Full size pickup storage and sleeping platform

[NaturesRhythm]

Hi All,

Without question, my major inspiration for my truck project came from this forum and in particular, a gentleman called RoadTripCrazed in this thread.

After spending hours upon hours reading this site, and others, I started and completed this project. Well, I say, complete when truthfully I am awaiting one or two more electrical components to come in from the Far East. Ebay and Amazon are incredible things if you are prepared to hunt down a bargain.

My project weighs about 100-120#, and can support (so far) 450pounds on top without problem.



Here are the finished pictures and then I'll start up the rest of the build after that, particularly if there's interest. I've learned that searching google invariably leads here when looking for such a project, and so it may help people in the future.

As a first timer doing anything like this, I had to learn how to use all kinds of tools like routers/ drill presses/ spray guns etc. Heck, I learned how to use a table saw/ mitre saw too and I've got a helluva long way to go. I mention this as encouragement to anyone completely intimidated by the so called skill requirement to do something like this. Take time, research, try a few small things and you'll be just fine. I learned a few very valuable life lessons doing this project, and here's one of them: "Perfectionism is a damn disease that will do damage to your psyche and progress". An easier way to say this is "perfection is the enemy of good"

Here it is:

 

[biggoolies]

Excellent job. That is friggen awesome!

 

[MikeBoyle]

Looks great. I would have never guessed a rookie built that. Gives me hope!

 

[jeepin_idaho]

Whenever I see such a great build, I always wonder, "what would you do differently?"

 

[otis24]

This definately makes me feel better. I currently have a platform, but no drawer system underneath. I'm working on plans right now. I'm hoping to build my drawers over the winter. The biggest challenge at the moment is finding a place to build the set up. I live in an apartment and have no where to work. I can rent the tools from home depot...just need a spot to actually do it.

 

[krl81]

What a great build! Looking forward to the build pics. And congratiolations to the little one!

 

[Every Miles A Memory]

I wondered that too? You said you learned a lot after building this....what would you change if you were to build another one?

 

[NaturesRhythm]

Well Gents, thanks very much.

My wife is D Day plus one now, so the stress levels for her have risen. As a result, I have time to make this post.


What would I change if I were to do another?

I think it all boils down to design criteria. What do you want out of the thing? How long are you willing to spend building it? How long do you want it to last? How much do you want to spend on it?

For me, initially, those answers were:

a) Sleeping and Storage platform. Easy execution and ease of use. Strong and robust. Lightweight so that I can remove it myself and under 10minutes.

b) Three to four weeks

c) Three to five years

d) About $600


In reality, here's what transpired:

a) As planned
b) About six months (while looking after my firstborn during the day and self employed too)
c) I think about 3 years, some parts will last 20 years plus
d) About $750 cos I spent more money on finishing that I had previously envisaged


What would I change?

a) Not cheap out on materials. Some of my plywood was seriously cheap junk which cost me more time and money and effort in the end. This was the biggest lesson and it made the project way more difficult and lengthy as a result.

b) I would make a full torsion box for the top slider as opposed to a half torsion box strengthened by epoxy resin and 10oz e glass cloth

c) I wouldnt coat the full torsion box I did make for the camping table (4x5ft which is really big and 16mm thick) with epoxy resin'ed glass on the flat sides because it has almost zero strength when flat. It needs bends and curves to give the structure strength and then its truly awesome stuff.


I have made a full post already which I will post just below this, which demonstrates the build process, some warnings to rookies like me, and show all my ugly and good stuff together.


ps: here is my neighbour lying on the slider to show the design strength. He weighs around 170 pounds, and it was absolutely no effort to slide him into and out of the truck bed. It also shows a portion of how the slider works. Once again, kudos to RoadTripCrazed for coming up with the design of the sliders, I linked to him in my first post.

