So I thought I'd be cool and get a pick 'em up truck to haul things around. In comes a '97 F350. Brilliant. I should have done this years ago.
However, this weekend a buddy asked me to help him pick up some deck lumber. 16' boards. Well with 8' of 2x6 sticking out the back of the truck I needed to strap it down. No problem. Until I realized I have no hooks or attachments at the bottom of the bottom. Only the stake pockets at the top.
Any of you guys added hooks or tie downs to the base of the bed? Currently there's an OE Ford plastic bedliner in it that'd I'd like to keep but if that has to go...I guess so be it.
I have a '00 F-350 and it has loops in the bed corners, access through holes in the bed liner. I use large ratchet straps. Are you sure it doesn't have any loops?
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I got small d-ring anchors from Harbor Freight. There's two in a pack. I think I put in about 30 of them in the bed of my truck. I never have to go far for an anchor point now.
There's an almost unlimited number of aftermarket tie down point solutions for pickups. My preference is to screw D rings in the corners of the bed about 3" up from the bottom.
To get tie downs down low you're going to have to either remove or cut the drop in bed liner. I personally dislike drop in bed liners but there are many who love them.
In the mean time you can run a tie down from one side of the bumper up over the tailgate around the load and back down to the other side of the bumper to secure stock that extends past the end of the bed.
You may also want to add a couple of good quality cargo bars. I've got a pair of these heininger 4016 hitchmate cargo stabilizer bar for full-size trucks
In reply to NOT A TA :
The OBS trucks did not have them; at least the 96 and earlier ones I've had. With 97 being the last year, they might have...
I installed Anchortrax in my old 95 F150: https://www.holley.com/products/discontinued_product/parts/3375 They were so clutch for tying stuff down. Unfortunately they're discontinued, but I think there's other similar options out there.
Have you looked under the plastic bed liner at all? Those things hide rust like it's their job.
I just pulled my plastic bedliner. Stupid autocorrect wants it to be Berliner.... F that.
Anyway I wanted to measure between the recesses. I spent money and got Macs tie down straps for my new car hauler. It turns out they make tracks in various lengths too!
https://www.macscustomtiedowns.com/products/track-kit-surface-mount-contoured-edge-series-1-versatie-522112?pr_prod_strat=copurchase&pr_rec_id=fc752a689&pr_rec_pid=4378200834122&pr_ref_pid=4378201260106&pr_seq=uniform&variant=32324091314250
I will have to add these once I have the bed coated.
