In a previous blog post we covered some of the recovery gear we haul in our 2013 Ford F-150 and sell at Strapt Performance. Now we found a way to mount our Maxtrax Traction Boards. We wanted them to be mounted out of the way if we needed to use the truck bed but easily accessible.
This installation should work on Super Duty trucks or any truck actually.
If you dont want to read you can see the install video here, Maxtrax Bed Mount in 2013 F150 - YouTube
We started off with the Maxtrax Universal Mounting Plate which is sold under their Overland Kitted sub brand. Mounting this plate against the front bulkhead of the bed seemed like a good place to mount the boards and keep them out of the way if need to use the truck for truck stuff.
First we lined up the plate and centered it to mark some holes to drill. It was decided to use 6 bolts, 2 on each end and 2 closer to the middle to help distribute the weight.
After marking the hole locations, they were drilled with a 3/8" bit. Next we used our handy Rivet Nut tool to install some rivet nuts for 1/4-20 thread bolts.
Now that the bed is ready for the mounting plate we had to prepare the plate. This is a good time to install the Maxtrax MKII Mounting Pins to the universal mounting plate. We used the pins with the 17mm long threaded bolt end so that the end would not be too long. They also sell the pins with a 40mm long bolt end for other kinds of mounting.
When installing the mounting pins be sure the part that points away from the pin is pointed outward from the plate. The pins will be what holds the traction board to the plate and lock them in place. The holes on the mounting plate are slotted to allow some adjustment. Use the mounting board to test fit the pin locations and make sure it all fits and is tight before mounting the plate to the truck bed.
Now that we know the plate and pins fit the board we are ready to mount the board to the truck bed. We used some self locking flange head 1/4-20 bolts. You may need washers and lock washers depending on what bolts you end up using. You should be able to get by with 5/16 rivet nuts and hardware also. This may be a more preferred size but we had the 1/4-20 hardware on hand already.
When bolting the plate up be sure not to over torque the bolts to the rivet nuts. I used a ratchet instead of my electric impact because it would not be fun to spin a rivet nut and have to drill it out and start over. We can now hang our traction board on the plate. This plate and pin set up can hold 4 traction boards but we had 2 boards handy to test it with.
This was done a 2013 truck which still has the steel bed. The F150 was made with steel body parts up through 2014. The 2015 and up trucks have aluminum bodies. I cant confirm how the aluminum will hold up this weight on the bed bulkhead. If someone tries it we would love to hear about it.
You can find these Maxtrax boards and all our other Recovery Gear under our Trail Gear section on our website. I will add some links below to jump right to the items used in this post.
MAXTRAX Overland Kitted Universal Mounting Plate