trimster

Planning on thin rubber strips between the steel & aluminum. Need to look into the Onan idea. Thanks.

The metal-tooth fairy arrived. 3/16 alum. Tread plate. Whooohoo.

Started wiring the bed clearance lights yesterday. Using 3/4" LEDs that are rubber grommet mounted and each bulb has it's own weather-proof plug. If ones goes out, I can pull it through the hole in the bed rail and replace it. The white (main run) is marine rated. Everything is soldered and shrink wrapped. These little lights are bright! On the budget front... here's the current tail-of-the-tape: Budget= $7800 Current spend including new welder, tools, steel/metal, paint, wiring, etc = $3537. Not listed because it's in progress, the 6 boxes build. Quote is hovering around $4500. And the generator needs to be added. Looking like $800-1000 for that. And the winch which are sub $200. Then there's the bed skirting which I am templating right now. No quote on that yet. But when all is said and done... I think I'll overshoot my initial budget (guess) by 3 grand. Steel/metal is way up and still climbing. Almost double what my initial research showed. And that increase affected the box fab prices. I did save a lot by finding remnant steel @ .59/lb. But there's a lot of pounds on there.

Would love the visit.

I just hitched up to see if I messed up. The cables are just 'out of the way' for the moment. The hitch area will stay open.

Did a test hookup today. Looks like it will clear. I'll just have to be mindful of those times when I'm backing into a spot that is off camber with the road. Or pulling into a driveway that has a deep gutter and requires a turn before the trailer gets on the same level as the truck. Maybe I am over cautious. I'll move the hitch camera over to a spot where I can see the interaction between the pinbox and the bed deck on one of these maneuvers. The pinbox is extended down as far as it will go. I can raise the hitch more, but it will be lot of work. Like take the hitch base apart kinda work. Poor design on the mfg part. It's always a good day when something seems to work out.

I am apparently quite expensive. Just ask my wife. Doh!

UPDATE: Things are going nicely. Well, mostly. One bit of steel I welded on kinda moved a bit and now I have to cut it out and re-do. But all-in-all, not bad to need to fix only one bit out of all the bits. The rear corners of the bed are now in place. Fun learning how to make that corner joint. Also starting the skirting template-making processing. The Fabricator said it will save lots of his billable hours, and saving $$$'s right about now is a good thing. I will have some new numbers at the end of the post. And here's the old guy looking like he knows what the hell he's doing under that hood. On the budget.... I will post the running total later but here's some solid new numbers on what's next: - The under-bed ramp boxes (4 of them) + the two large behind-the-axle boxes (one for a generator and the other for storage). Both have roll-out trays. Fabricated, Power coated and installed...$3900 - 3/16" alum. tread plate for the deck, cut... $1499. Ya. Prices are high on all this stuff right now. - Roll-on, dark gray bed liner for the deck... $320 (2 gal.) - Etching primer for the deck plate... $50. Should get the tread plate this week. Then the fun of drilling and tapping a whole mess of holes to hold it in place. Weather has become spring like here in Utah. 60's, so work is much more comfortable to do.

I did the clay bar treatment. Then Light polishing compound on an orbital buffer and blue foam pad. Then wiped the surface down with a high proof and water alcohol mix. NOTE: micro fiber towels are your friends. A pile of them. Then I used the new Turtlewax ceramic based (Spray and shine?) spritz on, wipe off coating. Now, I just wash when needed. The water just beads up and rolls off. Once every 6 months I spritz on more Turtlewax stuff. Use it on windows as well. Same stuff in the wax as in Rain-X, so water streams off the windshield. Used to be hard core carnauba wax guy. Not any more.

In Utah it's easy to re-title as an RV. My Insurance is Progressive but from Lazydays RV | 6130 Lazy Days Blvd | Seffner, FL 33584 | United States They understand what we are doing and it does not have to be registered or insured as commercial. The weird part about Progressive Ins, is that it's not all the same state-to-state. If you get the policy out of Washington state, you can't bob-tail. From Lazy Days in Florida, I can bob tail...which is a big deal. Hope this helps.

My rear end...well the trucks. I didn't get dash errors until I put LEDs in the front running/turn signals. Bumper has small leds across the bottom (bling) and 4" off the shelf LEDs for brake, turn, backups. The backups are darn bright. I wired into the existing truck connection.

