Truck Bed Mat

[MikePA]

Currently, I have a bed liner in my pickup. It's great for a lot of things, but it sure is slippery. The truck is an extended cab model so the bed is only 6.5 feet long. When I get 8 foot long lumber, I usually leave the tailgate up, and the lumber rests on the bed of the truck in the front and the top of the tailgate in the back. Almost no way the lumber will slide out.

I need to get, well, a truckload of 8 foot long 4" x 4" for fence posts and I'd like to get as many as possible on the truck, so leaving the tailgate up is not the way to do that. However, I am concerned about the pile of lumber sliding out the back of the truck since the liner is so slippery.

(I figure I should be able to get 108 of them in the truck...a 12 post wide by 9 post high stack)

Would a rubber truck bed mat solve this problem? Any other ideas?

 

[_RaT_]

Mike, I have he same setup more or less except an 8' bed. If I was getting 10' boards, I usually make sure to have my rubber matte in the back on top of the bedliner. It has enough friction to hold itself to the plastic liner especialy with the weight of the lumber and is well heavy enough to where it never blows out when there is nothing on top of it. I sometimes tie boards off with a quick wrap for a extra driving comfort level but find the lumber, especially wet lumber really requires a lot of effort to get out even untied. Out ere, fence posts are always wet be they redwood or pressure treated.

 

[Egon]

Perhaps a 4x4 piece of wood full width across the back of the box would help. Perhaps it's possible to place it so it can't slide. Also tie down the posts at the back if possible.

My truck has some tie down points.

Egon

 

[TheKid]

After I had a load of 2X4s slide out of my truck here's what I do now to make sure it never happens again.

I put a 1 inch ratchet strap across the bed near the tailgate. On top of that I put a tarp with enough hanging over the tailgate to wrap over the ends of the boards. Load up the lumber, fold the tarp over the ends, and tighten everything down with the strap. A second strap goes from the tie downs around the tarp and the ends of the lumber to make sure the whole load doesn't slide out.

 

[DavidJ]

Use a nylon strap and strap across the lumber using the lowest set of anchors. You can also strap around the tail gate (or the bumper) and the lumber. Even a rubber mat will only prevent the first layer from slipping. Don't ask how I know this! /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[BillyP]

Mike,

Those rubber mats on top of a bedliner is the way to go. It sure solved my problem.

 

[RobertN]

The rubber mat may help with the first layer. You really need to tie it off, which is hard to do these days with the lack of tie points on trucks.

 

[Golfgar4]

You could also lay a short 4X4 across the width of the bed of the truck. That will raise up the load of 4X4's just high enough so that it's like a mini version of leaving the tailgate up. With the weight of the rest of the load, I wouldn't think that any of them would slip out. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[BillyP]

Or you could lay a long strap or two across the bed and over the sides. Stack the 4x4 post in and strap them all together.

 

[MikePA]

Hmm, maybe I will just hook up our GN horse/stock trailer, load that up with all the posts I'll need. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif I was trying to avoid this solution since it would make the trailer unavailable to my wife for transporting horses until I can get the posts pounded in. Which will increase the pressure on me to complete this fencing project. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif