89 Toyota Pick Up (Climbers Edition)

I have been reading all the threads on "dirt bag tricks" and "the best car to .....", and it has insprired me to do a little work to my own truck. I got the idea from bajataco.com

This is Old Blue

Old Blue

First we used the roto-zip to cut the plywood base.

plywood base

Next, we used some 2x9's, some metal strapping, and some 2x3's to make our modified 2x12 supports. I had the 2x9's on the side of the house, and they saved me twenty dollars in lumber.

The modified 2x12 supports.

After the 2x12's were in we finished the rest of the frame.

All the supports in place

We had to recess some of the frame so the shell would fit properly. Here is a shot of Jack with his chain saw doing just that.

Jack gettin surgical with his chain saw. We had to recess the supports so the shell would fit properly.

This is the deck in place with the compartment hatches cut out.

The deck in place with the hatches cut out.

We got the carpet and the padding from a friend who works at lowe's for ten bucks.

Carpet pad in place

carpet in place

The main slide out compartment holds the four plastic containers and two rope bags perfectly.

Finished product with the main slide compartment pulled out.

The slide out tray flips over to double as a table.

Main slide/ Table

A shot of the sleeping area.

A view of the sleeping area

I am stuck in school for the next three weeks, but I am hittin the road right after finals.

Cheers,

Nate

Good basic setup...next are the amenities.

Thats really dope, Im gonna have to get to work on my ram. With an 8ft bed I have a lot of room for alotta crap.

excellent job. my only advice (if you haven't already done this ) is to buy a locking tailgate handle. my wife and i got home really late from the creek one night several years ago. i slept for a couple hours, woke up for work and went out to my truck. some d-bag had smashed the back window and stole a manky sleeping bag and other assorted stuff. luckily, we had a tailgate lock and he wasn't able to get under our bedframe, where our 10 sets of cams and other stuff was.

That's sick. I'm bookmarking this to keep as inspiration for my truck, which is very similar to yours (1990 4x4 Yota.) Someday when I have some cash I'll build a setup like yours. Nice work!

Can the whole setup be removed fairly easily in case you need to haul some big stuff around?

I plan on installing a lock on the sliding drawer, I think it's prudent considering I paid more for my climbing gear than I did the truck (shows you where my priorities are). Justin, the whole setup can be removed by pulling the shell and four bolts, so yea I guess its pretty easy to remove. If you are thrifty you can do the whole project for under a hundred bucks. Lumber is relatively cheap, and most carpet installers will give you enough carpet/pad to do your truck for free.

Nate Johnson wrote:I plan on installing a lock on the sliding drawer, I think it's prudent considering I paid more for my climbing gear than I did the truck (shows you where my priorities are). Justin, the whole setup can be removed by pulling the shell and four bolts, so yea I guess its pretty easy to remove. If you are thrifty you can do the whole project for under a hundred bucks. Lumber is relatively cheap, and most carpet installers will give you enough carpet/pad to do your truck for free.

Cool, thanks. I don't really plan on doing enough roadtripping this year to justify the (admittedly low) cost instead of just using the tent (which I already purchased many years ago and have definitely got my money's worth.) Maybe next year I'll be in a better situation for roadtripping though.

Just an idea to ward off scumbag teeves: it might be possible to fab. and permanently mount some metal grating over the shell windows and tail-hatch. A dedicated teef will still get your stuff, but that would at least "keep honest people honest." Just a thought. Nice work regardless.

cheers.

ps. don't forget to keep a fire extinguisher handy. :)

How much weight do you think all of the lumber added overall? I am looking to do something similar in my dodge Dakota.

Thats a sick set up man! Wish i had the ability to do something like that to my Ford Escape.

Here's the way I rigged my truck:

blog.trango.com/2010/03/09/…

It's not nearly as fancy as the OP's but it only took an hour to make. It also goes in and out in 2 minutes and because of the linear split, you can get 2 bikes in it.

I love the table and drawer that the OP has though. Maybe a mashup of the 2 would be the ideal setup.

Mal

Chris treggE wrote:With the money you saved you can buy Jack some new pants.

It looks like he can just borrow them from his kid sister, so she may be the one who should get the new ones....

My climbers edition vehicle:

Hey Nate,

It looks like we've got similar bedspace and headroom; I'm considering putting something like this into my 97 2wd Tacoma.

A few questions: do you use a cooler? I have not been able to find a decent, large-sized cooler that would still fit under a platform that size. I was even considering leaving a corner out of the platform big enough to just slip a large cooler in.

And, has anyone else built one of these platforms on a plastic bedliner, or is that too much of a waste of space>

back of truck

I went with Malcom's design and here is how it turned out. I have a plastic bed liner and it isn't a problem. Just make sure that the supporting 2x4's fit into the slots. Camhead, I have a Coleman cooler that just barely fits under the bottom of the bed. For sizing purposes the truck is a 94' Dodge Dakota (bed is 62" x 80") and my shell is about 4 inches taller than my cab. I will be living out of it this winter and it has served me well the last couple of weeks.

I'm setting my 87 Toyota pickup to live in and I am having trouble finding a tailgate handle that locks. Does anyone have any info on this or has found another way to lock your tailgate up?

I installed a regular sliding bolt on the inside of the gate on my nissan.

It mounts to the gate and slides into a hole drilled in the side pillar.

With this, of course if someone breaks into the cap door, they can just unlock the gate as well. A locking version and padlock would be further deterrent:



These could work if you have a couple inches above your deck, but not if the deck comes all the way to the top of the gate.