionally at the outside of the 60" pieces there is a slight "outrigger" area where the board extends beyond both bed rails. I drilled thru holes there, in each outrigger to run rope to tie down bigger bulkier things. I'd post a pic, but the last time I tried it was a disaster. Oh yeah, on my truck the clamps are able to fit under the bed rail, and on top of the 2x4's , it may be slightly different on your truck

[Jason Roehl]

I'm thinking a little Pythagoras here. Sheetgoods are 48" wide. Square that. The bed is 45" wide. Square that. Subtract the 45" squared from the 48" squared. Now take the square root of that. It's 16.7"--so the plywood will lay in diagonally 17" up one side of the bed. Do your bedrails have stake pockets? If so, throw a nylon strap (small ratchet-type would be good, no bungees or EPDM) across in the front and the back, they will constrain any uplift the plywood may have. Another strap around the back end of the plywood wouldn't hurt, either. But, with your tailgate down, don't ratchet that back strap too much, you can pull your bedsides together doing that.

Now, if you don't like letting your plywood bend sitting at a diagonal like that, you could build 2 quick and dirty diagonal frames with the above dimensions, and two runners that tie them together and make it easier to slide in the plywood. Keep a screwgun in the truck and some 3" screws when you know you're making a plywood run. Even if the plywood goes above the bedrail on the high side, that's good, because the straps will then bear down on it, and it won't go anywhere.

BTW, if you start thinking to yourself, "I can get away with that..." when you have it less than well-secured, YOU WON'T GET AWAY WITH IT!! DAMHIKT!!

[Chris Padilla]

I do what Jamie does only his platform is TONS more elegant, way more cool, and incredibly more compact...I need to redesign mine. BTW, I have 1990 2WD Toyota Pick-'em-Up.

[Doug Jones]

You've all given me some good solutions. Now I need to implement one and test it out,,,,,,,,

Thanks to all, Doug