Was running the gull wing style on my truck, however, today’s the day to scrap her. Mine usually holds 5 jack stands, couple bottle jacks, farm jack, rigging, shovel, brush trimming gear and several size trailer hitches. What type of tool box are yall running? Let’s see some pics!

 

You may want to be a little more specific on the types of boxes you're referring to. We talking bedrail boxes, under bed boxes, the slanted front flip tops, or the old school behind the cab flip top?

 

I use 5 gallon buckets, easy to carry, and pack well

 

The title of your thread made me think of this.

 

Scrap which? The tool box or the truck? Or both?

Are you looking for a replacement tool box for the existing truck?

Or are you looking for a new tool box for a new truck?

Recommendations may differ based on scenario.

Good idea. Let's start with you. What are you working with?

I have cabinets built into the bed sides.





Have you considered storing some stuff "out of the box"?

You mentioned trailer hitches, as an example. Prior to having built in cabinets in my present truck, I used to have a regular cab 8' bed pickup, which I had for about 20 years. It was a 1979, and back then, Ford didn't supply receiver hitches on trucks. In fact, receiver hitches themselves were a relatively new thing.

To store the ball drops (stingers) with various size ***** (2", 2-5/16", and back then, 1-7/8"), I took advantage of the open tubing sides of the receiver hitch (aftermarket, since no OEM existed) cross tube, which was the same size as the receiver tube, and stored the extra stingers in the cross tube, turned sideways to maintain a high departure angle.

To secure the stored stingers, I mounted a locking flag plate with a padlock hole in it as an additional "washer" to the ball shank before tightening the ball to the specified 300 ft lbs torque, and then used a heavy braided aircraft cable (bicycle lock) between the lock hole on the flag plate and the truck frame.

I can't show photos because digital cameras didn't even exist back then. I probably have some photos on film, but who knows where the negatives are, if they are even any good. But those drops were big (I had a small lift back in those days, like a neutered Big Foot) and awkward to store in a tool box, so I was thrilled at coming up with a way to store and secure them outside of the box, and still have them on hand for any impromptu need.

The point is... thinking outside the box... what on your list can you store and secure outside of a box? That would dictate the size and type of replacement box you choose, or bed you choose, if buying a new truck.

On my '79, I stored two small gas cans (empty), one on each side, under the bed, tucked between the inner bed sheet metal tub, and the outer bed sheet metal skin. Those cans came in handy one day when I was on a fire trail on the side of the mountain, and a ranger had locked the gate. I had to drive to the other side of the mountain to a different gate, but since that was a totally unscheduled course reversal, I didn't have enough gas (despite dual fuel tanks) to make the journey. So I retrieved my two gas cans from under the bed, walked through the locked gate to get some additional gas, returned to my trapped truck, and journeyed again on the fire road back across the mountain to find freedom on the other side.

It is very useful to carry extra things in a truck, and it is interesting to think about why OEM implementations like the RAM BOX and the pass through box in an earlier model F-150 are not demanded by the market. Perhaps it is because the OEM implementations are not as useful, due to size constrictions. Hey, you wanted to talk tool boxes, so we're talking.

Instead of one box for everything, have you considered distributing the stuff listed above into several boxes?

For 8' full size pickup beds, I would consider combining a pair of aft axle wheel well boxes... perhaps one for your bottle jacks, and the other for your rigging webs, both of which benefit from being protected from weather. Content stored in the wheel well boxes alleviates the congestions of a cross box, if you decide to continue with a cross box.

A huge factor in truck tool box decision making is whether or not you tow a 5th wheel trailer. Not only does a 5th wheel trailer conflict with some tool box solutions like a "Bed Slide" or "Cargo Slide", or drawer systems like "Decked" or "Truck Vault" or "Pack Rat", or above rail side boxes like "Delta" or "System 1" or "Weather Guard"... having the need to tow a 5th wheel trailer also effects how high a gull wing or solid lid cross box can periscope above the bed side rails, without the 5th wheel crushing into it.

So folks will need a little bit better idea of all the different ways you might use your truck, before making any recommendations on what type of tool box, or constellation of tool boxes, to work out of.

 

Scrapping the tool box now eventually the body…will be time to take this puppy to 07 steel with the sun roof….if you pretend it’s a b-52 and not a 7.3 it’s gonna go as long as you want it to lol this style worked well and had about a 4 inch gap in between the bed and tool box which came I handy at times. Prefer keeping everything covered/don’t really open the tool box unless there’s a problem. Have seen people weld hitch receivers to their frame. I would be open to that. Dont want to buy an adjustable hitch on acct they seem to only add to the play in between the pins when towing. Definitely trying to buy once cry once the last tool box provided 15 plus years of service.

 

If you're looking to scrap the body eventually you could always look for service bed or just a flatbed with boxes

 

Have thought about eventually putting on an aluminum stake bed with some nice wood siding…body swap could be over a year out. Still need to buy a donor rig and than have time to see it through.

 

I am running a box by UWS. Very well built and is deeper than most boxes. I will try to grab a few pics of it tonight.

I am not a fan of the gull-wing boxes as you can’t put long handled objects inside and the portion under the hinge seems to become a black hole for stuff to hide under