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Nate here, I have built my own UtiliTrack style utility rail system for my 2010 Frontier King Cab and would like to share my process with everyone. I am a mechanical design engineer at a huge defense contractor and do this sort of nuts and bolts design on a daily basis. This setup has already proven versatile and durable and costs just over $100 in total.

The channels are bought online and the rest is Home Depot. They carry convenient t-nuts that can be placed anywhere along the rail as well as washer plates in the electrical section and 3/8 eye bolts for making anchors in the hardware section.

I will put up another post about the seats and another about the toolbox soon.

The utility rails are simply strut channels for electrical wiring. It bolts on over a spray liner through existing holes and requires no drilling or welding.

The channel I bought from McMaster-Carr. They offer aluminum channels and multiple options of steel finish channels. You should buy slotted to make your life easier.
McMaster-Carr
You will need:
Two 6ft lengths of the 13/16" depth channel for the floor of the bed
Two 5ft lengths of the 1-5/8" depth channel for the sides of the bed
One 4ft length of either depth for the front of the bed under the back window
In retrospect, I would have gone with the deeper channel if I were to do it again.

From Home Depot you will need fasteners and strut channel accessories.

The front rail is the easiest. While there are 5 bolts along the front the slotted channel will only line up with 4. If you went with aluminum channel you could buy un-slotted and drill your own holes but 4 bolts through the channel is plenty.

From home depot buy 4 M8-1.25 by 25mm bolts. Remove 4 of the bolts in the bed leaving one at either end of the row and using your new bolts affix the 4ft rail. Done.

The shiny spot is just my haphazard spray painting of the bolt head to match the color. It was a lot less noticeable before the Linex liner started to fade.

For the bed floor you will need 4 3/8 carriage bolts, 4 nuts, 4 lock washers and a pack of 3/8 square steel washers from the electrical strut channel section. Drop the carriage bolt through the rail and hole in the bed floor, climb underneath the bed, put on the washer plate, lock washer, and nut. Now tighten vigorously, bang your knuckles a few times and done.



Now the bed side rails are the trickiest. You might spend a good while with your arm wedged between the bed and the fender trying to get the nuts on but it is possible, see : )

And look how happy it makes your tie down loops! (you will need to turn those upside down to fit the rail as you can see)



You will need 4 3/8 by 1 inch bolts, which just barely are short enough not to bump the fender, 4 lock washers, four nuts and another pack of washer plates. Now get a friend to come hold the bolt as you try to get the plate washer and nut on. Just pick a friend ok with profanity.

~Nate
 

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Nice work.
 

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prolly cuz its a 2010 lol nice work man never woulda thought of that lol
 

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Discussion Starter · #8 ·
So the white thing is a new kind of T nut they sell at home depot. What you are seeing is actually a white cone the sits above the rail and the real nut hangs underneath. Imagine the nut is a dog wearing one of those big white neck cones with its head stuck poking through the channel opening.
They are much easier to use in the shallow rail than the spring kind.
The only downside is that they are only available in 1/4-20 instead of 5/16 or 3/8. Great for the toolbox but not enough for the seats.
 

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Discussion Starter · #10 ·
The seats were from Summit. Surprisingly hard to find the plain plastic ones with a google search.
I will try and post a little summary of that install when i get home from work.
 

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Hey Nate,
I'm new to the forum. I am very interested in your Custom DIY "UtiliTrack" Utility Rails but your Flickr pictures don't appear, displaying an image unavailable message. Would really appreciate you re-posting them. Thanks!

Mike
2010 Frontier SE King Cab, 4x4, Night Armor
 

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Also interested? Could post pictures again? Thanks
 

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Discussion Starter · #13 ·
I have updated the original post with pictures, sorry about that everybody.

In answer to some PMs i received about install and how i feel about them years later...
First there is (awesomely) no drilling of the truck what-so-ever in this build. The bed is already full of holes. They just had black rubber plugs in them. Both the side and bottom rails.

They are holding up great. They do flex just a little if you bolt something down directly to them (not just a tie down but something like the seats) but it's just a little flexing. When strapping down things (like a dirt bike) even the ratchet straps can't pull hard enough to flex the rails if they are anywhere but the very center of the span between the bolts. The bolts holding the seats down are exerting thousands of lbs of tension when tight and they just flex them barely noticeably.

There were a couple places where I nicked the powder coat over the last couple years and I could see rust just starting to color the exposed steel so I cleaned them up a little bit and just sprayed a little rustoleum on there in little spots.

~Nate
 

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I am in the middle of installing my rails, on the side rails, how the heck did you get to the front hole just above the tie down loop? To get to the middle hole I had to take off the rear fender support and mud flap.

Thanks,
-G
 

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This is GREAT! I was really bummed when my truck did not have the Utilitrack system in it, as I really want to add some Rocky Mounts Clutch bike mounts to the front rail. I would love to do your DIY, but only for the front rail.

Here is my dilemma. My truck has the factory drop in bed liner with bed rail caps. My buddies Tacoma does as well, but he had the Toyota version of the utilitrack added by the factory over the bed liner. So it seems possible to have the front rail installed over the bed liner.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I would go about doing this? I figure ill just by the rails and the bolts (maybe a tad longer). What I can't figure out is how to line up the bolt holes before drilling through my bed liner?!?! I want the holes to be as small as possible so that rain/moisture doesn't find its way into them (maybe a bit OCD, but oh well).

Ideas?

Thanks!
 

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Any Ideas?
:read: The factory utilitrac front bed rail bolts right on the front, since the bolts that come with it replace the front bed bolts. The part number is 93140-EB000.

For the bed, ditch the liner and get the LineX Platinum spray in lining. Then use the 4 factory holes in the bed to install the PROGRIP removable 1/2 inch eye bolts with 3/4' threaded sleeves that stay permanently mounted in the bed holes. You will also need some 3/4" threaded bushings and washers to complete the install since the bed holes are a bit too large without them.

Get the Progrip model 822820 from Amazon or from Northern Tool. See link:
ProGrip 822820 1/2" Removable Trailer Bed Bolt with 2" Shank - Pair : Amazon.com : Automotive.

In the middle of the side walls, above the wheel wells are 2 more body holes that can be used to install the PROGRIP 810320 anchor points with some modification. The threaded shanks will have to be cut down and a flat fender washer and nut fished up over the wheel well through the bed wall cavity to make it work. ( 2 person operation.) Its a bit of a pain, but once they are in place you will have another anchor point in the mid section of each bed wall.

HTH
 

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Thank you so much gnatbean. I follow your instruction to install a strut channel for mount my bikes. Way better than buying $150 Saris or other type of raid who serve the same purpose. Your way cost me $30. $25 for raid, $5 for the T-nuts.
 

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