With the bed cover done we're in the home stretch on this project. All that's left is making a hatch for the rear of the bed and patching up the HVAC box opening in the front of the cab. Now, I could've forgone the hatch since the chicken yard is closed up but I decided to make one since there may be a need to close the coop up for any given reason so yeah it needed a hatch. Since there is no tailgate on the S10 bed and the bed cover is homemade so there is no hatch window. This is fine since a camper shell hatch would open to the top and would make entry into the bed to service the water apparatus problematic. Having to crouch down excessively is something that is for the birds. My plan is to make a hatch that is all one piece but hinges at the bottom so it lays down like a drawbridge. This has the added benefit of serving as a ramp for the birds to gain easy entry to the bed of the coop. I started off by making a frame for the hatch using conduit pipe. I made the setup in a two part manner. I first welded up a rectangle out of the pipe that would mimic a tailgate. Afterward I welded up two pipes on the side angling inwards and a single pipe at the top forming a trapezoid. This top half of the hatch roughly matched the contours of the bed cover. I used some surplus chicken wire from some old fencing to cover the upper half of the hatch. I cut a rough piece to go over the trapezoid and started securing the top side with wire ties. I then trimmed the chicken wire on the sides and continued to secure it with wire ties all the way around the trapezoid. With the chicken wire portion done, I moved on to the hinges. I welded two hinges to the bottom of the hatch frame next. I then secured the other side of each hinge to the bottom of the bed with self tapping screws. The hinges sit on the top of the bed floor to allow for proper movement of the hinges and hence the hatch. I did the hinges this way so I can be able to remove the hatch if need be. Welding everything together would obviously prevent this. With the hatch secured to the bed, there was just a matter of a latch. To keep things simple on this setup I used what I had available to make a latch for the hatch. This consisted of a conduit strap. The strap is a single mount strap. To secure the thing I removed one of the screws holding the top sheet metal to the top of the bed cover. I inserted the mounting end of the strap under the sheet metal, lining it up with the holes and reinstalled the screw, leaving it sightly loose. I then bent the strap down enough to allow for it having to be stressed to get it around the conduit of the hatch. This light forcing allows for the strap to securely hold the hatch closed. To make sure the sheet metal stayed secured at the top of the bed cover I installed more screws around the latch.
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May 2023
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