When towing an atv in the back of your truck. Does anyone latch there tie down ropes to the top of the bed rail. I have an 01 ford f-150 and I'm thinking of putting in a couple of tie down rings on top of the bedrail. I'll have to drill a hole and attach it that way. Since my truck doesn't come with the existing rectanglular slot. Just wondered if it kept the atv in place. I think my existing tie down places on the front and back side is fixing to give out. I've used them way to much. Not sure what the strength max ever was.

 

watzupdog,Havent tryed it but you should be ok.I would stretch straps across top of your atv rather than attaching to lower frame of atv that way the force of the straps would push the quad down rather than pull up if you attach to atv lower than bed rail of truck

 

When I bought my new truck, it had bed caps without the stake holes. I picked up some of the tiedowns with the butterfly attachment like you would use on drywall. I roll the atv back against the tailgate and use two ratchet straps from the frame-over the front tires to the front tiedowns. If I'm going to be on rough roads, I can also tie down the rear the same way. Works great with very little movement.

 

Are you sure? I've never seen a pickup that doesn't have stake pockets (made recently.) They could be hidden by a plastic cover. My '04 F-150 has these.

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I'm sure. I have a 01 supercrew 5.4 F-150. It has the plastic protection over the bed rail, with no stake pockets.

 

Hmmm. Now that was increadibly stupid of Ford. lol. We only have the long beds at work, but we put ladder racks on so the pockets are useless.

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don't mount the anchors to the bed rail, mont them in the floor and you'll like them much better, and also I havn't seen a newer truck without tie downs in the corner of the bed, the bed rails of the newer trucks have very little strength to them.

 

Do any of you guys lock your ATV in the back of your truck? If so, How? I have a truck with a crappy plastic liner and no tie downs in the bed. And I have a toneu cover that has rails over the stake pockets. I am thinking of taking the plastic liner out and mounting some recessed rings or track to the bed floor or sides. However if I do the track(TRACK SYSTEM) I still need to figure a way to lock the machine to the truck with a chain or cable? Any ideas?

 

First thing, get rid of the plastic bed liner. If they aren't installed correctly they do more damage. This is what happens: dust and dirt gets under the liner. Liner vibrates effectively turning it into a giant sander. Then add a little condensing water. You end up with a rusted bed, which is what you were trying to preveing in the first place. There are probably tie down points in the bed under the liner.

If you want a liner to protect the bed, get it sprayed with Rino or Line-X. Stuff also won't go flying around on the slick plastic surface. At work we use a rubber mat that's molded to the contour of the bed made by Pendaliner. Works well. But you need to take it out to clean under it. But that take a couple minutes to roll it up and heave it out.

I have a motorcycle cable lock that I've previously used when I had a '91 GMC Sonoma. I just ran it through one of the cargo rings in the bed. I also had a Master Lock cable I used with that. One cable through the swing arm, the other through the frame. Though they only really needed to cut one cable. With the new truck I haven't used the lock, but it would work the same. Though someone with a Torq bit of the right size could remove the tie down, if they could move the quad over to get to it. The new Ford's also have locking tail gates. They need to either get through that, or lift a 400lb quad over the HIGH bed rails. (They are about 4" taller than the previous '97-'03 bed rails.) I figure doing all that would attract SOME attention.

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I totally agree about the plastic bed liners. However it came with the truck and I have had time to take it out since the tonneu cover has to come off to remove it. And I believe the cover has been on since the day the previous owner brought it home because I looked under it and there is no rust at all. I would like a pray in, however I do not think the pocket book can handle $400. I already have a rubber mat and that works well to keep things from sliding. I will look into one of the cable locks and hope there are some tie downs under the plastic liner.