howdy,
This isn't as fancy as some of the other mod's, but I'm pretty happy with how it has finished up, how strong they are and perhaps someone will find this useful.
I was a bit miffed at the lack of tie down points in the D22 and kept seeing Rangers and Bravo's with a tidy set of rails that I thought I could put across to mine. Here's the method:
- A rust free set of rails from wreckers from a crew cab Ranger for $20 a piece was the closest in length tho is about 240mm too long
- choice was to either cut out the centre of 3 feet out (make 2 cuts and 1 wield) or leave it in and splice the rail either side of the centre foot and have to make 4 cuts and 2 wields - I chose the first option.
- The rail cut easily with a copper pipe cutter (I got one from $5 from Bunnings reduced bin)
- Also found a piece of 17mm reo bar 1.7m long for about $10 which I used up the pipe for extra strength. The 0.85m lengths were perfect. No bending in the middle of the rails now and some extra metal to make the wields strong. See pic 2 as a guide for the reo bar inside the rail and my first ever attempts at spot wields (real ones came up nice).
- attaching the bars was the biggest bugger. I found it physically impossible to find a way to attach it to the outside of the tray. Inner and outer tray walls had a gap of approx 20mm which means spacers in between the two, but there is also no way to get your arm, fingers, long wrench with bolts, washers and sticky tape etc between them. So I opted to put them inside the tray.
- there is a small lip on the rail feet (pic 2) which meant using double washers (pic 4), but you could grind them off instead. I used high tension bolts and attached the rails upside down as the end feet are moulded slightly lower and cause attachment issues (no room).
- the position of the rails in pics means the teauno cover and cross bars weren’t affected. The bolts near the tray were accessed thru the rear light cover.
The inside lip of the tray is very strong and a good spot for these fellas. The reo bar inside the rail adds so much extra strength as well and I had two big blokes hanging of them and the bars didn’t budge a bit. Total cost was about $70 in materials (the rails, the reo bar, bolts and paint). If you have one, a step drill bit will work a treat boring the +22mm dia holes needed.
Cheers
This isn't as fancy as some of the other mod's, but I'm pretty happy with how it has finished up, how strong they are and perhaps someone will find this useful.
I was a bit miffed at the lack of tie down points in the D22 and kept seeing Rangers and Bravo's with a tidy set of rails that I thought I could put across to mine. Here's the method:
- A rust free set of rails from wreckers from a crew cab Ranger for $20 a piece was the closest in length tho is about 240mm too long
- choice was to either cut out the centre of 3 feet out (make 2 cuts and 1 wield) or leave it in and splice the rail either side of the centre foot and have to make 4 cuts and 2 wields - I chose the first option.
- The rail cut easily with a copper pipe cutter (I got one from $5 from Bunnings reduced bin)
- Also found a piece of 17mm reo bar 1.7m long for about $10 which I used up the pipe for extra strength. The 0.85m lengths were perfect. No bending in the middle of the rails now and some extra metal to make the wields strong. See pic 2 as a guide for the reo bar inside the rail and my first ever attempts at spot wields (real ones came up nice).
- attaching the bars was the biggest bugger. I found it physically impossible to find a way to attach it to the outside of the tray. Inner and outer tray walls had a gap of approx 20mm which means spacers in between the two, but there is also no way to get your arm, fingers, long wrench with bolts, washers and sticky tape etc between them. So I opted to put them inside the tray.
- there is a small lip on the rail feet (pic 2) which meant using double washers (pic 4), but you could grind them off instead. I used high tension bolts and attached the rails upside down as the end feet are moulded slightly lower and cause attachment issues (no room).
- the position of the rails in pics means the teauno cover and cross bars weren’t affected. The bolts near the tray were accessed thru the rear light cover.
The inside lip of the tray is very strong and a good spot for these fellas. The reo bar inside the rail adds so much extra strength as well and I had two big blokes hanging of them and the bars didn’t budge a bit. Total cost was about $70 in materials (the rails, the reo bar, bolts and paint). If you have one, a step drill bit will work a treat boring the +22mm dia holes needed.
Cheers
