DIY Writeup - Utilitrack with Unistrut

[TysonCook]

Hello! (long time since I've been around),

So I finally got around to putting in the headboard section as I've done a bit of research and the sides wont really work, and the bottom is very difficult.

With the headboard you can put in fishing rod holders, bike rack, or just some ring's for holding the cooler in place!

Of note, I do NOT know how much this can hold, I assume that the bolts that I used are the same from the holes that the "Utilitrack", but for safety, use the corner D-Rings from heavy stuff, and the front for light things (like securing a bike fork, coolers, lawn mowers etc, NOT your motorcycle)

So....
Unistrut from McMaster Carr, the reason for that is that while the home depot and Lowes carry Unistrut, it is steel, and I wanted aluminum (rust issue). Order here: McMaster-Carr
1 5/8" by 1 5/8" Aluminum Slotted (25$), you can also call your electrical shops and ask for it. 5ft section fits perfectly.

If you have the drop in liner, pull the front lip away from the cab and you will see 5 bolts, long story short is that you need to do the following:
1. remove the bolts
2. drill pilot holes through the drop in liner (if you have one)
3. once you have a guage for where to drill, drill a larger hole to align with the truck bed holes.

When you go to your local hardware store, buy longer bolts than the ones you took out. I actually went to 45mm lenth (almost double), as you will need the new distance (bed liner, washer, locking washer, and unistrut).

I recommend testing the bolt length in the hardware parking lot as 2 trips suck!

Lift the "lip" back over the metal portion of the truck bed to its original position (it will snap back into place). To make this easier, park the truck with the sun hitting the drop in liner (it will get warm/hot and more maleable, i.e. easier to flex).

Once the liner is back to its normal position, verify that the holes line up with the truck bed holes, if there is misalignment you may need to lightly drill some plastic away.

******If you decide that you want to haul heavy items at this point you would want to modify the bed holes to accept 1 5/8" spacers (you would need to fabricate these from plastic/metal, not very hard), and place spacers between the Unistrut and the actual truck bed, so that the unistrut is supported by the bed itself, and not so much the liner sandwiched in between.**************

If you are like me (don't haul heavy items), basically using it for coolers, bikes, light items, I think that you can sandwich the drop in liner in between the unistrut and the truck bed.....better yet, if you don't have a drop in liner at all.

Take the longer bolts, add a locking washer, another larger washer than you previously had (to be larger than the unistrut slot), put through the unistrut, (and +/- spacer), into truck bed and screw tight. Repeat x 4 and your done!

Buy some 1/4" spring nuts at the electrical section of home depot, and fabricate what your heart desires!

(I'll attempt to attach the photos below and describe after that)

[TysonCook]

....continued....
The only real picture that needs explation is the one with the bolts, to be clear the shorter one (20mm) is the original, the longer one is 40mm, and is necessary if you are going to go "on top" of the drop in liner.

You will need...
2-3 hours depending on how good you are with tools...
1 x 1 5/8" x 1 5/8" unistrut (5 ft or shorter length)
5 x 40mm bolts (don't drop any)
5 x locking washers
5 x larger washers than the original (to be larger that slots in the unistrut
(spacers if you want heavy duty)
Wratchet set, drill, bits

...and afterwards the springnuts and other unistrut goodies!

Hope this helps someone a litte!