Anyone used plastic pallets to build a skid?

Clear Shine

Clear Shine

New member
I am looking ahead to the winter to make a 13hp softwash rig to put in the bed of my pickup for doing housewashes. I saw Mike K's pic of a roof rig he did with plastic pallets to slide in and out, but has anyone done it with a PW? I was hoping to mount a 100 gal water tank, a small chem tank, my motor and pump along with an inlet hose reel and a PW hose reel. I thought about mounting them on 2 pallets so if I needed to take it out or switch it to another truck, I can. Anyone got any good pics or ideas for this project?
 
Thinking of doing that myself.Having a frame made out of 2x2 square tubing and putting aluminum diamond plate on it to mount equipment.it will be 4 feet by 6.5 feet.Equipment will be 125 gallon buffer tank at the cab,35 gallon downstream tank behind buffer,2 stacked cox hose reels on the driverside at the tailgate an a pressurepro cold water machine on a skid on the passeenger side at the tailgate.
 
I'm sure it would be too flimsy. I've got one I store the snowblower on (in the garage) during the summer. Strong enough if the object is static. Why wouldn't you want to mount it the conventional way?
 
Rick2 said:
I'm sure it would be too flimsy. I've got one I store the snowblower on (in the garage) during the summer. Strong enough if the object is static. Why wouldn't you want to mount it the conventional way?
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Never know when a truck will go down or I may need to use the truck for another reason. Why dont you think it will be stable enough? The heaviest part will be the hose reels. I am going to get the pallets this week, but I may need to build metal one like in the pic for the forklift to get in and out.
 
I have a couple my neighbor gave me, same type the post office uses. I must be thinking of a different type than you are thinking of. If you saw the ones I have you wouldn't mount anything to them either. Nice for storing things on, but that's it.
 
Wood and plastic will work for a while but the problem is securing the stuff to it. If the wood is thick enough you are ok, same with the plastic. Be sure to use some large washers or a metal plate on the back side to disperse the weight across the pallet so the mounting bolts don't pull through if you stop fast. I have made some temporary units like that in the past, one pallet was the tank the other was the unit. Splitting them up may make it easier for you to handle also.
 
Paul Kassander said:
Wood and plastic will work for a while but the problem is securing the stuff to it. If the wood is thick enough you are ok, same with the plastic. Be sure to use some large washers or a metal plate on the back side to disperse the weight across the pallet so the mounting bolts don't pull through if you stop fast. I have made some temporary units like that in the past, one pallet was the tank the other was the unit. Splitting them up may make it easier for you to handle also.
Click to expand...
With the metal plate AND large washers, use rubber grommets for vibration reduction/absorption. The plastic will get brittle in the sun especially with heat and vibration from the engine. Make it replicable so you can easily replace the pallets as they wear!
 
I have seen some very beefy plastic pallets..
If you use a small sub-frame (metal one) with proper vibration isolators between,
the plasic would not wear.
Try using the rubber "vibration isolators" shown here..

View attachment 17547

.. the difference is the double-stack of flat washers with THICK o-rings between..
this gives you "up" and down vibration isolation,
when added to a rubber donut under the frame.
 
I was thinking about something similar, like the roof cleaning rig.

I was thinking of mounting a winch in the bed and having some large ramps for the skid to slide up into the bed on and some boards in the bed so the metal skid does not rip the bedliner or paint off the bed of the truck.

When it is time to remove the skid, you can get a couple of guys and pull it out most of the way then slide it down the ramps.

I was even thinking of making a large "table" that you can slide it onto from out of the truck so it would be at the same height of the bed of the truck and easy to move in or out of the truck.
 
go to home depot and get pressure treated lumber. cut to fit. built on in a day for my dodge 2500, 8ft bed. mounted 125 gllon tank, honda gx 390, 25 gallon soap tank, small soap machine and all the other crap...everything strapped in.
 
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