Looks like I neglected to let everyone know that I picked up a free canopy for The Truck from a guy at work.
He said it was $1600 new but it’s been around the block a few times.
Still, free is a very good price as Cederq reminded me.
If you aren’t a local then you won’t catch that it was an inside joke.
Tom Peterson had a furniture store over in Portland for years and was famous for his crazy commercials. Free is a very good price was one of his slogans.
Anyways, it took some modifying to fit the bed rails of my Chevy. It came off a Dodge and apparently the bed rails were a bit wider.
There was a 90 degree lip that slipped inside the bed rails on the Dodge that wouldn’t let it sit flat on mine. I clamped the thing on Cattywampus and took it to work. My boss let me use a forklift with some fork extensions on it so I could pick the thing up and then I cut that lip off of both sides to get it to sit flat on the bed rails.
The back glass got shattered out of it, those are VERY expensive, some of the mounting hardware for it disappeared and the guy ripped the shit out of the headliner trying to pick it up with the bucket on his tractor to set it on my truck.
Even with all that it doesn’t look terrible from the outside.
Just don’t look inside too closely. I’m going to have to finish taking the headliner completely out.
I will probably Cheap Out and try getting a piece of Plexi Glass to make a back window for it.
A quick internet search tells me they want anywhere from $350 to $500 for a new glass.
Umm, no.
The bottom piece the glass was glued to that has the handle and latches is in the garage waiting to get cleaned up already.
The Wifely Unit got pissed off when I brought it home. She asked me how I was supposed to haul anything with it now.
I asked her what the fuck she needed hauled because it’s my damn truck.
Ten years from now she will bring that up I’m sure but for now it stopped that conversation.
Yeah, it makes it a pain in the ass to haul shit in but I am wanting shit to stay dry once I get it in there, including my narrow ass if I decide to take a fishing trip or go camping. It does tend to rain around here occasionally. Like six feet a year on average.
I can tell you right now that it’ going to take at least four pretty stout guys to get it back off in one piece. It’s fiberglass with four big slabs of glass on the sides.
If I need to get it off in a hurry for some reason I’ll just unclamp it and slide it off the ass end.
It breaks then it breaks.
Shit happens and I’m not really out any money.
In the mean time it certainly didn’t stop me from hauling four loads of yard debris up to the recycling place.
.
The last pickup I had came with a light weight thin metal canopy, I could put it on or take it off by myself but it was easier with one of the kids to help.
I also had a Load Handler mat for when I carried stuff in the bed (gravel, manure, firewood, etc). That was the best money I’d spent on a tool in a long time. When I got rid of the truck I kept the https://loadhandler.com/ just in case I got another truck.
I had that until I downsized to move into an RV…
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The Old Fart across the street has one of those on his 92 Dodge 4WD.
Handy bastard that thing.
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Cerdreq?
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Fat fingered it. I fixed it.
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Fat fingered, skinny ass…
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> loadhandler.com
Get the pro version, I’ve had the plastic non-pro brackets break. Shop it hard for price. Wash the bed liner out before using it and broom it when dry, because sand increases the friction against the drag sheet too much. Doesn’t work as well as the videos show, because of material trapped behind wheel wells and material wants to spill off the tailgate corners. Still works dramatically better than without and having to stand in the bed and push woodchips or soil or manure forward, ugh.
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I have been throwing tarps down in the bed and then throwing the shit on top of them.
As long as it doesn’t get too damn heavy then you can slide the stuff out on the tarps in the same manner.
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I blocked the wheel wells off with 2×4 frame & OSB, made moving gravel way easy.
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I like the bit about the locals. If you grew up in the SoCal area you grew up
on Cal Worthington Ford commercials. I can remember buying burgers,
fries, and shakes from the original In-N-Out Burger joint in Baldwin Park CA.
There are a lot of things that are lost on people in other states.
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Heh! I remember the Cal Worthington ads that ran on Phoenix TV in the late 70’s. The one I liked the most was him sitting on some white asian buffalo, calling it his dog Spot. Nothing wrong with having fun at your job.
