Box thoughts...

[syzygy]

Hey all,

I'll start with a picture of my Jeep as it is now:



I like the rails in the bed (though some day I may want to re-fab them into structural, frame-attached roll bars. For now they stay.)

I also like the idea of the box that's hanging off of the rails. However, I have a few problems with it. One, it's off center.



Two, it's way too big/takes up way too much of my bed. As you can see in this picture it used to make the space immediately above a large water tank into usable space, but now that the tank is gone, I want to be able to use my bed again.



Currently I have a few leftover lengths of crappy canvas fire hose (which I don't care to keep) in the box along with my spare tire. The box is built out of wood and has an open top.

Here's what I'm thinking - replace the existing box with one a little smaller and probably a little deeper. It might be nice to still be able to store the spare up there, but not necessarily. I also want waterproof (or nearly so) lockable storage. A not-too-deep lockable truck bed toolbox might do the trick.

But here's the catch -- since I want to have full use of the bed on occasion, I'm thinking about ways to hook up the box so that it either hangs about where the current box does, or maybe sits farther down like a regular truck bed toolbox, but is hooked up with bars that let it swing or slide up and forward and have a secondary position sitting in a locked-in position above the cab. This would free up the bed space it occupies for putting stuff in when I use it for hauling stuff.

Questions: First, do you think a box of any size hanging over the cab area would look ridiculous?

Second, before I say what I was thinking of trying (so I don't influence you guys to not be creative ), any thoughts on how to make this happen? I'm a pretty skilled welder, so fabrication isn't an issue.

Looking for design ideas, and responses about the idea in general...

[compexp]

since you have the bars on the bed already, use them as a support system - with tabs that hang the box over the bars - and use a bolt through the bar to keep the box from moving.

box over the cab? why not? not that different from the ladder racks or suv racks that extend over the whole top. you could just use your bars to support an expanded metal platform up there and that way it could hold your spare or the box.

[fisherman]

I wouldn't call the box mounted over the cab good looking in my opinion. However function over looks might work for you. I don't think you'll like hefting a spare tire up into the box. Nice truck, I would make a box that goes in the truck box location, in bed behind cab that is removable to above the cab mounting in case you need the box and need to use the full bed, unload tools mount box over the cab, load tools back into box. Good luck and have fun.

[kndllmtt]

I like the idea of having a box over the bed with the rails down the bed. Kinda like a hard bikini top, but funcional as well as formal.

[randyscycle]

I'd think accessibility to the box were it over the cab, might be an issue. What are you planning on keeping in it?

And like Fisherman brought up, you won't enjoy hefting a spare up very high. Especially a stock M715 wheel. I had mine in the bed for a bit and it was a fair amount lift into the bed at stock ride height.

[phoenix]

I see that you don't have the original bumper on your truck. Maybe you could make a bumper that is 6-8 inches deep 6 inches tall and full width and have the top hinged so you can use that as a tool box. I am thinking about making a bumper for my winch that has two tool boxes, one on each side of the winch so I can keep chains and straps and tools in for working.

Or, make a custom "box" that is the same shape as the under bed box. make it slide out of the original box under the truck with rollers. that way you can lock up your tools and it will look totally stock. Make two of them so you can have a tool box on either side of the truck without making the box too long.

[randyscycle]

One thing about bumper toolboxes: They either need to be very weather-tight, or don't keep anything in them that you value.

I had a friend who made a similar setup on his full-size Bronco,and after a couple wheeling trips, the boxes were full of a mixture of mud and water and tools. Not pretty. For on-road use it would have been fine, but these got submerged a few times when fording and splashed pretty regularly with soupy mud.

[moosejr]

Another thought in regards to being able to move your tool box. I thought about this one time, and then tried to move my box with it loaded, . ..decided that wasn't a good plan. Depending on what you are putting in the box it might be okay, but I found it to be way too heavy to move around. You might look at the measurements for an aluminum cross-bed box for a compact pickup, ..that might get you a size that would be functional and look okay up there. . .

[phoenix]

If you put a aerodynamic box above your cab, guess what it would look like from the front?.......an M725

[syzygy]

If you put a aerodynamic box above your cab, guess what it would look like from the front?.......an M725

Haha I suppose it would.

At the moment the box contains my spare tire and a few ropes, straps, a tarp, etc. Yes it was heavy to lift up there but I'm hoping I never have to use it. I'm thinking it would be nice to have it be large enough to carry the spare in the future.

As for weight of the box and moving it loaded, I had thought of that. One of the department's new trucks has a couple of sliding equipment trays in some of the compartments. The trays have a several hundred pound capacity and are on ball bearing style drawer slides with a hydraulic piston underneath to dampen their motion and keep them either pulled all the way in or pushed all the way out in addition to some locking latches. Some of the higher-up drawers also tilt after they come out over half way so that you can see/access what's on them without needing a ladder. Others slide and drop, leaving the bottom of the tray parallel to the ground.

I was thinking of something along these lines so that a fully loaded tray/box could slide from about the position the current box is in all the way to up and over the cab to temporarily free up bed space. I wouldn't run with the box over the cab without anything in the bed as I think that would look pretty silly... so it would have to be easy to move back and forth.

Another couple reasons for having the box up high.

1) Emergency lighting. I'm active on the FD that used to use this truck, so I can get a permit to mount and display (use) red lights, siren, etc. The box provides a perfect place to mount rear-facing lighting. I hate lightbars on personal vehicles in general and think one would look ridiculous on an M715. (No offense to anyone who has one... feel free to post up pics if you have them and prove me wrong), but I think lights built into a functional toolbox would look great. Currently two large halogens hang from below the box (they used to sit just behind the water tank, so they weren't in the way of the useful part of the bed and they were protected from getting hit by stuff. I will/would move them to the back of the box and or swap them out for different style lights.

2) Electronics storage. If I could build a weather-tight area (not necessarily waterproof, ie not submersible, but at least rain proof) I could put things like an amplifier for speakers, or lighting controller for the red lights up there. Then I wouldn't have to worry about it when I inevitably try fording too deep a river/lake/pond/puddle. In my XJ I had a lighting controller under the back seat and whenever I get into something a little deep the box gets submerged and activates all outputs... so my strobes/LEDs all turn on and I can't turn them off.