DeltaNu1142

I've decided to make a permanent bed modification and drill some holes to add a length of L-track rail at the front of the bed. I have all the materials, including a four-foot, 1-1/2" x 1/8" length of aluminum that will serve as a backplate. I'll sandwich the bed wall between that and the L-track. Last night I drilled it and put on a coat of plasti-dip to protect the paint. This morning, another coat of plasti-dip. It should help keep abrasions to a minimum.

This is where the track will go. It looks like it's made for a rail:

DeltaNu1142

OK, almost a year and a half later, I took the plunge and installed some L-track in this location. Hardware included:

• one 4' length of black powdercoated L-track , part # AT48BL
• one 4' length of 1-1/2" x 1/8" aluminum used as a backing plate
• 1/4-20 stainless screws
• 1/4-20 stainless nylock nuts
• 1/4" stainless washers
• plasti-dip

The bed of the truck and the backing plate each required nine holes. I drilled the backing plate and gave it two coats of plasti-dip, to try to ward off paint abrasion. Then I drilled the bed, put in the screws, installed the backing plate behind the rail, followed by washers and nuts. I dropped a lot of nuts trying to thread them onto the screws. It was tight working between the bed and the cab, but eventually I got them all installed and tightened. I'm confident it'll hold up to some pretty heavy pulls with that aluminum plate back there. The only thing I might have done differently is to buy a 6' rail and cut it to the size and shape of the indentation.

Here's a bad photo of the finished product:

DeltaNu1142

I've just started a thread on my load bar mounting project here.

Chris Magee

Looks nice! Do you think this set up could support a load? Like say an anchor for a quad-mounted winch? I’ve been looking at Decked, but I already hate driving up ramps now, I really don’t want to with the Decked in place—seen one too many accidents. Looking for a way to winch the quad up the ramps into place.

DeltaNu1142

It's pretty stout with the backing plate... but keep in mind when winching up ramps you're pulling "through" the ramp, which adds a lot of force on your rigging.

I can't illustrate it on my phone, but I think the best way to accomplish this is uniquely solved by using both front BoxLink points combined with an anchor in the front center of the bed... yes, something like what I've done here. You take a single L-track anchor point and put it in the middle of that rail. You run your winch line through one BoxLink cleat, through the center anchor, then back through the other cleat and attach it to your quad close to your winch.

By doing this, the largest forces are limited to the tension in your winch line. If you did this without the center anchor, your winch line would be applying a direct pulling force on each cleat and perpendicular to the wall of the bed. Using the center anchor, some of the forces on the cleats is converted to shear forces (which they should stand up better to) and the pulling force on the center anchored is minimized.

Yes, I think this could work well... much better than attaching to the cleats or the center anchor alone. Even better if you use pulleys at those points.