This is the first vehicle Ive purchased from a dealer. I had always purchased private party in the past. When I was at the dealer, I did the usual and inspected for oil leaks and rust and visible damage. The salesmen had mentioned that they had just installed a new drop in bedliner the day before. I thought to myself hey cool, I got a free bedliner. About a week after I brought it home, I noticed that part of the bedliner wasn't sitting flush to the bed rail so I folded it up and saw that the bed rail was cracked. I check the other side and sure enough they were both cracked. There were aluminum brackets drilled into the bedrails to help support it. I pulled the bedliner recently to have a friend weld and repair the bed rails and it was worse than I thought. The truck must have had some kind of toolboxes or maybe a drop in service body previously installed. The paint was worn off, the bed was full of rust and the the bed rails were actually missing chunks of metal. I know I should have been more thorough at the dealer, but it seemed pretty dishonest to me that they concealed the damage.
Anyways, I had the bed rails welded/repaired and luckily it was mostly surface rust that I was able to take care of with an orbital sander. I primed it up and had it rhinolined. I didn't take any pictures of the damage, but Its a night and day difference. Its like the damage never existed.
Here it is all ready for a Decked system.
I ordered the Decked storage system and the Leitner ACS rack. I shopped around and ordered both from Truck Brigade. Those guys are legit. I got the rack and decked system discounted through the online chat function. They saved me so much that I was able to pick up some rotopax water tanks, all the necessary brackets, hardware, and a few decked D-boxes with my original budget.
I got the Leitner rack installed and was just waiting on the Decked. It had been sitting in Dallas for 7 days. I figured it was damaged or something so I contacted Truck Brigade to see if they can follow up on it. A few minutes later I got a call from the freight company scheduling the delivery for the next day.
The box showed up opened, but after double checking the parts list we were all good.
Drawers fully extended.
I was worried the Leitner rack would interfere with the Decked system with my particular model. I couldn't find any info online about the compatibility with my 2500HD, but sure enough it fits. This is how it sits today and probably for a while. I have depleted my overlanding funds.
Future upgrades:
lift/level
Hardshell RTT
Leitner Gearpod XL's
Maxtrax or similar
Alucab shadow awning or Kinsmen Rapid deploy awning