# Toolbox and Crane Body Install > Toolbox, drawer unit and crane pedestal mounting with fabricated subframes that put the load into structure, not into panels. Source: https://fleetservicesocrv.com/services/equipment-and-upfit/toolbox-and-crane-body-install Business: Fleet Services OCRV, 23281 E La Palma Ave, Yorba Linda, CA 92887 Phone: (714) 909-1844. Serving Santa Ana, California, about 17 miles from the facility. Toolbox and crane body installation mounts storage and lifting equipment to a work truck: crossover, chest, side mount and underbody boxes, drawer units, compressor and welder decks, and the pedestal subframe that carries a service crane. Mounting structure is fabricated to spread load into the body and frame rather than into sheet. ## Specification - Price range: $1,500 to $10,000 - Labor hours: 10 to 40 hours - Turnaround: Upfit install - Insurance: typically customer pay or fleet account ## Symptoms - Toolbox working loose or shifting under hard stops and cornering - Rust developing on the bed or deck directly under a mounted box - Drawer cabinet sinking into a body floor at its mounting feet - Cracked paint or deformation around box mounting fasteners - Crane pedestal area showing cracks or movement under load - Body flexing visibly when the crane is extended ## What kinds of boxes go on a work truck and where? Crossover boxes sit behind the cab across the bed and are the most common single addition to a pickup. Chest boxes sit against the headboard and open from the top, which suits long tooling. Side mount boxes ride along the bed rail and keep the bed floor clear. Underbody boxes hang from the frame beneath a flatbed or a stake body and are the choice when deck space is the scarce resource. Material sorts the market. Aluminum tread plate around 0.100 inch thickness is the standard for weight and corrosion resistance, and it is what most Santa Ana service fleets buy. Steel boxes take more abuse and cost more payload. Stainless shows up on food service and specialty units where washdown and appearance matter more than either weight or price. Drawer units are their own category. A drawer cabinet rated at 300 to 500 pounds per drawer concentrates a great deal of weight in a small footprint, and the floor under it has to be reinforced or the cabinet will work its way through a body floor that was never designed for a point load like that. - Crossover boxes behind the cab on pickup applications - Chest boxes against the headboard for long tooling - Side mount boxes along the bed rail to keep the deck clear - Underbody boxes hung from the frame on flatbed and stake bodies - Aluminum tread plate near 0.100 inch as the general purpose standard - Drawer cabinets rated 300 to 500 pounds per drawer needing floor reinforcement ## How do you mount a box so it does not tear out or leak? Through bolted with backing plates, every time. A box fastened with self drilling screws into a bed floor or a body panel is held by sheet metal, and sheet metal in tension around a screw is not a mount, it is a countdown. Backing plates on the underside spread the load into the panel over an area rather than concentrating it at each fastener. Isolation strips go between the box and the surface it sits on. They stop the two metals from chattering against each other, they stop a painted surface from being worn through by vibration, and where dissimilar metals meet they interrupt the galvanic path that would otherwise corrode the aluminum at every contact point. Then the penetrations get sealed. Every hole through a bed floor or a body panel is a water path into the structure below, and a fleet that finds rust under a toolbox three years later is finding the result of unsealed holes. Butyl at the mating face plus a sealant at each fastener is a few minutes of work that prevents a corrosion repair. ## What does mounting a service crane involve? Far more than bolting a pedestal down. A service crane applies a moment, meaning the load is the weight multiplied by the reach, and a crane rated for a few thousand pounds at close reach generates tens of thousands of foot pounds of overturning force at full extension. That force has to be carried into the chassis frame, not into the body. So the mount is a subframe. The pedestal base plate ties into a fabricated structure that runs down to the frame rails and distributes the moment along a length of rail, with the body's own structure tied in rather than being asked to carry the load alone. Outrigger mounts are built into the same structure because they carry the other half of the reaction. The body around it needs attention too. A crane body's compartment structure gets reinforced where the subframe passes through, and the deck surface is checked for the point loads that outrigger pads will apply. Compressor and welder decks mounted alongside a crane add their own weight in the same area, and all of it gets planned as one load case rather than three separate installs. - Pedestal load treated as a