SpecialScottie

Those are some sweet flatbed drawings. I like the roof rack idea

drew303

Thanks.. I'll probably draw up some more soon. I have zero access to a tube bender so I'm limited to square tubing which is OK. I just not sure I like square tube over the cab (to enclose it down the front)... I'll have to play around with some ideas on that to make it look not so ghetto. :-p

881stGenRunner

Concept #3 is my favorite, some good drawing skills there bud

abecedarian

I don't know if this will help, but I just came across this pic I took of my 88 after I replaced the 4" blocks with 4"-5" springs (4Runner has about 600 lbs of tools and other 'materials' I use for work in the back so take that into consideration):



As you can see, with the lift springs, I have about 4.5" rest clearance (tape is slanted and it looks like about 4 5/8" - 4 3/4" but it's not)... might even be conservative and call it 4" since I am looking 'up' at the stop... between the bumpstop on the axle and the frame. (You can imagine how poorly it rode with the blocks and only about 1" clearance.) And with that much 'travel' (hehe, as if), my tire is still about .5" away from the frame fully stuffed on one side and drooped on the other. But then again, my wheels have 3.75" backspacing and the tire size is just a tad bigger than 30" x 9" wide.

drew303

thanks abe! But after your earlier reply you basically answered my question. I was interested in the furthest the axle could get to the frame rails. which as you said, depends on the bump stops.

I measured my rig today and figured out how im going to mount the bed and how high above the frame i plan to mount it and how far up the wheel can go. I'm going to mount the bed itself 1.5-2" above the frame rails.. same height my bed is now with the 2" body lift. The space above the tires will be raised about another 1-2"

I think I'm going to go with two 18x18x24 boxes, mounted like in this drawing



I'll make a mount for the CO2 tank near the center of the cab up against the cab, exposed (outside) .. figure I'll only put it in the back when I go on a wheeln trip. No sense hauling it around all the time and wasting space and money on a box made to enclose it.

I'll have to sketch up the rollbar design. I don't think I'm going to extend over the cab. or enclose the cab in a cage.

And the whole bed will be shortened about 9-10". With the bed the way it is now, my spare sits flat which takes up half the bed space and with the shallow toolbox i got back there, im loseing length... with this design ill actually be able to shorten the bed and gain lengthwise storage space and the spare will be mounted vertically ... like this



except behind the box on the drive side (avoids making a blind spot) .. it'll be a 33x10.50R15.

I'm still deciding on how i want the sides to be. Probably be 1/8" sheet metal, or expanded steel... or... maybe even wood, the bed will be wood. dunno, figure that out probably when im closer to making it.

I could probably get the whole thing built in a day. The design in mind is quite simple.

abecedarian

cool all that...
may I suggest triangulating somehow from the curve that transitions from horizonal down to the rear (below the roof rack) in order to beef that up?

drew303

I'm not doing that actually. The rollbar itself will more like a headache rack you'd see on a big fullsize. with the rectangle tubing mounted vertically. Like you'd put a joice under a floor... if you cna picture it

with two bars going straight from the top down to the frame rails. No roof rack.

Like a typical rollbar design i guess. once i sketch somethin up ill post it

drew303

Heres a concept I did not to long ago... Lil more detailed sketch, and utilized my existing toolbox (save $).. but i dont like my lowpro toolbox enough to keep it.. well we'll see. I do like this design. Tho only change I'd make is to the square rollbar portion..... go from laying flat to being vertical (like in the next sketch below). and the portion that comes out and over would be square tubing, not round.



then heres what i fashioned up quickly tonight.. closer to what i envision at this point.

drew303

this is what i got right now



Just lots of wasted space.