My Current (and much improved) Haul Set-up

Hey everyone, haven't posted here in a really REALLY long time but I'm back and doing the best I can to keep my head on straight amidst the current depressed scrap prices, including branching out into a few other avenues in the meantime (chiefly second-hand resale). In any event, since I last posted here, I had upped the ante and improved my hauling capabilities. Including a much-improved and more-efficient sideboard set-up on my truck as well as a trailer. Anyway, here's the link to my old thread regarding my previous sideboard set-up so you can compare what I have now vs what I had as far as that part goes:

http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/tools...ards-make.html

Onto the new sideboard set-up, since my S10, as mentioned in the thread above did not come with factory stake pockets I had to do a different way as I was unwilling to go cutting holes in the bed rails to make pockets. The second time around, I made them clamp-on style, held down in the 4 corners of the bed with cap-clamps that have a longer bolt installed:



I have it braced in the front and rear by a top cross-member, and in the front I have a somewhat crude, but effective window protector, being that I already lost a rear window in an unloading mishap at the scrap yard:



Rear support cross-member, and a small load of aluminum (and some stainless):



Now why did I put a rear cross-brace on? Because I wanted to add doors to the set-up, and not being mounted in pockets had me concerned about destabilizing the set up if I added doors, since these are clamped on and not anchored into pockets:

Doors shut:



These doors unhinge so when I'm not carrying a load, I can have visibility out the back window, I usually just lay them down flat in the bed:



Best of all, when I don't need the boards on, having that rear cross-brace allows me to slide them off (and back on when needed) easily all by myself, no assistance necessary, as well as giving me an additional tie-point if my load exceeds the height of the boards, between the top-most front member and the rear.

Now onto the trailer, it's a 5x8 flatbed trailer that I use for carrying bulk items, I scooped it up for cheap on CL and registered it as a homemade trailer, it needed the lights rewired, but it came with new wiring so I rewired it sort-of in a haste (meaning I could have routed them a different way than I ultimately ended up doing), all lights are working so the trailer is 100% legal:





For a single-axle trailer it's got a pretty heavy-duty axle and spring set-up, and when unladen or lightly loaded it bounces quite a bit:



Even though the tail-lights that came on it were adequate I had a couple of LED lights lying around so I decided to upgrade them:



Some bulk items strapped to the trailer:



Truck w/boards and trailer hooked together as one (taken same time as above photo):



Hope you all like my set-up, and it feels good to be back, just wish prices were better than they currently are...

Can't gripe! I'm a huge believer in stake racks. You probably will run out of weight capacity on an S10, but we used to have this rack:



The sides went u very high, but there was a rod that went along the side, so you could fold it in half, making it only as high as the cab. You would be amazed at how much fuel that saves.

I doubt you'll need a larger rack, but if you do, I'd highly recommend the folding system.

Looks like a very well-built setup, though!

The 4.3L is onw heck of an engine! If you can get that much weight back there, you may need extensions some day.

I used a Dakota with a 3.9L in it for a long time. If you keep the weight distributed, you could get a lot on there.

It looks like your trailer also has stake pockets if needed- that sounds like a winning setup to me!

Can't gripe for the money! If the plywood gets you a couple of years, then you don't have to worry for a couple of years. By then, who knows what will suit your needs the best?

For being in a road salt state, the frame on that trailer looks to be in great shape!

The trailer probably sat idle during the winter, so it never got exposed to salt during its lifetime, I haven't taken it out in the winter since I've owned it as well. This past winter, with the constant snow from late Jan into early April, the thing was snowed in by well over a foot of snow. The right tire has a slow leak somewhere and it went completely flat over the winter, but without any weight on the trailer that tire re-inflates really easily. I just replaced a bad inner wheel bearing on the left side about a month ago, as well as the inner race on that side since the bearing chewed it up pretty good.

It needs a stake rack. Otherwise, you'll have to deal with this:



Tying that load looks like a lot of work!