Truck Cargo Box Fold Down Side Storage Access Mod - Finally Begins

[ckent323]

Last year I found an experienced body man who was willing to take on modification of a spare cargo box I have for my 1993 Dodge Ram W250 Club Cab Long Bed.

I commented on my plans here (see comment #13):

http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/topic/15218-side-boxes-instead-of-fenders/page-2?hl=ckent323#entry179899


The general plans and pictures of initial progress to create wheel well storage areas and fold down bed sides to access the storage are in my gallery here (several of the pictures were too big to attach to this post).

http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/gallery/album/1220-1993-dodge-w250-fold-down-bed-side-storage-access-mod/

 

[DavidGraves]

Wow

Very exciting that you got it started !

It is the most direct way to all that valuable storage lost on most of our trucks.

Best luck moving forward with it.

David Graves

 

[CougarCouple]

Hi ckent323
That looks cool, should end up with a lot of usable space that's easy to access.

Russ

 

[Cayuse]

Looks amazing! Looking forward to seeing how it all works out. Would love to have additional space.

 

[Vic Harder]

Love this idea. Just thinking out loud, but in terms of effort/cost, would it not make sense to remove the box entirely and build something like it out of alum? All that cutting/welding is going to take time. I love the whole idea, because it is NOT a flatbed, but a "camper on frame" with custom built storage.

 

[cwdtmmrs]

Very clever and clean idea! The only problem I have with more storage is that I carry more "stuff" that I don't need!

 

[ckent323]

Vic, et al,

The idea is to create a space to get the tools, leveling blocks, firewood, spare fuel, spare oil, shovel, axe, extension cords, roll up table, screen tent for the table, and whatever else I can get out of the camper and out of the way.

I am going for a clean look on the outside so that the fold down panel will not be obvious and the whole job will look factory instead of looking like a work truck. We shall see how close I get.

I love the idea of utility cargo beds but they look clunky and they are very heavy. I stumbled across a couple of consumer aftermarket cargo beds a couple of years ago that had contours to match the OEM vehicle contours and shape but those companies had already stopped making the beds for one reason or another by the time I found them (or they do not make them for Dodge trucks). The only way to do this now is custom.

Cutting the metal is easy. Cutting the metal straight and in the right place takes some skill. The guy doing most of the work is very experienced and skilled at the welding and the metal shaping. I am helping him and overseeing his work but I am mostly his go-fer in between making real time decisions on tricky cuts and shapes.

Cost may not be too bad. He took this on as fill in work so he gives me an hour or two a day while he is waiting for a paint job to dry or whatever.

So far it seems to me that building a bed from scratch would probably be much more expensive. There are lots of little hidden pieces of various shapes in these beds that that make them rigid and which we do not have to make but which one would have to make if building from scratch.

I am making an effort to assemble a sequential photo history of the build in case someone else has interest in doing this or something similar. I need to figure out a better process of getting the photos moved from my iphone to the computer and then saving them in the right format and file size (I do not have any photo editing software and have been using powerpoint and Adobe Acrobat to cut and paste, save and convert images. I can get the job done but it is not efficient.

Cost may not be too bad. He took this on as fill in work so he gives me an hour or two a day while he is waiting for a paint job to dry or whatever.

 

[DavidGraves]

Are you thinking of fold down door or fold up door ?

I am a little surprised you decided to trim head of wheel wells.

Your carboard mockup shows that you are really going to gain a lot of storage....

Are you going to a through bolt method to attach camper to bed ?....I did and it is working out very well....very simple to acomplish with my Chevy....through bolted to frame itself.

Rock on with the project.

David Graves

 

[ckent323]

David,

The cargo bed I am modifying is off of a 1993 Dodge Ram it is identical (pre-modification) to the cargo bed on my truck so it already has the mounting features to attach it directly in place to my truck frame once I remove the original cargo box.

The side panel on both sides (driver and passenger) will fold down not up (i.e hinge line is on the bottom). I plan to use appropriately sized gas struts to support the fold down panels. The gas struts should also help hold it closed. I want a concealed latch but have not worked out the details yet.

I measured the travel of the rear axle and then decided where to cut down the wheel wells. There remains at least 10" of clearance between the top of the tire and the bottom of the cut down wheel well. The cab and cargo bed of this model truck are raised pretty high on the W250/W350 (4WD) models.

I am trying to keep the appearance of the outside of the cargo bed as close to stock as I can so that the storage area as well as access to the storage will be somewhat concealed.

In the end this is a one off experiment and there will undoubtedly be things to learn along the way as well as do differently if another one is ever made (there are still a lot of these 1st generation Dodge Diesel pickups on the road in the West. I still see them pretty regularly so perhaps others will try this if this works out satisfactorily.

 

[DavidGraves]

Howdy

A friend who is a body man extroidinaire uses the very thin little 4 " grinder discs for all his cutting....width of kerf is around 1/16 ".
I am glad you got it started.

David Graves

 

[ckent323]

Sounds like my guy! He uses a 4" grinder and thin discs. Steady hand, straight lines.

My cuts were so-so. After my first cut he said, "why don't you let me do this but you can lay it all out". :-(

I think he is very interested in this project and seeing it turn out well. He is semi retired and mostly does smaller jobs so he doesn't get much custom work these days.

 

[JCatt]

Wow this is very cool!

 

[ckent323]

New images uploaded to the Cargo Box mod Gallery

http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/gallery/album/1220-1993-dodge-w250-fold-down-truck-cargo-bed-side-storage-access-mod/

 

[DavidGraves]

Hi

I could not see any new photo images.

Your project has the rapt attention of a LOT of folks....just wanted to give a heads up that the new images may not have gotten there.

Have you ever seen a Hide n Side up close ? I have not.

I am very impressed how you have taken on the utilmate shortcoming for FWC's....the storage shortage.

David Graves

 

[ckent323]

David,

I will post some images in a subsequent comment.

I have only seen photos of the hide-n-side. I have no idea how many were built before the legal wrangling with Chrysler began. There have been other similar designs as well, such as the Stahl Grand Challenger and the Royal Sport Body.

Unfortunately as best as I can determine in 2016 Scott Clare, Neil Long, and their company Innovative Truck Storage, Inc lost their appeal in the case of Scott Clare v. Chrysler Group, LLC, Case No.. 13-11225 (E.D. Mich. June 4, 2014) which resulted in holding the lower courts ruling that Clare, Neil and Innovative Truck Storage had infringed upon Chrysler's patent. So I suspect the Hide-N-Side is not ever going to be built. The Royal Sport Body (never made for Dodge) went out of production due to errors made during manufacture by one of their vendors which resulted in a bunch of unhappy customers and costly warrantee claims on the finished beds.

So I make my own. It is a bit different from all of them too.

 

[ckent323]

Here is the concept:

I made camper templates to make sure at least !" clearance is preserved all around.

Here is the front template (I made a rear template too)

 

[ckent323]

Cutting out the cargo bed interior walls and cutting down wheel wells.

I measured and preserved 11" of clearance from the top of the tire to the new top of the wheel well.

 

[ckent323]

A mockup was made of the storage box to sort out height and clearance shape and weld connect points.

 

[ckent323]

Passenger side storage box coming together

 

[ckent323]

Passenger side fold down door cut from the cargo box exterior skin it will be attached with hinges at the trim line (the hinge will be under the black rubber trim.