moment, capacity multiplied by reach - Fabricated subframe carrying the moment into the frame rails - Outrigger mounts built into the same structure as the pedestal - Body compartment structure reinforced where the subframe passes through - Deck reinforced at outrigger pad contact points - Compressor and welder deck mounting planned as part of the same load case ## How does all this weight affect the truck? It comes off payload, and on a crane body build it comes off fast. A crane unit, its subframe, outriggers, a compressor, a welder and a full complement of boxes and drawers can consume a large share of what the chassis was rated to carry, and a Santa Ana mechanic truck that is built without that math ends up overweight before a single part goes in a drawer. Distribution matters as much as total weight. Heavy items mounted high and far back move the center of gravity in the two directions that hurt handling most, so drawer cabinets and dense storage go low and forward where the layout allows. That is a design decision made before fabrication starts, not something that can be corrected after the boxes are bolted down. The practical approach is to weigh the truck. Scale the chassis before the build, scale it again finished, and the fleet knows exactly what a technician can load rather than guessing. It costs almost nothing and it turns an argument about whether a truck is overweight into a number that everybody can work from. ## What is the cost and the schedule? This work carries the upfit install band, 3 to 10 business days, with labor from 10 to 40 hours and a published range from about 1,500 dollars to 10,000 dollars. A straightforward crossover box on a pickup is at the bottom of that. A crane pedestal subframe with outrigger mounts and a compressor deck is at the top and involves real fabrication. Fabrication is what moves the number. Bolting a box to an existing body is fast. Building a subframe that carries a crane moment into the frame rails is design and welding time, and it is time that should not be compressed, because the consequence of a marginal crane mount is not a cosmetic complaint, it is a structural failure with a load in the air. For Santa Ana fleets building multiple mechanic trucks, sequence matters. Build one complete, put it to work, capture what the technician actually wants moved, then build the rest to the corrected spec. The 17 mile run up SR-55 and SR-91 makes that iteration practical rather than a logistical problem. ## Questions ### Can I just screw a toolbox down to the bed floor? You can, and it will hold until it does not. Self drilling screws put all the load into sheet metal in tension, which tears over time under hard stops and vibration. Through bolting with backing plates on the underside spreads that load properly, and sealing the penetrations keeps water out of the structure. The difference in install time is small and the difference in outcome is not. ### How much weight does a mechanic truck build actually add? More than most fleets budget for. A crane, its subframe, outriggers, a compressor, a welder and a full box and drawer complement can eat a large share of the chassis rating before any inventory goes aboard. Drawer cabinets alone run heavy at 300 to 500 pounds per drawer rating. Scale the chassis before and after and the fleet gets a real number instead of an estimate. ### Why does a crane need a subframe instead of just a bolted base? Because a crane applies a moment, not just a downward weight. Capacity multiplied by reach means a modest rated crane generates tens of thousands of foot pounds of overturning force at full extension. A base plate bolted to a body floor has nothing to resist that with. The subframe carries the moment into the frame rails where the structure can take it. ### Will mounting boxes cause rust on my truck? It will if the penetrations are not sealed and the surfaces are not isolated. Every hole through a deck is a water path, and any dissimilar metal contact starts a galvanic cell. Butyl at the mating face, isolation strips between the box and the surface, and sealant at each fastener prevents it. Fleets that find rust under a box three years later are finding a skipped step. ### Can you build a custom layout instead of a catalog package? Yes, and for mechanic trucks it is usually the better answer. Fabricated shelves, dividers, brackets and mounts built to what the crew actually carries beat a generic package that forces the crew to adapt. Bring one working technician to the first build, capture what they want, and the rest of the Santa Ana fleet gets built to a spec that will be used. ### How long does a crane body build take? Ten to forty labor hours across a 3 to 10 business day window, with the fabrication side driving the schedule. Equipment lead time is frequently longer than the install itself, since crane units and bodies are built to order. Order early, and use the wait to settle the layout so the truck goes together once rather than being reworked.