Secure storage of scuba gear in truck bed?!
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I have one of those heavy duty plastic boxes from walmart.easily holds 2 tanks laying down next to each other. This secured with rachet straps to the truck bed. I have a dodge quad cab pickup not a full 4 door.
All gear gets packed into the cab either the night before or morning of dive. When done diving for the day. Tanks pack on the bottom of box. Followed by weight pockets to keep tanks from shifting. Fins, BCD, dry suit, gloves, hoods etc go in the box.
There are holes already provided and I have a set of shlage heavy duty vandal and weather resistant padlocks to lock keyed to my house key. (If you really want convieniance brigss and stratton is now making a padlck that can be keyed to your american car key). Head on home and unload.
The weight of tanks etc is going to make it hard for one person to carry away. As has been said do not advertise with dive stickers etc.
If your are carrying 2 or more tanks the box is not going anywhere.
All gear gets packed into the cab either the night before or morning of dive. When done diving for the day. Tanks pack on the bottom of box. Followed by weight pockets to keep tanks from shifting. Fins, BCD, dry suit, gloves, hoods etc go in the box.
There are holes already provided and I have a set of shlage heavy duty vandal and weather resistant padlocks to lock keyed to my house key. (If you really want convieniance brigss and stratton is now making a padlck that can be keyed to your american car key). Head on home and unload.
The weight of tanks etc is going to make it hard for one person to carry away. As has been said do not advertise with dive stickers etc.
If your are carrying 2 or more tanks the box is not going anywhere.
kiknads
Registered
Greenlee Storage Box -Jobsite 24 In. x 48 In. x 24 In. - HD2448-27 at The Home Depot
All metal, Locks not accessable to cut with bolt cutters, and rain-resistant
All metal, Locks not accessable to cut with bolt cutters, and rain-resistant
I have a Dodge Ram w/the almost 4 door and a full pickup bed. I have a locking canopy (topper). My Scuba tanks stay in there year round, as I dive year round. I put them close to the cab and cover them up. My kids say the back of my pickup looks like a homeless/dead man lives back there. I've never had the canopy broken into, but I've had the cab (driver's window) broken into and they stole a nice duffel bag and nothing else of value. I live in the Pacific Northwest, and maybe if I lived in Florida or California they would rob us blind. But so far, neither me or any of my friends have suffered a break-in at our divesites in Oregon or Washington. About the dive-stickers. The main places that our trucks sit "unsupervised" is at divesites, so it's obvious we're diving. We love our stickers as it attracts other divers so that we may find buddies (difficult for the cold NW murky waters - good visibility at the Crab Hole yesterday was 6 ft!!!).
Harbor Freight Truck tool box: 62" Aluminum Truck Box
$180 with $90 shipping and you can usually find a 20% of coupon laying around on the net. Better yet you could probably drive to one in an hour two and save the shipping.
$180 with $90 shipping and you can usually find a 20% of coupon laying around on the net. Better yet you could probably drive to one in an hour two and save the shipping.
Mike Boswell
Contributor
I built a locking box for the bed of the truck for this purpose.
I will try to explain here and can post photos tomorrow.
I placed a very large eye-bolt through the bed of the truck about 9 inches from the front and dead center. The bolt was originally used to tie down two motorcycles side by side.
I then took a large heavy duty plastic box, looks kinda like a foot locker. I placed the box over the bolt and saw where the bolt hit the bottom of the box.
Next cut a slot in the bottom of the box just big enough for the bolt to pass through.
I then secure the box either one of two ways.
1-simply place the box over the bolt and turn the bolt 90 degrees. If you then lock the box shut with a padlock it can not be opened or removed from the bed.
2- You could place a pad lock through the eye bolt. This way the box lislocked in the boed but not locked closed.
I also drilled a ton of drain holes in the bottom and sides of the box. This allows watter to drain out and since it sits on the corrugated truck bed it simply runs out the bed of the truck.
Works GREAT for dive gear and also VERY handy for anything else.
Like I said its kinda hard to explain but if you want I can take some pics. Took about 10 mintes to do. Hardest part was getting somebody to hold the eye bolt while I went unter the truck and tightened it from the bottom.
Also dont worry about drilling through the bed. There really isnt much under there you can hit (look firstof course) and there is plenty of room to work.
I will try to explain here and can post photos tomorrow.
I placed a very large eye-bolt through the bed of the truck about 9 inches from the front and dead center. The bolt was originally used to tie down two motorcycles side by side.
I then took a large heavy duty plastic box, looks kinda like a foot locker. I placed the box over the bolt and saw where the bolt hit the bottom of the box.
Next cut a slot in the bottom of the box just big enough for the bolt to pass through.
I then secure the box either one of two ways.
1-simply place the box over the bolt and turn the bolt 90 degrees. If you then lock the box shut with a padlock it can not be opened or removed from the bed.
2- You could place a pad lock through the eye bolt. This way the box lislocked in the boed but not locked closed.
I also drilled a ton of drain holes in the bottom and sides of the box. This allows watter to drain out and since it sits on the corrugated truck bed it simply runs out the bed of the truck.
Works GREAT for dive gear and also VERY handy for anything else.
Like I said its kinda hard to explain but if you want I can take some pics. Took about 10 mintes to do. Hardest part was getting somebody to hold the eye bolt while I went unter the truck and tightened it from the bottom.
Also dont worry about drilling through the bed. There really isnt much under there you can hit (look firstof course) and there is plenty of room to work.
Thank you all for your continuous feedback. I am especially looking forward to seeing pictures from rhoadc as that sounds something that I at one point considered.
This morning I made a trip to Home Depot and had a closer look at that wavy fiberglass thing. Well.. its kind of flimzy but it does look very much like a truck bed. I also looked at what they offer for plastic containers and I think economically speaking that seems to be the way to go. I think.
This morning I made a trip to Home Depot and had a closer look at that wavy fiberglass thing. Well.. its kind of flimzy but it does look very much like a truck bed. I also looked at what they offer for plastic containers and I think economically speaking that seems to be the way to go. I think.
Mike Boswell
Contributor
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