Ideas for the ultimate pickup bed weights

[summitmtn420]

That is a really slick set up - nice job

[moose pit]

That is com-pli-cat-ed...

Wouldn't it be cheaper and easier to get 8 rail road ties to put in the back and then just put the sled on top?

(the sled rack is pretty slick)

[Shorty_J]

Bumping this old thread with my solution to this problem.

I built a couple of boxes out of 2x4's and 2x10's that sit directly over the wheel wells. Those boxes are strapped to the tied downs at a couple of angles to keep the entire thing completely stationary. Put a heavy duty garbage bag in there to keep any stray gravel from leaving, an put 3 bags of traction sand on each side (150 pounds each side).

With the weight of the boxes I probably have almost 400 extra pounds directly on top of the rear axle, which is exactly where it should be.

Added hangers on one side for my telescoping snow brush (I'm a short bastard and it's a big truck), and on the other side for ski poles. On the side with the ski poles I'm using a bungee with cheap biners to keep everything on the racks. This allows me to put more skis in the bed without interference... which is important because the pics below only show a small sample of my quiver.

I got 2 sets of HUD chains (in the black bags) which are quite heavy and just attached them to the rear upper tie-downs and the gravel boxes. This weight is behind the axle, but I didn't want to put it on the front side of the weight boxes so that they'd be difficult to access.

[auvgeek]

With the weight of the boxes I probably have almost 400 extra pounds directly on top of the rear axle, which is exactly where it should be.

Yours seems like a good solution, except I'm not sure this statement is necessarily true...seems like weight placed closer to the tailgate would have a greater moment arm, and thus produce more force on the rear wheels. Am I missing something?

[jamesp]

I got a tractor inner tube, cut in half, filled with sand. Each half curls around the wheel well & stays put. Not sure how much weight but it's enough to help.

[robnow]

Yours seems like a good solution, except I'm not sure this statement is necessarily true...seems like weight placed closer to the tailgate would have a greater moment arm, and thus produce more force on the rear wheels. Am I missing something?

Except at the expense of possibly unweighting the front end some and even that same moment arm adding inertia to the rear in the case of a spin. Shorty's is a nice solution.

[Shorty_J]

Except at the expense of possibly unweighting the front end some and even that same moment arm adding inertia to the rear in the case of a spin.

This is exactly the point.

The analogy is too much tongue weight on a bumper mount trailer hitch... when that weight engages on a bump or something like that, you have the possibility of unweighting the front wheels a bit.

Very unlikely in my situation considering the weight distribution but quite common when trailering (which is just an exaggeration of the same issue).

[BCMtnHound]

Nice to have that weight secured. And be able to steal a shovelful or two of gravel for traction. I'm not a fan of loose sandbags or other unsecured weight sufficient to make a difference in a full sized pickup. Best I ever saw for a base level weight was a sheet of 1/2" plate steel fit between the wheel wells and bolted down. Price of steel is bit prohibitive for that now, not to mention the hassle to remove in the spring without a lift.

[MagnificentUnicorn]

I got a tractor inner tube, cut in half, filled with sand. Each half curls around the wheel well & stays put. Not sure how much weight but it's enough to help.

This post and the suggestion of the tubular sandbags are the only practical posts in this ridiculous thread.

[Scrubadub]

How about those rubber horse stall mats...They are 4'x6' and weigh about 100lbs...throw a couple of those down in the bed, adds some weight and acts as some kind of protection for the skis. I have not done this, but when I picked some up for a squat rack I thought they could be a good option...

[ColoMike]

Sucks that Gunder's pics fell out of this thread because his setup was actually pretty good. Put it in my Tacoma and it helped to settle that lightweight truck down when there was snow on the road. Tubesand breaks down, depleted uranium is still uranium, and hookers start to smell.

[Rideski]

Lol blast from the past. I rented a place with pechelman for a season in summit. It was mostly his friends from the engineering firm he worked at so me and 15 engineers. Lol. Good times. Can't believe that was a decade ago.