4 Ways To Add More Tie Down Points To The Truck Bed
It’s important to strap everything down that has to be in the bed of a truck, though in some cases doing so can literally be impossible.
Depending on what you want to secure, the lack of tie down points can make it very hard to do so to things of smaller size, or even big for that matter.
Adding additional anchor points is a common thought for many owners, considering that some pickups, notably the shorter kind, only have less of them.
How do you do it? What are the methods? This is what i will be tackling on this blog post.
Use D-rings
What i consider to be the primary method in regards to increasing the amount of anchor points in a pickup truck bed is with the use of D-rings.
The great thing is that you don’t always have to drill holes for it to work, as long as you can see some bolt heads in there.
What i mean by that is that you can use the same bolts which hold together the bed itself for hooking in the actual D-rings – just unscrew the ones you like, take out the washer, put in the D-ring, the washer again and screw everything back in!
Certainly things won’t be the same for those who have a bedliner there; not unless you are willing to make some holes to expose the actual bolts, that is.
Not needing to bore anything in your vehicle is always only good, but the thing you have to understand is that just using the already existing bolts for making new anchor points won’t always provide you with the prime spots.
What if you want to have some of them on the sides? Or maybe on a particular point in the bed? The only thing you can do at this point is make some new holes, really.
If you indeed will go for this, it is actually quite easy as you only need self-tapping screws to drill through the metal. Fastening the rings in this manner won’t be suitable for securing down heftier loads, so in case that’s the top priority for you, you will need to drill a larger hole and use actual bolts.
Get some tracks
Consider adding a rail system or two, more so if you haul a lot of different things and frequently.
Bolt a strut channel to the side of the bed rail, at the bottom, right to the cab, anywhere – they provide you with a tie-down point every inch of the way.
Alternative methods
If your pickup has already made stake pockets, you can also use them for holding an anchor mount. Having two of them in the back isn’t a lot, although still better than having none.
Here’s a YouTube video of a guy showing how to make some great anchor points with just some chain.