Extruded Aluminum and Plywood Bed box

After 2+ years of planning, designing, purchasing, and plotting, I finally finished my TacoBox! This project was born out of dealing with my existing truck bed box I made out of 3/4" plywood. I loved that box, but it was INSANELY heavy. I had never heard of extruded aluminum until I started researching the Prinsu rack I ultimately went with for the truck. This opened up a whole realm of possibilities.

So, the deets:

I have become pretty adept at Sketchup in the last few years. So I started there. A user on TW supplied some (VERY ACCURATE) sketchup files of Tacoma beds for 3rd Gens. Shoutout to @taco_ace ! Thank you so very much, sir or mam! From there, I started formulating the layout.

I knew there were several must-haves:

1. I wanted the top panels to rest on top of the wheel wells
2. I wanted the ability to have cargo tie-down points
3. I really wanted the box to be as weather-resistant as possible.
4. Lighter = better

I wound up doing most of my research on 8020.net, downloading their CAD files into Sketchup, and then ordering the items needed off of www.tnutz.com or www.mcmaster.com. The extruded aluminum provided the strength, modularity, lightweight, AND cargo tie-down points. As far as a panel for the drawers and sides, I was torn between MDF, HDPE, and some other material I hadn't discovered yet. Actually asking around on this forum, I moved away from MDF for the lack of weatherproofness, and HDPE just sounded like a nightmare for cutting in a garage.. Ultimately I came across Okoume Marine-Grade plywood. Lightweight, strong, and relatively weather-resistant, this was the one! Expensive, but it was the perfect medium.

More pictures, fewer words:


Early mockup in Sketchup

Attached seat track to truck bed using plus nuts, this is what the box attaches to.

Found local shop in Nola that carries Marine-Grade Okoume. Wasn't cheap, but it's beautiful and lightweight. Shame I planned to paint it black!

Lining up attachment points

Decided on Forstner bits for countersunk screws

More lining up. I actually like the aesthetic of the light-colored Okoume against the black extruded aluminum. Maybe I'll make a media console in the future with this dynamic.

Had to make rear hatches, since the longest drawer slides that released were only 44". This left 20+ inches of drawer that was hard to reach. Options were: shorter drawers, and forward hatches, or full-length drawers, and hatches towards the tail gate. We'll see how this works for now.

Getting into the groove!


Had to cut around the cabling for Softopper truck bed rack third brake light and rear-LED lights.

More hatching.

Hatching and latching.

Ultimately went with raptor liner for all surfaces, but this was probably a mistake, as the tops would all be covered by the rubber mat. This was by far the biggest and most unforeseen hit to my budget. $14-17/can, and I did two coats on all wood surfaces.. It added up.

Final Product.

Hatch in action this weekend on a camping trip.

Tie-down points



Few final thoughts: I tapped all of the ends myself, this took a lot more time than I budgeted. I also goofed on the vertical support measurements by about 3/8" so I had to re-tap all of the vertical pieces.. Pain.. I also wanted the wood panel pieces to be flush with the top extrusion pieces, but the only Okoume the local shop (New Orleans) had was 1/2" plus I wanted rubber mat on top.. Had to take a few things into consideration there. Wound up using contact cement (thanks, @Knute !) and it worked pretty well. Toughest part about that was that the holes for the panel retainers had to be exact, and it was more difficult to punch the holes and line up rubber to plywood than to simply adhere rubber to wood, and find the countersunk holes later. So I wound up using a hole punch to punch out the countersink holes for the panel retainer bolts AFTER gluing them down. I made a few mistakes here, but I won't go into detail on that unless asked.

Probably the other biggest PITA was I decided to use Dado joining for the drawers themselves, only problem is I've never done them before.. Ouch! Learned a lot along the way though!

Also shoutout to @mpatrick for a few pointers and ideas! I think all-in I was about $1800 for materials. Maybe $2000 with some tool purchases. I don't really count those though because they'll get used for other projects down the road. A similar box from Goose Gear would be upwards of $4500, and way more heavy since they necessitate a bottom plate of plywood, whereas I have the aluminum frame attaching to the seat track I installed.

Time was in the hundreds of hours, because I'm not really good at cutting aluminum, or wood, and I was basically working out of a 1/2 of a small garage in rainy southern Louisiana. Next big purchase will be a tablesaw. That would have made this a bit faster and easier.

Overall I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out. Mistakes were made, but I still got almost exactly what I wanted, for a little under half the price that some vendors charge (understandably.)

Next up: sort out some sexier drawer organization.. Lookin' at you, TrekPak

 

This is awesome, I needed to see something like this. I have been looking everywhere for 8020 draws in a truck and haven't found much, mostly van builds or kitchen set ups pop up. I have been trying to figure out how to do almost exactly what you did, only with a sliding bike tray on one side. Nice job!

