Okay, this is the first pickup my wife has agreed to let me put stacks on so I'm pretty jazzed. My question is, how many of you cut the cross member at the front of the bed? I was thinking of cutting through in and then kind of boxing in around the hole.

 

i cut though my without a problem. its not like there will be weight there if you are running a y-pipe to your stacks.

 

Are you talking about the frame crossmember on an extended cab truck? The sheetmetal crossmember on the bed is not important, but I went around the frame.

 

Doesn't the frame crossmember hold the fuel tank?

 

I went around the frame cross member and the bed cross member also. I just built a pipe to kinda loop up around it all. I'm not big on cutting any cross member even the one for the bed. If you pull a gooseneck and even though the G/N hitch carries the weight the vibration and jarring can crack your bed with a cut cross member as well as alot of flexing if you do any offroading. Cut your hole behind the X-member and use 90's to go up and around the X-member. Good luck with it.

 

I'm talking about the bed crossmember not the frame. I was thinking if I cut it and then boxed in around the hole and triangulated the box, I wouldn't loose any strength.

 

Yeah, and I wouldn't even worry too much about boxing it.

 

I went behind it to put my stack in, but it probably doesn't see much weight.

 

I went behind mine then 90'ed back forward to get the stacks in the right place.





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You seem to lose alot of bed space with the T's in the bed, although there is only one large hole to drill. Has anyone tried to run the T under the bed then use 2 holes to allow only the stacks inside the bed?

 

You would have to go under the frame as well as fuel tank to get to the corners under the truck. Bed space is not a concern to me. Its just a toy and does not have to work.

 

yes you do lose a lot of space. It really stinks not being able to hold full sheets of plywood and drywall in the bed. I also lose the ability to stack fire wood nice and tightly in the bed with them. I am about to take mine out for just that reason.

 

I cut out the whole bed rail on mine, and did the 2 hole cut, figured the sqaure tubing I used for the stacks would give me the support back if I had to put the weight up there a 4" sqaure tube cleared just fine.
The thing I was afraid of was wat if my tube got too hot started melting my tank.I kept a real close on that for the first month. Well had em for 4 yrs and no issues yet,no issue if u want I can try and get some pix of the under side and the clearence of the fuel tank if ud like? Dan

 

I would love to see some pics. I've been trying to figure out whether to put them in the bed or under. I would prefer under but I haven't seen anyone with this set up yet. Thanks