I bought a bedside to bedside diamond plate aluminum toolbox this week for my old 88 Ranger. It did not come with mounting instructions. How do you guys suggest mounting it? I really don't want to drill holes in the sheet metal, and I was wondering about using a big toggle bolt down in the stake openings. Do you think that would work?

Also, should I use double sided foam tape like I would with a cap? Oh, btw, I'm putting this over a bedliner.

Thanks!

 

well there are a couple of ways. One is to use J bolts like from a battery kit, they hook under the bed rail, cut to fit. There are also side bolt kits that clamp to the underbed rails and then the box Pep boys and such sell these.

On my f350 I use the toggle bolts as you suggested, get the 5/16 or maybe 3/8ths to make sure they fit the hole OK. You can also just use some strap steel and drill a hole and tap or weld a nut on the bottom and put into the stake pockets.

On my ranger I have a drop in bedliner that goes over the rails. I just used some of the refrigerator type level legs, drilled a corresponding hole and bolted it in. The bedliner has some big holddown screws and lags that hold it in. Been there over 100K and still holding.

 

Thanks for the reply. If you've had good success with the toggle bolts, I think I'll go that way. The previous owner left a few in the front stake holes, and I figured he must have done the same thing. I think I'll get new toggle bolts tho because the old ones were fairly rusted.

When I bought the box and opened it up, it said that the warranty could be voided unless the box were installed according to the instructions. Of course, there were no instructions included...

Thanks again!

 

I never like the looks of what those j-bolts could do to the bed rails. I usually find some tie points at an auto parts store that fit the stake hole on my ranger with rubber compression pieces. Basically, there is a bottom plate that a threaded rod screws into, up through a square rubber block, then a tie point on top. I just drill new holes in the box to fit my stake holes, then put the threaded rod and rubber block into the stake hole. It takes some practice to be able to get the box down onto them without knocking them down into the stake hole, but they are easily retrievable. A little duct tape to hold the plate/rod to the block helps. Then, I just use the tie point piece to screw down on the inside. It is a very secure mount. You can't lift the box for anything, and it's not any more prone than anything else is to theives.

I saw a system that was really good from one of our sponsors a while back. I can't find the page now, but it was a really robust system that was both secure and made the box easily removable.

If you do mount it laying on the bed rails, don't forget some camper foam insulation strip to protect the bed from scratches!

-Jim

 

I've always used an item that gripped on to the inner bed lip. Here's a screen capture below from Northern Tool and Equip. co.. Between that and a length of "campershell" foam tape, this combination worked well.

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...4142_200314142

 

Ooops!.... i didn't notice you had a bedliner... This method may not work as well as I hoped...