capturecolorado
Hooray bikes!
Testing the waters. I've found myself debating back and forth about sticking with the flatbed I built this spring, or going back to a factory bed.
Flat bed
This is an excellent platform off of which you can build upon and take your truck to the next level, be it rock crawling, overland travel, or just everyday hauling and utility. This bed is a project, you can leave it be, or build it out to serve your purposes perfectly. There is a good amount of space below the platform, intended to be built out into a series of compartments or drawers. I built a small headache rack behind the cab to protect the cab from anything sliding into it, this is sheeted with 1/8" steel plate, coated in bed liner. The top of the headache rack incorporates a hi-lift jack mounting location, always on hand, never buried. The deck is simply 3/4" plywood, unfortunately the plywood saw some abuse this summer, and between some gouges and the rain, the deck will need to be redone at some point soon; but you can use any 3/4" material.
The edge of the deck is protected by a continuous rail formed from 2"x.125" angle, with integrated mini-rail/slider, which serves many purposes... handle, tie down locations galore, and to keep things from sliding off in the event you forget to strap it down. In addition, I have a dedicated CB antenna mount, formed from 1/4" plate--just run a grounding wire to the frame, and you'll have the burliest CB mount around.
I've also begun to use the empty space below the "fenders" of the deck behind the cab, I have two bolt-on plates designed to support Rotopax mounts on either side. ** Rotopax not included!
The flatbed is 72" long on the deck, and about as wide as the factory bed to the outside of the bedrails, with a slight dovetail at the rear. The bed mounts to the factory mounting locations with minimal modifications to the frame, and utilizes polyurethane body bushings to help reduce the stresses of frame flex while off road. Mounting hardware is included, and is 1/2" grade 8 bolts, nuts, and washers.
Bumper
The factory bed extends about 5" past the end of the frame, so the brawler rear bumper for this flatbed had to be custom, as any other bumper would simply not work--it'd stick out too far! The included bumper integrates a custom swing-out tire carrier, with integrated mounting points for auxiliary reverse lights (I recommend LED pods) on the swingarm. The bumper itself does NOT have a hitch, it is designed to be able to house a rear-facing winch (some modification will be required to accommodate a winch).
As the factory tail lights are no longer being used with this setup, the rear bumper has integrated 6" oval stop-turn-tail lights, and require some minor electrical work to adapt factory wiring to this. This modification is not permanent and will not affect your ability to later return to the use of a factory tail light.
The tire carrier will accept a multitude of lug patterns, Toyota 6x5.5, Jeep 5x5.5 and 5x4.5, etc. The bumper is designed to mount with one additional bolt that the factory hitch does not have, this requires drilling one hole per side into your frame in order to properly support the spare tire and to be able to use the rear recovery points.
I am NOT looking to sell this, I only want to trade for a factory bed from a 1996-2004 Toyota Tacoma extended cab. Your bed must be free of rust and dents. I would prefer to find a bed with the SR5 offroad extended fender flares, but that's not a deal breaker. Color doesn't matter.
This flat bed will fit 96-04 Tacoma extended cab pickups.
This bed does NOT include:
- the truck
- the spare tire
- rotopax cans, or rotopax mounts
- hi-lift jack
- CO2 tank
- CB antenna
- reverse lights
- recovery shackle
- shovel or shovel mount (unless otherwise negotiated)
This bed DOES include:
- the bed
- mounting hardware
- mounting PLATES for Rotopax
- rear bumper with tail lights
- swing out tire carrier
- the ridiculous swagger that your truck will have when it rolls around town flaunting its irresistible ************ Taco-ness as it says, "yeah, I'm utilitarian, but I'm also a highly functional, multi-faceted, purpose-built ************ motherf***er, ready to go fast through whoops, crawl over mountains and boulders, or drive through the most remote locations, and then return home to haul groceries and lumber."
Basically, if you've got a tacoma and have been wanting to get a flatbed for it, here's your opportunity. You won't have to figure out the logistics of getting rid of your factory bed, nor do you have to deal with fabricating the flatbed. We swap beds, and enjoy our new projects. Bonus points if your bed is already white, and if you have some kind of offroad bumper.
