While eating lunch one day last week in the back of the jeep, I finally got the drive to build a tailgate table. As a family we like to explore and often times picnic out, so having this will be a nice addition.
Table up
Table down
And finally, a load test,
It is roughly 25" wide by 13" deep. The top is 12" x 24" 5052 .090 wall aluminum, the tailgate brackets are 1" angle and the supports for the top are 3/4" angle. I have a Metal Supermarkets a mile from my office and they had some pre-cut sheet aluminum ready to go. All in all it was about 23 bucks for the metal. The countless trips to the hardware store and purchases of a sheet bender (didn't work on the aluminum) and a nutsert tool, I'm about $150 I to the project, should have bought the Tera flex one...Oh well, I like projects.
Support brackets are 8" with two mounting holes 4.5" apart on the upper section due to the vents on the bottom of the tailgate. All mounted using 1/4" nutserts. To keep it from flexing, the front of the table has 1" angle and the rear has 3/4" angle. The 1" is a little much, but I think it will provide a good place to mount things later on. I have more 3/4", so if I don't like it, I can easily change it.
I made holes in the side to use pull pins, but really don't like the looseness so I ordered a set of spring loaded pins to keep it shut tight
Right now I made two paracord supports and will have to plece them a bit better after the spring pins come in. For now the pull pins act as the lower attachment for the paracord. When closed though, the paracord acts as a damper and keeps it from rattling, I just don't like how the pins are used to hold steady when it's down.
The left bracket had to be trimmed to fit over the plastic cover for the wiring, but that's about it.
Future me would make it a bit less wide due to how the tailgate angles at the right side, I can't take the pin out without removing that panel. I would also use different mounting places, I found the areas where there were multiple sheets of metal. I may end up putting unistrut using my mounting points, then I can give myself more freedom of movement.
It needs to be cleaned up and painted once the pull pins come in, I'll post a final then...