I was thinking of that too. Design the pockets right and I wouldn't even need tiedowns! Wouldn't move side to side, and wouldn't come out rearwards unless I powered out. Design the rear pockets open ended and I wouldn't even need ramps....
Thought about it, but it would add a lot of metal, weight and make it a little less useful as a flatbed. (although I could build fill in cover plates to get it back to a flat surface. Someday. If I run out of projects.)

 

This rear tail added useless length, really hurt the departure angle even in my driveway and could be a hazard to other cars when I'm backing up...

It had to go... Setting up for removal.



Got the back plate off to expose the supports....



It wasn't until I cut through the supports that I realized how thick they were...



While I was down there I unwrapped the wiring to the rear tail lights, something didn't look quite right. All the connections were just twisted together...



I pulled out my new favorite set of tools... Weatherpak tools and a BUNCH of connectors...



Here's one side done. Love these connectors, factory appearance, weathertight and positive locking...



I pulled down the trailer wiring and am going to wire in for better running lights along the sides of the bed. Turns out they weren't even hooked up although rigid conduit was run to all of them under the flatbed. Here's the trailer running light wire:



Single wire weatherpak connector installed, was thinking of grounding each light individually:

 

Nice.

Where do ya get the weatherpak stuff?

 

If you plan on driving the toy up onto there I would be worried about:

A. your truck doing a wheely (dont know how much your toy weighs.

B. Beating the crap out of your rear axle gears from the truck being pushed back and forth.

both of these things may still be a worry when wenching the toy onto the truck

Just my .02c either way nice job!

 

Nope, Jeep climbs right up there no problem. Truck seems to handle it with out any problem at all. Gear lash isn't an issue and if it was, I would take it out of gear and chock the wheels for the loading. As for driving on the road, there's less shoving and pulling than I would get with my Jeep on a trailer. (tiedown slack and hitch slack) It's more of a single unit strapped directly to the bed. It even handles the corners surprisingly well! Up and down the hill to Big Bear, I forgot it was on there at times.

 

I got this kit along with a ratcheting crimper. You can get a regular crimper but this one works so well, I'm glad I have it.



This is what came in my kit.



It has everything from single connectors to 6 pin connectors. Also a pin removal tool so you can change configurations if you want to. There's connector plugs too so you can make a water tight dead end connection.

 

Sweeeeeeet! I have the tools, but bought connectors one-at-a-time in the past. That is a cool kit.