Flat bed
This is an excellent platform off of which you can build upon and take your truck to the next level, be it rock crawling, overland travel, or just everyday hauling and utility. This bed is a project, you can leave it be, or build it out to serve your purposes perfectly. There is a good amount of space below the platform, intended to be built out into a series of compartments or drawers. I built a small headache rack behind the cab to protect the cab from anything sliding into it, this is sheeted with 1/8" steel plate, coated in bed liner. The top of the headache rack incorporates a hi-lift jack mounting location, always on hand, never buried. The deck is simply 3/4" plywood, unfortunately the plywood saw some abuse this summer, and between some gouges and the rain, the deck will need to be redone at some point soon; but you can use any 3/4" material.
The edge of the deck is protected by a continuous rail formed from 2"x.125" angle, with integrated mini-rail/slider, which serves many purposes... handle, tie down locations galore, and to keep things from sliding off in the event you forget to strap it down. In addition, I have a dedicated CB antenna mount, formed from 1/4" plate--just run a grounding wire to the frame, and you'll have the burliest CB mount around.
I've also begun to use the empty space below the "fenders" of the deck behind the cab, I have two bolt-on plates designed to support Rotopax mounts on either side. ** Rotopax not included!
The flatbed is 72" long on the deck, and about as wide as the factory bed to the outside of the bedrails, with a slight dovetail at the rear. The bed mounts to the factory mounting locations with minimal modifications to the frame, and utilizes polyurethane body bushings to help reduce the stresses of frame flex while off road. Mounting hardware is included, and is 1/2" grade 8 bolts, nuts, and washers.
Bumper
The factory bed extends about 5" past the end of the frame, so the brawler rear bumper for this flatbed had to be custom, as any other bumper would simply not work--it'd stick out too far! The included bumper integrates a custom swing-out tire carrier, with integrated mounting points for auxiliary reverse lights (I recommend LED pods) on the swingarm. The bumper itself does NOT have a hitch, it is designed to be able to house a rear-facing winch (some modification will be required to accommodate a winch).
As the factory tail lights are no longer being used with this setup, the rear bumper has integrated 6" oval stop-turn-tail lights, and require some minor electrical work to adapt factory wiring to this. This modification is not permanent and will not affect your ability to later return to the use of a factory tail light.
The tire carrier will accept a multitude of lug patterns, Toyota 6x5.5, Jeep 5x5.5 and 5x4.5, etc. The bumper is designed to mount with one additional bolt that the factory hitch does not have, this requires drilling one hole per side into your frame in order to properly support the spare tire and to be able to use the rear recovery points.
I am NOT looking to sell this, I only want to trade for a factory bed from a 1996-2004 Toyota Tacoma extended cab. Your bed must be free of rust and dents. I would prefer to find a bed with the SR5 offroad extended fender flares, but that's not a deal breaker. Color doesn't matter.
This flat bed will fit 96-04 Tacoma extended cab pickups.
This bed does NOT include:
- the truck
- the spare tire
- rotopax cans, or rotopax mounts
- hi-lift jack
- CO2 tank
- CB antenna
- reverse lights
- recovery shackle
- shovel or shovel mount (unless otherwise negotiated)
This bed DOES include:
- the bed
- mounting hardware
- mounting PLATES for Rotopax
- rear bumper with tail lights
- swing out tire carrier
- the ridiculous swagger that your truck will have when it rolls around town flaunting its irresistible ************ Taco-ness as it says, "yeah, I'm utilitarian, but I'm also a highly functional, multi-faceted, purpose-built ************ motherf***er, ready to go fast through whoops, crawl over mountains and boulders, or drive through the most remote locations, and then return home to haul groceries and lumber."
Basically, if you've got a tacoma and have been wanting to get a flatbed for it, here's your opportunity. You won't have to figure out the logistics of getting rid of your factory bed, nor do you have to deal with fabricating the flatbed. We swap beds, and enjoy our new projects. Bonus points if your bed is already white, and if you have some kind of offroad bumper.