I have never seen such a thing, Nancy. When I built my firewood racks I made a few trips to pick up additional 16' 2x4s as my design "evolved," and I used my utility trailer. It has a tall rear gate. I lay the wood on top of the rear gate at an angle so it is pointing in the air and then secure it real well, since there are no "goal posts" to prevent the wood from sliding left & right up there (although the pic of that extender gives me ideas on fashioning some.) That's a pretty slick device. It would certainly make loading and unloading a lot easier than propping the wood on the trailer at such a steep angle...a lot easier. The only thing I prefer with putting it up on the back of the trailer gate is the risk of the guy driving behind me skewering himself has been eliminated...but the trailer method is still real awkward. It's really only feasible for smaller loads of the long stuff. Regarding carrying shorter stuff...I could not find a listing for the second one with the sliding goal post. At least not on Amazon. I was wondering if that goal post could be mounted backwards to put it closer to the truck so 10' stuff could rest on it and still be up against the front of the bed to prevent sliding during a hard stop. I can't tell by the pic how far from the tailgate a "reverse mount" would put the goal post.
@John Brunner: It came Thursday. It is heavy duty and seems really well made. I haven't used it yet. We'll see how it holds up over time. My old truck has a 6.5 foot bed. The goal post extends from 9'6" to 11'6" (in 4" increments) from the front of the truck bed. That will just work for 10' lumber, be perfect for 12', and 16' would have a 4' overhang. I ordered it directly from the company. They were offering $7 shipping, so slightly cheaper than Amazon at that time. Shipping was fast. Blain's Farm and Fleet I wish I had this years ago. Could have used it for so many things. Some things I settled for shorter stuff because I couldn't haul it. I should think about replacing the railings on the deck now. They are getting old.
Thanks for the link. I know just what you mean regarding reconfiguring requirements around homeowner resource limitations. I think I'm going to replace my wood deck with Trex. I can't risk bending & bowing that stuff by propping it up on that trailer gate. One of these would certainly help.
Trex is very pliable. I will be interested in the details of your project with the Trex decking when you do it. It comes highly recommended, but I'm skeptical. My deck will soon need new flooring, but the joists are still in good shape. They say the joists have to be perfectly flat for Trex or it will show waviness. Are you just replacing the floor, or redoing the whole thing?
I can't decide how far to go with it. I think both for maintenance and looks, I really need to do the whole thing. Not only will I just replace the pickets and the railing, I'll wrap the band board. I think that's the part that might get pricey. The part I was skeptical about (and why I went with wood) was the durability of the finish. I understand it might stain easily. People who had Trex near trees that drop berries or ooze sap were disappointed. I guess I need to find out how well the colors hold up in direct sunlight...I have a direct unshaded southern exposure. It's that constant daylight that's made it tough to apply a finish and keep it on it. When I had this deck built, the contractor installed the joists on 12" centers rather than 16", just in case I wanted to do this in the future...Trex requires the shorter distance between joists. I think for the 12' wide deck it only added one or maybe two joists. It funny that he had that kind of foresight, but when he laid the decking he did not pay attention to which was the grain went and a lot of the boards cupped. That's why they are rotting. Had I thought about it I might have pulled them up to look and flipped the ones that needed to be turned over, but the band boards cover the edges...you can't just look.
I remember when it first came out, the recommendation was 12" spacing for engineered lumber. I think it's better made now. Smaller should be better. Just checked mine. The joists are 24" OC. The flooring is regular 2x6's. I don't think they even made 5/4 decking in 1982. That makes the decision easier. I'll just replace them with the same. But I'm still interested in how the Trex works out for you. I could use it for other things, maybe the front steps. I definitely need to replace my deck railings. Things have warped and shrunk and the nails are pulling out of the posts. If I fell against them they probably wouldn't hold. Likely not up to code now. The deck is 10' off the ground.
(7/25/21) Sunday Spent the day thinking about the back yard deck. As far as I can tell, the only violations of new code on deck railings are: (1) No more than 7' distance between railing posts on decks supported by 6x6's. (2) Max 4" allowed between pickets ("ballusters") You would need to add 3 railing posts, one each at the middle points of the existing 3 railings. I like the idea of metal bars, instead of wood pickets that warp and shrink, like these I think I'm going to try staining the floor planks on the old floor different colors, like cedar lumber that varies widely in colors. Maybe the fading wouldn't show as much? Nothing to lose trying it. I believe you could mount 4x4 railing posts inside the joists without messing up the flooring, possibly 3 boards at most. It will take some tweaking. Got to make a sketch to be sure. Ways to attach extra guard rail posts ( @1:20 ). I can modify this a bit and still make it as strong.
Posted on the Ford order tracking website for over 2 weeks ... Your 2021 Ranger is estimated to be delivered to your dealership between 7/28/2021 & 8/3/2021. Apparently this provided me a perfect excuse not to do anything. About all I've accomplished is to squeeze in lawn-mowings between all the rain. The rain stopped 4 days ago but now the high temps are in the upper 90's. A wake up call happened when I took a walk down to the goat barn Wednesday, after avoiding it for a few weeks. Dog fennel that started from seeds this spring in cracks between concrete pavers is now 6 feet tall. And you can't even see the fence around the little pasture up near the road because of the neighbor's kudzu. Then yesterday ... Ford moved the estimated delivery date to August 13-18. At least I've been given a second chance to catch up on some things while I'm in the mood. The heat is expected to go away Monday, but it doesn't take much energy to spray weeds. Some places will require long sleeves. So I'm heading out in a few minutes to at least try to get in an hour or two of easy work around the barn. Otherwise I'll just sit around fidgeting the rest of the evening.
I only mentioned it to explain why the procrastination. This is only the 3rd vehicle I've ever bought, and the first time I've ever done it all by myself, so it was a little scary. But I think buying a new car is a lot easier now than it used to be. Things are more transparent. I don't mind the delays. I just don't want it to sit on the lot for a long time after it arrives, so I'm thankful for the tracking site. Hope you can drive it without knowing how to operate all the new gadgets. Otherwise I'll be stuck in the dealer parking lot for hours. That's all I'm gonna say now until it's in the driveway.
(8/1/21) Sunday I did pretty good last night. Sprayed all around the barn, plus fences up at the road, behind the house, and down the lane to the gate, all from the outside. A good stopping point. The fence near the road is under here somewhere. It will take another round because the plants were so thick the spray won't get to all the under layers. Signs that the power company did some spraying recently too. Fire ants, and a swarm of mosquitoes attacked my ankles. I was expecting to find chiggers and deer ticks today, but none so far. These insects were swarming into a crack in the porch ceiling. They are about 1-1/4 inches long. I've never seen yellow jackets (or wasps) that big and fat. And I thought yellow jackets always nested in the ground. Internet says they might be European hornets. Not supposed to be as aggressive as yellow jackets. I sprayed them with a can of spray and they didn't come after me. They are too fat to be very fast. I can only remember 3 days below freezing last winter and none below 28 degrees, so the ground should never have frozen. I guess that's why all the insects are so bad this year.
What are you using for a sprayer, Nancy? I've sprayed my sorta-new gravel driveway a few times because the grass just won't give up, and it seemed I was continuously refilling that thing. You're doing lots more that I.
Yeh, me, too. First time I ever used it was last year. You gotta do what you gotta do. I wondered if you have a large sprayer you pull behind a tractor. Those little 2 gallon sprayers seem to empty so quickly.
I have a backpack sprayer that holds 3+ gallons. Something like this one. Btw, if you ever get one, make sure it will work with bleach.