Truck bed storage

Our family just got a truck, we also just started up in Rocketry recently, we have been using my wife's van to bring stuff to launches, but planning to mostly use the truck from here on out. We will be purchasing a camper shell in the near distant future, but for now its open bed. How do you guys/gals store and transport your rockets in open bed truck? Issues on the Highway from wind etc? Looking for some ideas on how to safely transport our stuff this coming weekend for a 3hr highway drive. Thanks in advance.

Get the topper ASAP.

You can purchase a box cover, either a soft top or a fancier hard top. Walmart has some cool plastic totes that are only about six inches high and about 20" wide but almost 4' long.....perfect for sliding onto a truck box....even has wheels on one end. They could hold a lot of the smaller rockets and gear. I use them a lot for hunting/fishing as well flying excursions.

I use a bed net ( bungee web net), and plastic totes and locking hinged top plastic footlockers for tranporting in the bed. The bed net keeps everything in.

ballistic_trep said:

You can purchase a box cover, either a soft top or a fancier hard top. Walmart has some cool plastic totes that are only about six inches high and about 20" wide but almost 4' long.....perfect for sliding onto a truck box....even has wheels on one end. They could hold a lot of the smaller rockets and gear. I use them a lot for hunting/fishing as well flying excursions.

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Thanks i will checkout some totes! We are going to be buying a camper shell here in the next month or so im sure they will still work great for keeping my stuff from rolling around.

rharshberger said:

I use a bed net ( bungee web net), and plastic totes and locking hinged top plastic footlockers for transporting in the bed. The bed net keeps everything in.

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Cool, i completely forgot about bed nets, i will got grab one before our trip. Thanks!

I have a tonneau cover on the bed of my pickup. Rockets shorter than 4 feet go in the back seat. Big rockets go in the pickup bed, protected with moving blankets.

Nathan said:

I have a tonneau cover on the bed of my pickup. Rockets shorter than 4 feet go in the back seat. Big rockets go in the pickup bed, protected with moving blankets.

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Do you just wrap them up in the blankets? I would put my small ones in the back seat, but with kids, none of them would likely make it haha

Bungee bed nets are a must and you can get them at Harbor Freight for cheap.

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Nathan said:

I have a tonneau cover on the bed of my pickup. Rockets shorter than 4 feet go in the back seat. Big rockets go in the pickup bed, protected with moving blankets.

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...Unless the fin span of the big rockets exceeds the height of your tonneau cover.... I learned this with my WAC Corporal (too tall by two inches)... But had the hindsight at the time to build it in sections taking advantage of LOC's 30" segments (7.5" tubing). It worked well in the hatchback when I had it at the time of building/flying it regularly. But thankfully I can flip the backseat of the truck down and put the fin can in there.

liv3mind said:

Do you just wrap them up in the blankets? I would put my small ones in the back seat, but with kids, none of them would likely make it haha

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Yes, I have several moving blankets that I use. I also take advantage of the variety of totes available at the hardware stores. I make sure to pre-pack it ahead of time. I even buy smaller totes to put in these -- already organized with recovery gear (sometimes even dedicated by rocket), casings (if small enough) and misc hardware. I find that it generally makes my day easier.... GENERALLY speaking.