 

Thanks! How would the bike tray work? I’ll be glad to share my sketchup files with you for planning.

also, @mpatrick has a solid buildout as well.

 

That turned out great.

 

I am not sure yet, I am in the beginning process as I have had my truck for a month and have a topper on order. I want to be able to put my mountain bikes inside the bed and have a bike tray like you see in all of the van builds. My thoughts were almost exactly what you have built, except I am thinking the passenger side have the tray instead of a draw, so I would have to eliminate the top half of that side. My original thoughts were to make it out of wood, but I love the idea of using 8020 for weight saving. Plus the cost of lumber these days would probably equal out to be the same.

What I am struggling with most is how to anchor it to the bed, I think the L-track seems to be the best option, just not sure how I feel drilling into a month old truck. It will most likely be a long process, but I am hoping to start ordering stuff soon!

 

Great build man!! Did your drawer frames end up sitting higher than the wheel well to accommodate the drawer tops on the outside of the frames??

 

Great job. Really looks nice. No issue w the drawers opening when they shouldn't?

 

I had that same trepidation you have on this. I used these exact riv-nuts into the bed, they're made for composites:

https://www.mcmaster.com/97217A393/

I found a tutorial online to install these on the cheap as well. No need to purchase a rivnut tool. I've had these in the bed since February with no apparent issues. I just took my time drilling (and wore gloves, goggles, and a mask for the particulates..) and got them installed with no issues. I marked off on the bed where the supporting ridges are for the bed structure. If you go underneath your truck bed, you'll see what I'm talking about. If you decide to go this route, let me know, and I'll give you locations I drilled my holes so as to avoid these ridges. This is for a shortbed, though.

As far as the bike slide, I think I see what you mean. Between 8020 and T-nutz, you should be able to figure something out. There was a video on 8020 about a guy who made a sliding shelf for a truck bed that may be similar to what you're getting at I think.

 

Thanks! Nah, the battalion latch.. tongues? Not sure on what they're called. Anyway, those stick up into the groove of the extrusion, by design. They never open on their own.

Unlike my old drawers..

 

Awesome thank you, I had not seen the riv-nuts for composites, that's good info, we have an account with Mcmaster at work maybe I can sneak some of those in an order

 

Ha, yeah McMaster is the shit. I had never heard of them prior to my work either.

This is the video I used to learn about plus nuts/rivnuts, whatever they're called:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxNAFlSzLcY&t=2s

 

I'm not sure I follow your question. The side panels of the top surface rest on the wheel wells. I used some rubber sheets with adhesive on one side, with the sticky side sticking to the underside of the wood panels, to give a bit of shock absorption to the wood.

It's all flush across the top. Down to the 1/8", resting on the wheel wells.

 

@kekkan meant to post this the other day when I responded to you about your bike slide and forgot to include it:

https://8020.net/xdiy1901

You may have seen this already. But I think it's in the general direction you're working towards.

 

I keep seeing these aluminum extrusion builds and can't figure out what problem is actually being solved. Is it actually lighter than your previous 3/4" plywood box? It's hard for me to believe that with all that additional aluminum that it's still lighter.

 

So, I never got an exact weight as I would have liked. However, empty I'd guess the weight for my old box was close to 100 lbs. At one point with the drawers in, I attempted to lift it out of my truck to reposition it (long-story) with my garage ceiling canoe hoist. Now, I could easily lift my 90-lb canoe with this same hoist with no issue. I could not lift this box more than 10" above my truck bed, with every force of my being, and using my full weight (~175 lbs, depending on number of beers..) My guess is fully loaded, it was over 200 lbs.

Empty, I can lift the frame of this one with one hand. The Okoume is roughly half the weight of the 3/4" plywood in the old one. All-in, I'd guess the weight is close to half of the old one. Maybe 55%. AND I can dissemble it if I need to. No need to store it in the garage taking up valuable space when I want the truck bed empty. I can just break it down, move the aluminum profiles into a bunch, and stack the panels beside that. The only bulky items at that point would be the drawers. No more hoist, maneuver, lower, rollover to the other side, dolly over there, lift, etc etc..

My rear leaf springs are already thankful for the switch, and so is my MPG.

 

I finally ordered some aluminum from Tnutz I can make what I want work.

 

Same, my stuff from Tnutz (great name btw) is supposed to be here today.

Plan is to make a drawer system for my 4runner that can fold out into a sleeping platform when the back seats are down.

 

You tricked me, good sir. I though @stun gun had been resurrected!

 

Good luck and please link a thread to a thread for it back here, I'm curious what that will look like!

 

Good luck! Shout if you have any questions, I'll help if I can. Link a thread for the project here if you can!