Old school is that it is a truck and a service vehicle and they break out the drill and a half-dozen sets of eye bolts, standard and fender washers for both sides, and nuts to fit. If they were pedantic they might squirt a bit of silicone under the washers, snug them up just enough to squeeze out the air and come back after the silicone was dry and torque them. With a pad of silicone underneath they are vibration resistant and won't cause the body panel to rust out. You mount them at all strategic locations.

Cleats are more my style and the nylon ones are light, cheap, and just about strong enough for any reasonable load. But you still need to through-bolt and use a wide and thick backing plate or large-diameter washers stacked to keep them from flexing.

Kind of ruins the resale value, at least for the wider population who don't know what a truck is about, but traditionally you keep a truck until the wheels fall off.

A cargo bar might fit your needs - it's there when you need it, out of the way when you don't, not too expensive. It is also, as Alton Brown says, a multitasker and will work on many items, not just a jerry can. I used to have a generic cheap version that held my rubbermaid tote, etc against the cab.

I'm using a couple of Quick Fist XL straps bolted to the bed of my truck.
http://www.endroad.com/catalog/item/675042/4486555.htm
http://www.endroad.com/i//QFCollagePhoto.jpg

I have a bed liner in my 4WD Ford Ranger, and there are slots along the sides of the liner near the floor of the truck bed to match slots that are molded into the actual metal sides of the truck bed. These slots take 2X lumber boards. You can see that there are slots also in the sides of the truck bed pix on that Cargo Stabilizer Bar website. I use two 2X8 inch boards to stabilize my loads and move them around as necessary. Usually I only need one. I could use 2X10 or 2x12" as well, but haven't found it necessary. A side benefit of these boards is that you can actually use them to span a short gap in the road surface, if necessary, or create a small ramp, and I have used them for this purpose when off-roading. One tool, multiple uses.

I made a rack out of 1" PVC pipe for my plastic fuel and water containers. Most everything was off-the-shelf at Home Depot, except for some of the connectors (which I found on the Internet). I used U-bolts to attach this PVC carrier to my safari rack, but no reason you couldn't bolt it into the bed of a pickup.

This setup took us over 5,000 miles round-trip plus at least another 500 miles off-road during a month-long trip, then survived another 2 years on the truck with occasional use carrying fuel and water. When I got rid of the truck this spring I removed the carrier from the rack and it was still in fine shape, other than some loss of paint from rubbing.

These are the best pix I can find of the setup:

[img]http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ZCeiXDvpQQH1Av0eTdFAdw?feat=directlink[/img]

[img]http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/DbN9M-sp97cDp_rNPCw0ZQ?feat=directlink[/img]

[img]http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ZEj2alJKj9_wyfUMxY01UQ?feat=directlink[/img]

[Edit: IDK why images aren't displaying in-line. ]

Good idea with the PVC. I don't have a roof rack, but did fiddle around one weekend trying to make a truck bed-type rack.

I went out to grab a bed-bar. Found one cheap at Harbor Freight. Seems OK, a smidge loose, but I'll have to fill up the tanks sometime and cruise them around town.

suving when shtf is an invtition to getting shot, but don't you think that your vehicle will be so full of stuff that the jerrycans will just be held upright by everything else? PU trucks, etc, just don't hold that much gear and food, guys.

Hey Gang,

First time poster here. I have a Tacoma and use these: http://www.imsplus.com/index.php?target=products&product_id=30139 attached to a "Chest" style toolbox in the bed. I did replace the webbing to a tubular stronger webbing. One other thing I did was to spray black rubber in the bottom of the bracket to cut down the chance of metal on metal sparking. So far this works great. I have observed these mounted in all sorts of positions.

Cheers,
R

Welcome to the fire, R! I've been looking for a good way to carry gas cans in my Tacoma. It didn't occur to me to bolt something like this to my bedbox.

-Blast

Hey RVBCave, nice site you use, I have used them for a while! Luckily I live a few miles from the actual store, I love the service you get! Welcome to the forum, No affiliation to the forementioned!