"

 

[NaturesRhythm]

The materials used are:

a) MDF (specifically for the nicely shaped bits)
b) Plywood (good grade stuff, although the top slider is pretty junky stuff that I spent a lot of time finishing up
c) Oak stringers for the top slider
d) Epoxy resin and quality 10 oz fibreglass cloth
e) SouthCo latches
f) Princess Auto (Canadian Harbour Freight?) tie down points with Grade 5 bolts, dipped in Plastdip tool dipping liquid twice (and proving so far to be quite strong)
g) The skate bearings are the best money can buy
h) The bolts used for the skate bearings are Grade 10.
i) Lots of fender washers, split washers
j) 8 AWG and 10AWG wires run from the battery up front under the body in protected sheathing (we get a lot of snow and ice up here) to the rear to supply all electrical needs with a dual fuse system. First fuses are within 8" of battery and then a full secondary fuse system for each electrical drawpoint in the rear
k) Generic USB ports and 12V lighter sockets for the rear electrics bought from Ebay
l) 5050 water proof Led Lights from Ebay - 16ft worth coupled with a remote control dimmer that I can power up to over 20 ft away (tested)
m) Illuminated LED switches from Amazon, with spare for future expansion. Things like brake controllers or external lighting or even a big 4000W pure sine inverter will all be easily handled from the wiring I installed. (big enough to power a small welder)
n) I initially coated everything in roll on bedliner, but sanded it down and repainted it several times with Hammered Paint, which is just fantastic stuff.



There is enough room height on top of the sleeping platform slider for me to nearly sit upright without bending my head and I am about 6ft. My wife who is about 5'5" sits perfectly upright.

We'll use Thermarests for every one to be comfortable when camping. I am still to construct a very simple hinged platform for my feet to rest on while we sleep at camp. This will tied to the main platform using footman loops for super simple removal and stowing when not in use. Its literally two pieces of appropriate length ply painted with Hammerite paint. The length will maybe be 12" x 12"

I have also constructed platforms for more storage inside the vehicle when travelling and camping. Everything is designed to be strong, not rattle (I HATE this), and disassemble and remove in under 10 seconds. I'll post those up soon.

I can remove the entire rear storage platform in about 8 minutes by myself. Everything is strong and lightweight which was part of my design criteria.

There are 6 "portholes" - 3 on each side of the slider which lock and which hold stuff too. Electrics to table legs to tow ropes, tie downs, camping stuff, whatever I want. They are strong enough to support my 230 pounds with ease.

I also made a large table (4ft wide x 5" long) that has removable height adjustable legs which we can use while camping. The drawers can be removed to hold stuff while we sleep on the top slider if desired. We live in bear country and this system makes it easier than ever to keep stuff safe and dry while keeping the foodstuffs also safe from potential scavenging.

 

[NaturesRhythm]

When starting this project, I did zillions of hours of research on the web. Tundra Talk, Pinterest, Expedition Portal, the works.

My plan was to get a Leer topper which would house all the stuff. I bought this in the USA because it was basically half price compared to here in Canada. I acquired a bunch of stuff and brought it through the border. One of them was a Bedrug.

Here I attached a lot more of the industrial strength velcro to secure the bedrug nicely. I dreaded any thoughts of it moving.. Red was included, the lighter colour was all mine. Maybe I over did it a lot

Here is a shot of the fibreglass material that I bought to keep things strong and light. I used maximum 1/2" thick ply, and mostly 1/4" and 3/8" stuff

I was working through the day and also had to babysit these two while wifey was at her work. It was very exhausting doing all this.

Here are one the vertical support showing some bearings and the holes I drilled using the drill press. This one was done in 3/4" plywood wrapped in e-glass and resin. I eventually couldnt use it because the plywood warped so much that it bent the fibreglass etc and looked like I was going for a curved support, not straight. It was ugly at the end and I cut these two verticals for use elsewhere. I also remade this piece out of 1/2" mdf which was super straight, but more of that later.

Here are the cross members that I was cutting for strength bracing. Also MDF, which was easy to cut, but I wouldn't use again despite being totally wrapped in e-glass. Just too weak and soft.

Here is a shot of the verticals, being redone in MDF and wrapped in 1/4" plywood each side wherever the bolts would go, plus a ribbing of e-glass. I was proud of that custom solution, it worked out brilliantly.

A pic of the old and the new, as well as the back cross brace.

