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Lights and power in my ARE shell

spectre6000

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Please make a similar thread about the P-track, etc. I plan to skip the trail rail in favor of doing more or less exactly this. I read your posts in the ARE topper thread, and the p-track mounting, buttons, tray, etc. all deserve some attention. What you've got there is proper "built not bought", and the Gladiator scene needs more of that.
 
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bgenlvtex

bgenlvtex

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Please make a similar thread about the P-track, etc. I plan to skip the trail rail in favor of doing more or less exactly this. I read your posts in the ARE topper thread, and the p-track mounting, buttons, tray, etc. all deserve some attention. What you've got there is proper "built not bought", and the Gladiator scene needs more of that.
Kind words and thank you very much, it's a little late to chronicle those aspects of it but I will be happy to help you with any specific questions you might have. If I had it to do over again (and I might in my Power Wagon) there is not much I would do differently. It is all pretty straight forward provided you have some basic skills .

I don't hesitate to buy stuff that is manufactured provided it is well done, in this case there was no ready made solutions so I built my own. The measure of self constructed anything is in about 5 years if it still looks and functions as it should. I have high hopes for this stuff, I have not had to turn a screw since it was installed.
 

Terry

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There was none, all that was in there was a tiny little useless piece of shit about as bright as a Bic lighter
I bought one of the first ARE toppers the very next day after my purchase of the Glad Rubi last August and found the single strip very bright. The OEM bed lights add to this and I have plenty of light in the bed, which I need to see what the extra large dog is up too. Your wiring is flawless! Excellent work. I do not like nor trust the Topper hold down clips and bolted mine directly to the bed. I too went shpping on Amazon and had the power outlet installed by my 4X4 shop. One thing about ARE....the paint match was perfect. A few pics of mine follows.

JT Bed 1.jpg


JT bed 2.jpg


JT bed 3.jpg


Atticus on wall.jpg
 

spectre6000

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I will be happy to help you with any specific questions you might have.
I've not seen the P-track buttons prior to your photos in the other thread. Did you screw them directly to the bedside, or do any nutserts or anything for rust prevetion, anything like that?

What did you go with on the track rails themselves in terms of holes. I think I've seen it totally blank, and with holes drilled and sunk at some predefined (some standard maybe?) intervals. Were you able to use the existing trail rail holes? What did you do there?

Show a bit more detail on your fractional platform and how it works with the P-track.

The whole thing deserves its own thread with a heavy dose of show and tell. My thoughts (truck not yet in hand) are to do P-track (or similar) in lieu of the trail rails on the sides, but also across the top of the bed up front, possibly again down low in sections (those buttons look ideal for that) and along the floor in up to 4 locations. Situationally depending, I'd like to use product I've used in the past as a bed liner, and allow for the P-track to be accessed through it. A thorough case study in the use of P-track for cargo management in a Gladiator would be greatly appreciated as an entry point for my own planning and execution.
 
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bgenlvtex

bgenlvtex

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I've not seen the P-track buttons prior to your photos in the other thread. Did you screw them directly to the bedside, or do any nutserts or anything for rust prevetion, anything like that?

What did you go with on the track rails themselves in terms of holes. I think I've seen it totally blank, and with holes drilled and sunk at some predefined (some standard maybe?) intervals. Were you able to use the existing trail rail holes? What did you do there?

Show a bit more detail on your fractional platform and how it works with the P-track.

The whole thing deserves its own thread with a heavy dose of show and tell. My thoughts (truck not yet in hand) are to do P-track (or similar) in lieu of the trail rails on the sides, but also across the top of the bed up front, possibly again down low in sections (those buttons look ideal for that) and along the floor in up to 4 locations. Situationally depending, I'd like to use product I've used in the past as a bed liner, and allow for the P-track to be accessed through it. A thorough case study in the use of P-track for cargo management in a Gladiator would be greatly appreciated as an entry point for my own planning and execution.
So to be clear, what you are calling P-track is in fact L-track, specifically angled and undrilled L-track from US cargo control in 96" lengths I cut to length. They precisely fit the relief in the bed for the factory rails and are very strong. They are attached using the factory nutserts and I added one more per side. The factory holes are not on a regular pattern, so I used a piece of 2" blue painters tape to transfer the pattern from the bed to the L‐track.

To connect the extrusion I used two of these at each connection point and a 3" long piece of 2"x2"x.250" aluminum angle configured in normal L condition and the extrusion sitting on top of it.

The L-track buttons are also available from US Cargo Control or eBay/Amazon. I drilled hit with touch up paint and set nutserts. Here is a couple of pics during fit up, doesn't really have any detail, but I can take some more pics if you need them.
Jeep Gladiator Lights and power in my ARE shell 1021202016_HDR
Jeep Gladiator Lights and power in my ARE shell 1021202020_HDR

All of the extrusion and most hardware came from tnutz.com they will cut to your measurements and ship very reasonably. Unless you have the ability to cut very accurately take advantage of that..

The decking is 12mm Baltic birch plywood coated ,drilled bushings installed to allow the tie downs to pivot and coated with Raptor Liner

Jeep Gladiator Lights and power in my ARE shell 1107201514_HDR


Jeep Gladiator Lights and power in my ARE shell 1108201434_HDR
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