working on it wrote:* Storage is my Achilles' heel... I'm never happy with what I've got, or where it's stored. This time, my project is AGAIN on my tow vehicle, not the 4x8 trailer.
* This will be an easy modification, I hope, and I've already started on it, with one part ordered today, and looking for/finding most of the other pieces I'll need to complete it. The part ordered is another wire shelf(I love those things), like the other four I've attached to my trailer as exterior storage racks (1 x 48" wide, and 3 x 30" wide); but those were zinc-chrome (not intended for permanent exposure to rain...OK for racks which spend 90% of their time in the garage), and I needed one that was meant for wet conditions (like outdoors 100% of the time, in my truck bed), so I bought a black epoxy-coated wire shelf, 14" high x 54" long x 1" thick (when stood on its' side) to make my own version of a fold-down bed extender (that sits on the open tailgate for added loads.
* There are plenty of model-specific and universal bed extenders out there, and I'm sure some of you have one, but I just had to go my way, and make a specialty piece only a mother could love. My first thoughts went directly to wire shelves, again, because they've been very useful and easy to adapt (function over form!), and I figure that I can do this project for $50, so why not? Since I've already finished my bed-cover project, and still couldn't fit-in my fourth (and best) cooler into the truck (it was going to ride in the passenger seat of my regular cab), I wasn't going to settle for that storage failure. Thus, a tailgate storage section, for use only when going on 4-7 day campouts, when I need all my coolers My newest cooler can now ride under the cover panels in the bed, while the largest/oldest cooler can ride on the tailgate (in the confinement of the bed-extender.
* I have the hardware to mount the shelf on the tailgate (Rubbermaid wire-shelf mounting clips, which will work on another brand), assorted sizes of TEK screws to self-drill into the sheetmetal, and a locking hasp to secure the shelf when the tailgate is raised (if it needs it, which I doubt). All I have to make is the side-braces that keep it upright when the tailgate is down, and also add bounce resistance to the tailgate and load; triangulated aluminum flat stock comes to mind....
* I would rather make my own equipment than buy off-the-shelf (pun intended) parts that anyone could get. That's where my don't give a sh.t attitude and old-age don't care what u-think go hand-in-hand. If it works, great, if not, then I'll re-purpose it elsewhere. I have fun doing this sort of thing!