A picture of that custom solution ribbing (seen on right), and covered with thin strips of plywood which would force the e-glass to have corrugations in those ribbed holes which would make it much stronger than a simple straight piece of glass. Then wrapped by those 1/4" pieces of ply each side.

A good picture showing what I describe above.

Here are the verticals with their cross bracing and rear bracing being glued up.

Run what you brung:

Epoxying the steel 1.25" box sliders onto verticals, onto the top slider.

Gluing up the oak stringers (and plywood stringers) to the top slider and making half a "torsion box"

A different view of the same

Now, epoxy resin'ed up with e-glass. The black bits were tiny bits of beautiful carbon fiber that I threw in. This was my ugliest creation ever, and I really hated the look of it. I felt quite devastated after putting so much work into it too...

Putting the framework into the truck bed to see if it fits

And now trying the top slider onto the framework

Glue up time. If you couldn't see before, here's a good view of my industrial professional garage

Home made of course

View of the framework while the slider and cupboard part are gluing up. Also a thin piece of 2x4 I cut/ripped to test on the router I had never used before, to make trim.

 

[NaturesRhythm]

And then I truly cheaped out. Bought some off cut plywood for super cheap and was running out of patience and time with the epoxying. So I decided to largely use glue and screw from this point onwards with epoxying only when critical.


The epoxy used was industrial grade stuff, thixotropic to be exact. I also used a mid non sag version, which made work quite difficult.

Here are the drawers gluing up, with epoxied runners on the side, and the middle joined together (I know!) with a piece of appropriate thickness and width plywood and epoxied glassed in. Phew. I spent probably as much researching ways to fix my cheap ways and still do a good job, as I did doing the work. Learned a lesson there. Or two.

These pieces were the most important probably. They tether the framework (and therefore everything else) to the truck tiedown points. They also allow quick removal of everything and no extra holes in the bedrug which was important to me.

Cleaning her up, testing for fit.

Success! Fitting of drawers and slider worked beautifully.

Or so I thought. I had measured the drawers wrong, and now had a major design error. I swore quite a bit, became fairly depressed and had to consume a shot or three of fireball whiskey. I also packed it in for the day. (read: Sunday...)

I came back to the project with a solution which would add a lot of time to the build. But it was still the most time effective way of fixing the mistake.

Remember I said I was new to all this? Here's a bruise on my stomach that I took when the table saw spat out a large piece of wood as I was ripping something. Ouchies. It affected my internal organs too, and now 5 months later still shows a large internal bruise. Weird. Safety lessson learned.

I had never made trim in my life before, so here was my effort. Pretty happy with it. Drawers.

Here I was grinding the steel, and I did it wrong. The grinder disc disintegrated and I took these pieces into my hand while not wearing gloves. Steel and cutting disc. I share these pics as safety warnings, not sympathy seekers. I could care less!

Here's what I was grinding. Regular fender washers in half so that I could use them on the top bearings near the top slider.

Epoxying some eglass onto the back supports which bolted into the side supports which bolted into the truck tie down points. Using the wife's hot water bottle and electric blanket which would in turn hurry up the cure rate on the epoxied glass. She was cool with this, I married a winner.

Trim in and dividers too. Notice how the bottom was bowing. Another thing to fix. I would use a lot of epoxy, glue, heat, weight and zillions of brad nails to make her right.

Fixing the miscalculated drawer section. Cut, glue, epoxy thick sections of glued together ply to take up the difference in drawer width. Doh. Effective.

 

[NaturesRhythm]

Cut these six dividers which provide support to the side wings, as well as dividers for keeping six seperate and lockable "portholes" or cubbies.

I recut these several times till they fit the right way. These bolt onto the side supports (which bolt onto the truck tie downs), and then onto the vertical members of the framework.

A pic showing the eglass corrugations in the vertical members, which support the bearings and the whole thing resting on 1/4" plywood glassed over to make the camping table, which is 4x5ft big.

The top slider steel was too long, so I had to cut out a portion of the rear supports, which turned out to be a mistake. This shows the bracing too.

Starting to take shape. I sanded everything down nicely and then rolled over it with bedliner. Looks nice, but the finish was quite abrasive. What it did achieve was my goal: waterproofing and surface protection.

