dsfra
Member
Needing to finish the back deck before the weather turns bad, it was time to pick up 60 more 5/4" x 4" x 12' pieces of cedar decking. The good guys lumber supplier around Seattle is Dunn Lumber, and they only charge 20 bucks for local deliveries, but what's the fun in that? Plus if you just order it then they grab whatever happens to be on the top of the stack and deliver it, so you stand to get some real crap-grade material - speaking from experience. The solution is to show up at the yard and hand select the good stuff, which they're glad to let you do, but then how to haul it? Let's see... 60 pieces, each 12 ft. long, is 720 lin. ft. at .6 lbs. per lin. ft. for dry cedar, so that's 432 lbs. And that certainly ain't going on the roof rack, so an inside/outside lumber hauling platform for the 4Runner was definitely in order.
May as well make it able to handle 4' x 8' sheets of sheetrock or plywood as well as longer dimensional lumber, so a couple of 2" x 10" x 10' footers for the long sides, and 2 4' lengths of 2" x 10" for the front and rear cross pieces (to get the platform elevated above the interior wheel humps), a few 2" x 4" crossmembers, and a couple of handfuls of hardware, got me to Version 1.0. The test fitting made it real obvious that there would be way too much hanging out the back unsupported, so 70 bucks more got me a 500 lb. capacity trailer hitch cargo carrier, which, when combined with a few feet of 2" x 6", turned into the rear support. Throw in 4 turnbuckles tied to the cargo floor tie-downs (slanted forward to resist sliding forward during braking), plus the rear support rigidly bolted to the cargo carrier, plus some gaudy-looking but festive conspicuity striping, got me to Version 2.0. Lastly, I used a couple of webbing tie-downs through the rear window opening and threw on some old sweat socks for paint protection and that final touch of class, and called it done.
The initial road test yesterday saw us make it home in one piece without puking a bunch of cedar all over the road behind us. It looks undeniably hokey, but Q.E.D. for the theory. And best of all - hot damn - the tires didn't rub!!!
May as well make it able to handle 4' x 8' sheets of sheetrock or plywood as well as longer dimensional lumber, so a couple of 2" x 10" x 10' footers for the long sides, and 2 4' lengths of 2" x 10" for the front and rear cross pieces (to get the platform elevated above the interior wheel humps), a few 2" x 4" crossmembers, and a couple of handfuls of hardware, got me to Version 1.0. The test fitting made it real obvious that there would be way too much hanging out the back unsupported, so 70 bucks more got me a 500 lb. capacity trailer hitch cargo carrier, which, when combined with a few feet of 2" x 6", turned into the rear support. Throw in 4 turnbuckles tied to the cargo floor tie-downs (slanted forward to resist sliding forward during braking), plus the rear support rigidly bolted to the cargo carrier, plus some gaudy-looking but festive conspicuity striping, got me to Version 2.0. Lastly, I used a couple of webbing tie-downs through the rear window opening and threw on some old sweat socks for paint protection and that final touch of class, and called it done.
The initial road test yesterday saw us make it home in one piece without puking a bunch of cedar all over the road behind us. It looks undeniably hokey, but Q.E.D. for the theory. And best of all - hot damn - the tires didn't rub!!!