Hadn't quite figured out the clearance yet for the fairing and the bed rail. Took the truck for a run and it figured it out for me. Doh. Met with the fabricator for the boxes. He'll start in a week or so. I'm finishing up the brackets and bed rail. The square hole is for the winch mount. So far, things are close to plans. Always have a few wrenches in the mix.

That's my go-to for years. Good stuff. I'm down to less than ½ a can. Need to replenish.

Check. Now in the list.

Absolutely. Thanks for the heads up. Headed to the nut & bolt place tomorrow. They have it.

Bed frame is ready to accept the slide-in ramp boxes. The passengers side will hold the ramps in two boxes. The box is 6'3" for the 6' ramps. The remaining area across the bed will have 2 storage boxes aprox. 26" long. The boxes can be unbolted and removed (slid out) if needs be.

Wow. Nice is an under statement.

Ahhh. Found them. http://www.donvel.com/seat/ Nice. I think I'll start with the seats, then the cab. Appreciate the help folks.

Where do I get them? and which ones for say the cab bags?

So you just put them in-line with the air hose to the air bag? How do you pick the right one for the job?

What are these and how do they work?

UPDATE: Based on you folks suggestions, I did a third tread plate layout and 3 sheets will cover the bed. This is with the idea that the outside plates will rarely be removed for access and the center ones will/might. The center section is two plates. The new layout looks like this... And new quote on 3/16" aluminum tread plate.. still an ouch but all metal is kinda high right now. Three 4'x10'x 3/16" for $1700 (inc. tax and cutting). And per suggestion, the screws to hold it in place will be stainless. The last truck I had, had a alum diamond plate deck over steel supports. When I decided to remove the plates to do some work under the deck, found that the they had used just steel screws. Ya, that was a lot of work with an easy-out, drilling them out, etc. Not wanting to re-visit that effort again. I think I have finally found a fabricator that can do the ramp boxes.... or at least do them before I die. Good fabricators are booked out for months here. So-so fabricators are also book out. Gee, I can be a mediocre fabricator and make bank if I want. Yaaa...no!

Good points. I'll rethink the panel layout. Like the idea of the center sections being removable.

So it looks like I can break the deck into 12 panels. If I do steel... about 50#/panel. Manageable. It also reduces the 4'x10' sheets of tread plate to 3. It still leaves a 1.75" gap in the middle of the deck. Not sure how to deal with that. This is going to be a whole-lotta drilling and tapping into the 3/16 x 2 x 2 tubing. Maybe a good job for the grandson...hmmmm. Note: these plates will be supported more than what is shown here. For example, plate #1 has a 2x2x 3/16 square tube running the width in the middle of the 34" span. So the unsupported span is more like 16" x 32". Plate #2, 6, 10 and #4, 8, 12 (where the Smart Car or Can-Am will drive on) have an unsupported span of 23" x 16". NOTE: each plate is simply supported all around the edges. Under the tires in parked position will be the deck plate + angle iron supports welded to the cross ribs. That will be plenty strong I think. I'm just concerned about the deflection when driving the car onto/across the deck. My hunch is that 1/8th will work.

Sober day. Got a quote for the 3/16" aluminum tread plate. Because of the odd sizes needed (read lots of waist) it will take 5 sheets to cover the bed.... at $852/sheet. WTF. It's 6061 T6, 48 x 96. There in lies some of the problem... the width. Because the bed is 101" wide, the area to be covered with tread plate is 97.75" wide. Ya, 1.75" wider than a standard 4'x8' sheet. There's 10' sheets out there. I need to find the supplier locally. So that hits the old budget at $4600.00. Waaaay out of line I think. I'm looking towards aluminum due to weight. 2.8lbs/sq. ft vs. 8.6 lbs/sq. ft for steel. One steel section across the bed would be 200#. Not something I can imagine handling if needs be...and there will be needs. I could go to 1/8" steel tread plate and cut the weight down to a mere 140#... and that is still hefty. I'm now looking to breaking the plate layout pattern into smaller segments. Most in the roughly 33"x33" size. That allows me to get 36 x 48 pieces and cut them to fit . It will be less weight (if I use steel) per panel... about 50# each which is manageable. I think I need to re-visit the plate layout. Maybe a different layout will work better. I have focused on 'across the bed'. It might be less waist and easier to do it lengthwise, down the bed. I'll need to do a layout plot.