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Rig a hoist to the garage rafters for occasional removal/reinstall? Used to have a rig like that for the kayaks.
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Covered with sheetrock.
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There’s an auto glass guy that eats down at Pioneer Pizza on Redland almost all the time
ask him what he’d charge
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As to the yard waste: Blow the leaves into lines or short piles. Raise the wheels on your lawnmower and close the bagger chute. Run over the leaves once to grind them up. Attach your bag and open the chute to pick them up. Your four loads would end up being about a 1/4 load. Take my word for it. I have two big maples and a gigantic, ancient oak and I’ve been doing it that way for a decade and a half. This method takes tons less time and effort. Work smart, not hard………….
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Used one of those this past summer. Needed a ton of sand moved to the back of the yard and the yard materials company truck was to wide for the path back there.
Borrowed my BIL’s F250 with one of those handlers on it. Cranking a ton of sand is real tough, had to hand shovel about 1/4 off the back before I could actually make the pile move, once it started moving it was a piece of cake, even had the tailgate positioned to dump it exactly where needed. Very slick device.
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. I’m glad I live in America, we just burn our leaves here…. lol
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I thought you mentioned the canopy on Friday.
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Remember Phil, Tom use to give those buzz cut hair cuts free also?, Only it was one style and you looked like Tom Peterson… and the hot dog lunches he use to throw?
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That is a nice Canopy, tell your wife I haul a lot of shit with mine on and except for really tall shit, which I don’t want to haul anyway. Besides ya can flip someone off and be partially hidden.
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Holy shit, you guys on the west coast are crazy.
I wouldn’t put that on my truck for fucking nothing.
But hell, do what you have to do.
Two nights ago I shot 2 hogs at night with 3″ 00 buck.
Spent the next day making sausage.
Buddy of mine shot two deer today, brought them over to my place and I helped him clean them.
Freezer is full.
Might just as well go ahead and start breeding the rabbits tomorrow.
I’d give you pics, but I don’t know how.
Phil, you know Wirecutter? or maybe Jim at eatgrueldog.com?
They could give you my email.
-rightwingterrorist
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Check your Email.
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Obviously not a fan of canopies… They have their pros and cons, stuff stays dry, you can lock them and hopefully keep stuff and can generally carry more in the bed without having to secure a load.
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I had a fiberglass canopy on my old Dodge Adventurer. Worked well, sleeping out in the wilds was easy peasy. What took some time was getting used to all of the strange reflections of oncoming headlights in the cab rear view mirror, appearing as if they were just about to hit me.
Good luck with the fixer-upper – I think you did great on the deal.
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Phil: Free iz free. Dude! GREAT score! Whatever the fuck you do with it, it’s great! Plexi is a great idea (BT-DT) with my old p/u… for what you paid, and all the other shytte? Hell to the yeah broheim! I got me a new truck meselves… wait for the poasts about it LOL
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Guy I knew had built a four metal post frame he could back his pickup into, fasten and lift the canopy up, then drive the pickup out. Reversed the process to put the canopy back on.
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You know what I don’t see on that truck? The “Bumper Sticker!” Rectify that!
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It’s coming.
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Imagine if you will, our two trucks sitting side by side in a diner dive and sheeple will look at those stickers and won’t know to shit or get off the stool seeing as two bastards are on the premise…
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When in Minot, I remember that I Keating always had a sale…
And their commercials sucked. At least Cal Worthington was *funny/ridiculous*!
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Looking again at your snapshots, it appears the rear of that canopy is almost exactly like my S-10 Blazer. Take a tape measure to both and find out. Rear windows for a Blazer have to be a lot more obtainable than finding another salvage canopy.
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That sure is a nice truck you have and the canopy over the bed just makes it that much better. The fact that it was fee is just icing on the cake. The plexiglass for the back window is a good idea and there’s always the option of the local auto wreckers. As for hauling things that don’t fit, there’s your excuse to pick up a used utility trailer. I’m sure you can find a cheap one around somewhere.
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My favorite Tom Peterson commercials were the late night movie ones where he was tapping on the camera’s lens going “wake up, wake up!”
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