85_Ranger4x4
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VAGABOND
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- Joined
- Aug 7, 2007
- Messages
- 32,385
- Reaction score
- 17,963
- Points
- 113
- Location
- SW Iowa
- Vehicle Year
- 1985
- Make / Model
- Ford
- Engine Type
- V8
- Engine Size
- 5.0
- Transmission
- Manual
For our new overlanding adventure as a TRS Vagabond this fall after much thinking and researching tents... I decided to just built a sleeping platform in the back of my truck. Quick and easy setup, no worries about water leaking on us or critters sneaking in.
So we picked up some 2x4's for stringers.
I have a drop in bedliner I am going to add to my truck, and I have a really nice bed someday I hope to put on my truck that is currently in the barn. So I put the bedliner in my new bed and now I have a testbed for the platform.
Test fit the first board.
The Ranger bed is designed to haul a sheet of plywood with a 2x4 in those slots and the center of the sheet supported by the wheel wells. When used as a sleeping platform I didn't know how well that would work so I wanted to added a 2x4 stringer across the center too. So I had to shim up the outer boards to match.
And I think that will work great.
So there is the basic structure of it. I added eyelets so I can tie gear down on top the platform if I want as well.
I might add another set of shims though, plastic tote selection is kind of slim for 8" and under.
Currently thinking about having a section ahead of the forward stringer hinge up so I can have water, fuel, lantern(s) etc stored up there that are too big to go into a tote. I also want to have as much weight forward as I can get for weight balance. The totes I like are 30" long and I have a foot to play with up there so it might work out slick. I need to figure out what all I want up there, how big it is and how make a frame so the totes are not sliding around and hitting that stuff.
So we picked up some 2x4's for stringers.
I have a drop in bedliner I am going to add to my truck, and I have a really nice bed someday I hope to put on my truck that is currently in the barn. So I put the bedliner in my new bed and now I have a testbed for the platform.
Test fit the first board.
The Ranger bed is designed to haul a sheet of plywood with a 2x4 in those slots and the center of the sheet supported by the wheel wells. When used as a sleeping platform I didn't know how well that would work so I wanted to added a 2x4 stringer across the center too. So I had to shim up the outer boards to match.
And I think that will work great.
So there is the basic structure of it. I added eyelets so I can tie gear down on top the platform if I want as well.
I might add another set of shims though, plastic tote selection is kind of slim for 8" and under.
Currently thinking about having a section ahead of the forward stringer hinge up so I can have water, fuel, lantern(s) etc stored up there that are too big to go into a tote. I also want to have as much weight forward as I can get for weight balance. The totes I like are 30" long and I have a foot to play with up there so it might work out slick. I need to figure out what all I want up there, how big it is and how make a frame so the totes are not sliding around and hitting that stuff.