I then managed to buy the single drawer snatch latch (what a great name) locally instead of having to import from the States. Found it through Normont Systems and I managed to get it delivered to my door. Incredible price, incredible service, HIGHLY recommended for all things like this.

Alas, the latch did not come with a catch (whats with the rhymes, yo?) and I had to make my own. I cut pieces of steel from the excess portions from the sliders and epoxied them up. Took them to the grinder to shape them and came up with this:

While all this was drying and curing, I researched what a torsion box was and decided to make one. The design brief was critical: 16mm thick only in order to fit under the slider, and on top of the drawers, internally in order to save space.

I cut these thin pieces of plywood to act as spacers and glued them up. Fun.

While this was going my truck was in at the body shop for the second time to repair a dent put into it. Long story. But here is the amazing body shop floor and area where I could stand and watch them fix it.

When my Leer was installed in Montana, USA, the installer didnt have the right clamps. I reminded him to ship me the right ones, and fortuitously, they arrived as I was planning the LED lights under the bed rails. It would not have worked with the crappy clamps that were on before. At all. But now, they could!

Old clamp

New clamp

Now we are really getting somewhere. Full framework installed, bedlined, cut, measured, adjusted, bolted in.

Time for the electrics. After a few threads on Tundra Talk and a lot of (sometimes conflicting) advice, I did this:

About 8" of 8AWG directly to two fuses (with room for future expansion), and then one 8AWG and one 10AWG wire running to the truck bed.

I had acquired a spray gun and started spraying which was quite intimidating to me. I had never done anything like this or knew anyone who had done it before. This serves as an encouragement for anyone reading this in the future to try new things even if you dont want to screw it up. Turns out.... its a crap ton of fun to do.

Here is the top slider sanded down, and painted both sides with Hammered paint. I had to learn what Xylene was, and what ratio was to be used. Of course, the manufacturer doesnt tell you. Also, dipped the tie down points in Plastidip dipping liquid which worked out super. (Hint: wire brushed the tie downs first, then degreased then dipped)

Fitting everything in. Looks good, and you'll notice the holes in the left electrical access panel. Those are for the switches and the other electrics havent arrived yet.

While waiting for those, I made these storage platforms for inside the truck. Design goal was to be able to remove in ten seconds, strong, no rattling, and work with the child seats for the next 5 years.

Also, very important to me was to route the under seat air conditioning/ heating to the kids in the back. So I created channels to flow the air under and up to the seat area and it works great.

The air channels in the back support piece

Next up was a non slip panel for our dog Ruby, who always comes with us. Notice the design slightly different because all I need is for the air to flow under her and then up. She gets sufficient air as a result instead of being the barrier to it all, and the kids get fresh air too. In a vehicle cab as large as the Tundra, this is important.

A picture from above, showing the design curves. Made out of plywood, maybe 3/8" thick.

Strong enough to support 300 pounds plus and removes in about 3 seconds.

iPad picture of the LED lights on max at night. I find them bright, but not so bright as to be painful at all. I am considering adding more lights into the topper so that I can see more at night in there. Also, LED lights into the drawers so that I can see stuff inside at night too. Everything is on a dimmer.

First time using it. So brilliant and so handy. Dog thought we would leave her at home which we didnt. She didnt look so happy...

And here with the double stroller and single umbrella stroller behind that too, loosely packed in. Super handy, made my job as chief labourer so easy.

Once again, the first pic last. Everything complete, in its place, works great. Encourage you to make your own, its worth it. Or you could buy a turnkey piece, shoutout to a beautiful system called DECKED which looks brilliant.

 

[NaturesRhythm]

Here are the shots from the storage platform between the car seats. Removal is under 5 seconds, and its firmly in place, held in place by friction and one of the rear seat belts.

Showing leg support

 

[MobTuff]

Thanks for all the pictures! This is amazing work. I'm designing drawers for my Tundra at the moment and this will be great inspiration. I too really liked roadtripcrazed design. I'm still trying to figure out how you secured it all to the bed of the truck. Do you have any more pictures?

 

[Doc Foster]

Outstanding job with great write up. You have inspired me to start planning mine.