Cobbled together side stakes for toyota tacoma (pics included)

I have a big pickup tomorrow and want to try and get it all in 1 trip, in my tiny truck. So decided to make these out of stuff today entirely with only stuff I had laying around.

The wood is mismatched, the cuts arent straight, the screws are too long, but it seems pretty sturdy.

Put this together in a little less than 20 mins.... it uses T connectors (like https://www.amazon.com/Toyota-Stainl...a-790133989894) to bolt into the side rails...

How long you think they'll last? Im giving it less than a month LOL

One of these days Ill just bite the bullet and buy a trailer.... one day

Oh my! LOL i made a cage for my 2010 tacoma out of 2 old fouton beds. one for the back window and one for the sides. For the back window i cut them a little over half. used a 2 pieces of old shelf rack legs to to hold them together at the top with 2 bolts going threw the bed parts and i used old hampster cage to help keep thing hitting the window. For the side rails, I got 4 of those tie downs on each side so i used them to wedge the sides in place and used hose claps to hold it together. Had to cut the sides about 3 or 4 inches off the back end to fit inside the bed. I used the plastic caps from the ends of the bed i cut off to plug the end of the cut i made so it wasnt sharp. I was just messing around and it fit so nice its been on there for over 3 years. I'll go take a pic of it.

Sorry for the crappy lighting, but if you can zoom in and see how i did it

Originally Posted by greytruck

Oh my! LOL i made a cage for my 2010 tacoma out of 2 old fouton beds. one for the back window and one for the sides. For the back window i cut them a little over half. used a 2 pieces of old shelf rack legs to to hold them together at the top with 2 bolts going threw the bed parts and i used old hampster cage to help keep thing hitting the window. For the side rails, I got 4 of those tie downs on each side so i used them to wedge the sides in place and used hose claps to hold it together. Had to cut the sides about 3 or 4 inches off the back end to fit inside the bed. I used the plastic caps from the ends of the bed i cut off to plug the end of the cut i made so it wasnt sharp. I was just messing around and it fit so nice its been on there for over 3 years. I'll go take a pic of it.

Sorry for the crappy lighting, but if you can zoom in and see how i did it

Nice! that looks pretty secure. I have gotten futons and bed rails/headboards etc and other stuff that I thought would make a good headache rack and side solution but never ended up acting on it and just scrapped them. I wanted something I could easily take on and off... im going to wrap a bunch of rope around these and tie them to the anchor points in the bottom of the bed too before I head out just so even if these do break or fall apart they stay attached via the rope and dont fall on the road.... but, they seemed sturdy, I could grab them and shake the whole truck by wiggling them so.... meh.... good enough!




Im waiting for the tractor supply 5x8 trailer to go on sale again then Ill have a trailer, but till then Ill have to do this tom foolery

Originally Posted by greytruck

You should put 2 pieces of wood going across the back of the truck to hold both of sides together, Then its more framed. That way the sides wont bend outward if weight pushes on them cause the load can shift on tuns sometimes. Also then you can use the cross board as a headache rack. I bet if you did that it would stay up for a while

Yea I may do that, they worked out fine today since there was enough stuff in the bottom of the truck against the boards to keep anything pushing up to from toppling it (unless it snapped the wood, which is possible I guess). Made 2 runs, but without the side stake additions would have 3-4 runs, so, overall worth the 20mins and few scrap peices of wood.

side stakes = more money ... dont forget to cover up that back window ... i just keep a flat piece of plywood in my bed and when im hauling i put it up so i wont burst my window