With the back side of the house fully sheeted, it's time to move to the front and start redoing it, except oops, I bought a new truck to replace the old gas dodge, and its a flat deck.
The main ingredients above, some 2x12s and some 1.5" black iron pipe. There are pockets in the truck bed I guess meant for stakes or square tubing, but it's older and some of the pockets have rusted in a bit, which actually means that this 1.5" pipe fits perfectly. It's also sturdy and cheap.
It held awesome while cutting the pipe into 42" lengths (6 pockets per side, 21' pipe lengths) and drilling my 1/2" mounting holes.
If you look carefully at the above picture you can see both sets of threaded rod.
Now, for the 2x12s. I can't use regular sheets of plywood because it's an 8x11 flat deck so they won't reach. Snapped a couple chalk lines to keep the brackets tidy and it was starting to look good.
So much room for activities, this box is ~2.5x the size of a regular full size pickup long box, just in footprint not to mention height.
Ta Da! A little before and after comparison.
Its a considerable upgrade from the truck I had the last time I did a whole home gut and rebuild.
Same same but different. Both homemade wood boxes, one with a bit more capacity.
Problem is step 1 is clearing off that old mess of shingles and shakes for disposal and, well, flat decks aren't the best at keeping loose messes in them. So, it's time to build some box sides.
This project was a prime opportunity to try out a pipe vice that came with the property, mounted to this massive steel post just outside the garage.
Into each of the mounting holes goes a 4" long chunk of 1/2" threaded rod, double nutted on either side. This gives the pipes something to rest on up top, and secures them from bouncing out if I go over a particularly nasty bump. (Flashbacks to losing the removable utility trailer sides while getting firewood with my family as a child)
Well, one down, 11 to go. This was a very assembly line type process. Cut the pipe, measure and drill the pilot holes, drill out to size, measure and cut the threaded rod, thread nuts on, toss on the truck. Rinse and repeat. Several greulling hours later I had this.
Those were 12' 2x12s so I snapped a line flush with the end of the deck and sliced them down to length. Eventually I am going to take advantage of the fact that 1" black iron slips right into 1.5" and build a tailgate that hinges at the top like an SUV while also being totally removable for ease of unloading those bigger piles. For now, I rocked a couple screws and a ratchet strap over a piece of scrap ply and called it good enough.
Anyways I've got it all set up and ready to accept the mess of old roofing. No extra cost today as the materials were previously purchased.
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