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New to the Super Duty. I have an F250 long bed that I purpose purchased to pull my 25' travel trailer (bumper pull) and my SxS at the same time.
I did a ton of research, and settled on Truck Boss for the bed deck. I am well within my payload (just me and the wife, and the travel trailer has a weight distribution hitch) but am somewhat nervous about how I am securing my load. It seems to me that I am betting a lot on a couple of 5/16th carriage bolts and a bed deck that is bolted onto a truck bed.
I was wondering if some of you guys with more experience could look at my ratchet strap configuration and tell me their personal exp. or recommendations. I settled on MAC straps (excellent reviews) but I'm nervous about the actual hardware that secures the tie downs to the Truck Boss deck. I decided on wheel bonnets after some research, and most say its better than pulling down on the suspension, as it allows the SxSs suspension to remain operable during hauling. They are Truck Boss tie downs with supplied hardware. I looked for grade 8 hardware around town, but no luck. As a security measure I have the back end winched in and it remains connected to the synthetic rope.
I have taken it about 25 miles up and down the highway, and marked my hardware and secure points to check for movement, and so far so good. I know a lot of you guys run sleds on bed decks, but I don't see too many SxSs. It hauls well, can't even feel it, and I have played around with emergency stops and turns. Truck is planted. I am headed to the lower 48 in April to pick up travel trailer and pulling it back (in Alaska now) and want to be sure I am safe, and have no failures along the way.
Opinions? Again, I'm well within my weight limits and payload.
i would be leery of the mounts in the capture rail of the side plate. those look pretty weak. i would personally find a better mounting solution. does your deck have expandable sides? If not, possibly drill and mount a mount through the aluminum of the deck.
I had a Truck Boss sled deck and it had many mounting options.
Boy, that hardware does seem undersized for its intended purpose. I’ve never looked at one of those decks very close but I think your instincts are correct, I’d try to find something more substantial to tie down to. Unfortunately I don’t know what it’s going to be!
I know it’s too late but I ended up taking the bed off and replacing it with an aluminum flatbed. Works great for toys and as a bonus I’ve found the extra bed space to be surprisingly useful.
I’ve been running a truck boss deck for years. Just transferred it to my new SuperDuty. They are bombproof decks. you should have zero issues with the tie down anchors. I changed all of my bolts out for stainless wich isn’t as strong but they are still more then adequate. Even in grade 2 those bolts are good for ~2900 lbs each. You have two per anchor so double that. So no way are they going to fail. http://www.almabolt.com/pages/catalo...oadtensile.htm
I have a Ranger 900XP that weighs a couple hundred pounds more than yours does. I also use tire bonnets. My tie down points use two 3/8" bolts into the frame of the trailer. So your middle tie downs look sketchy to me.
You’ll be fine. Remember that most of the weight is on the tires of the machine, not suspended on the tie down points. The anchors are there to prevent movement of the machine. You’ve done everything right by taking it for a drive and monitoring the tie downs and for any movement. Your setup is quite common around where I live. Just take your time and drive smoothly. My only concern would be your doors and windshield. I can’t tell from the pictures if you have a rear window or not, but the wind blast might damage or tear off your doors and windshield if the wind managed to get inside the machine. I’d turn it around and face the windshield forward to prevent that from happening.
I think if he turns it around it will put too much weight behind the axle of the truck. Blown out windshields are not unheard of on the Polaris Ranger forum. But if he has a rear window that should reduce the chance of that happening.
I'm curious to know what the calculated cargo load is. If the truck doesn't already have a rear sway bar then I would want one.
Doesn't the bed cover mfg. spec the connection point capacities? Maybe I missed it. You could upgrade the bolts to grade 8 but the whole platform is only as strong as its weakest links. The Mfg. should have run those numbers. Nice setup!
I’m no expert but that set up looks good to me. I have a home made sled deck for my 17 and your tie downs are probably stronger than mine... I’m just holding down two snowmobiles though. If I would change anything I would turn the SxS around so the windshield is taking the wind.
Thanks for the input! I had the wife watch the rear window and windshield this weekend (through the sunroof) and it was doing a pretty good job at 70MPH. I never really thought of it blowing out but have now googled it.
The truck does really well without a sway bar and my SxS weights out at about 1200 pounds but most of that is lower to 5e ground. It’s deceiving with the roll bars and cage. Either way I going to see how it does with the trailer and look at the sway bar. Maybe it will handle that much better.
The manaufacture does rate rate the tie down points but I was more interested in first had accounts.
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