Hello all, I have a question about hauling lumber in my crew cab with a short bed. I was talking to a coworker, and he said to just open the tail gate. I don't feel comfortable about having 8' or 16' lumber sticking out of the bed. is there a way of doing this without having to buy a trailer? Thanks

 

I know it is illegal to have anything over 4 feet sticking out. You can also get ticketed for covering your license plate too with the tailgate down. Although not regularly enforced, but can be against you if you are stopped.

If you do having anything sticking out, make sure you flag the heck out of it. I keep a box of red flags and a cheap staple gun in my toolbox.

Another thing that most forget is proper containment using straps and load binders. I've seen so many pieces of lumber, sheet rock, and other goods slide out of peoples truck beds because of lack containment. You can also get pulled over if the officer believes your load is in other's danger.

That also includes covering your load if it is loose, like dirt, manure, rock, and woodchip. You can actually get hit up for dumping and littering of public roadways for uncovered loads. In fact, you drive to my local municipal dump, they WILL assess a $10 fine automatically if you don't tarp it!

This is exactly why I'll never buy a full sized truck without an 8' bed. For 10' through 12' lumber, I can legally carry those items without the need for trailers. All I need to do is make sure my tailgate is up, load binders are secured, and the flags are on.

FWIW, most of the lumber and rock I buy is 12', with the exception of knocker studs and flat goods, like plywood/particle board; but those items fit nicely in my bed without anyone even knowing.

Good luck.

 

Something like this

 

I have one like this. It works well. Mine only extends about 15" past the end of the tailgate but it's enough to support long boards and to keep them from bouncing around. My bed is 5 1/2 feet and the open tailgate adds about 18" so 8 foot boards used to overhang about 2 feet but since this is about 16" past the tailgate they only overhang about 1 foot now.

I didn't know that they even made anything like this but I found this one at a garage sale for $5 :-)

FWIW while I was at it, I made a second "post" that I can bolt to the vertical section of the L. I put a small plate on the bottom so that it can set on the ground without sinking it in. I put a larger plate on the top and bolted a 6" vise on it. To use it I take out the T section of the extender and bolt my new post to the vertical section of the L. That gives me a vise that sets about a foot behind my open tail gate and at the same height. The whole thing is inserted to the standard 2" receiver on the truck so I can really crank down on anything in the vise and since it's at the same height as the tailgate I can support long objects on the tailgate at the same time. The only real problem that I've found with it is that the height isn't adjustable so the truck needs to be sitting on level ground or else the foot may be too high or too low.

 

Thanks all, Just purchased a bed extender online.can't wait. need to finish my deck.