WreckDiver1321's American D40 Frontier

[WreckDiver1321]

Finished off this beauty yesterday.



The net was only around $11 from Amazon. May need to make a few more adjustments, but overall I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. It's a great way to store our bedding, since all that gear is nice and light but kind of bulky. Keeps it up and out of the way so it doesn't take up any real amount of space.



Needs a couple more tweaks to be perfect. To hang it up there, I utilized four of the eight bolts that mount the roof racks to the canopy. I got bolts that were an inch longer than the regular mounting hardware, a regular bolt, and a fender washer. When I assembled everything again, I put the long bolts through the shell, then the flat plate, a regular washer, and secured it all with a regular nut. I then put the fender washer on the bolt and secured that with a nylon lock nut. Seems to be a pretty effective mount.

 

[WreckDiver1321]

I wrapped zip ties around the separate strands of shock cord and that seemed to help keep everything clean and tight.



Here's a look at what the truck would look like completely loaded up for camping or touring, minus our cot, a water can, and a couple of pillows that would be up in the net anyway. As you can see, I still have tons of space to store pretty much whatever I want.



If you look close, you can probably see the custom tie-downs I made for my utilitrack. They are simply made of eye bolts, fender washers, a nut, and a small piece of square aluminum. To lock it all in place I used a wing nut on the tie-downs on the floor. I figured having a way to remove these without needing tools was a good idea in case I have to move something that takes up the whole bed.

 

[WreckDiver1321]

On the ones along the front wall, I just used normal hex nuts.



These are less likely to be moved. Right now I have one set of mounts for a jerry can, with a ratchet strap I cut to length to keep everything tidy, and a set for the kitchen box, dry food box, and cooler/fridge. That mount lets me use just one ratchet strap to secure everything, which keeps the cargo area nice and neat.

Gotta say I'm pretty happy with this cargo area setup. It needs a few little improvements, but I'm pretty happy with it all things considered.

 

[justo]

Nice truck man