gchu said:
My other idea had been to attach another set of utili-track channels in front of the ones on the truck that the truxedo was clamped to. In theory, I should be able to mount the track in front of the channels with the bolts that clamp on the truxedo - effectively sandwiching the clamp pieces between the two channels. I may have to switch to allen head bolts so it's a lower profile so the extender would slide over it.
It worked! I didn't go with the factory utili-track channels as they were $25 for each piece (for the kingcab, each piece is just under 35"), plus it didn't look like they would give me enough spacing (they are only about 1.25").
I wound up going with 1 5/8 unistrut (McMaster Carr). I had a couple of pieces from work (about 2' long) as well as clamping nuts with spring (I used the 3/8"-16 for the 1 5/8" channel) and 3/8" bolts to attach the unistrut to the factory rails.
The 6 torx screws holding the pipe clamps on the the bed divider allows me to slide the pipe pieces together (about 3").
Everything went together in about 30 minutes and now it operates just like normal (no need to slide the bed divider out just to flip it - before it was hitting on the truxedo rails). Plus no drilling or modifying any of the factory accessories.
I'm going to order some uni-strut in Extruded Aluminum so it's a closer match to the factory utilitrack channels. I'm also going to get longer pieces so I can then slide the bed extender the entire bed length. I'll also mount the clamps to the track too so I should full functionality back for my utilitrack/unistrut system - as the clamps for the truxedo will be "under" the unistrut (I'm going to mill out clearance for them so that the unistrut will sit flat on the factory utilitrack channels). An alternative to milling would be to get pieces to fit in between the clamps - I'm still toying with this piece of the design.
If anyone is interested, I'll get some pics this afternoon of my mock up (it started to pouring when I was in the middle of the project - wound up doing it under the truxedo tonneau cover to finish it up - yes it does not leak!). One caveat though, it's not very pretty as the only 1 5/8" unistrut we had at work was coated green for corrossion protection.
I'll post again when I get the extruded aluminum unistrut installed.
Overall, the total project could cost as little as $25 if you just want to flip the extender, or as much as $45 if you want it to slide the entire length. Or, in my case, it would be free if I just wanted to keep the green pieces (I might try to "find" some galvinized unistrut at work as well to keep it on the cheap).
