I'm currently working on a school project with some fellow students, and we've come up with an idea for an extendable truck bed.

Without getting into the nuts and bolts of it (ha ha), essentially the extender would work as thus: the bottom and sides of a truck bed are hollow. We would remove the tailgate, insert telescoping steel rails that can lock in certain configurations (a la stretcher rails or a heavy-duty ladder) on rollers in the side panels, and lightweight metal plate in the bottom. Then you attach the tailgate to the telescoping rails and voila it looks like nothing has been done to your truck. Then you can pull two handles inside the truck bed to release the rails, pull the tailgate out by two or four feet, and when you let go of the latches it will "lock" into place.

To move the tailgate back, just operate the latches, push the tailgate back in and you're back to normal.

Here's some (really poorly done) renderings of how it would look:






Anyway, if you guys have any suggestions/ideas so that we can refine our product concept that would be awesome--we'd like to eventually take this thing to market, either as an add-on or as a stock option.

We've also prepared a quick "demographic" survey that should only take 2 or so minutes and will allow us to figure out how to make it, how much it should cost, etc:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?s...O3nH8EWA_3d_3d

We're really looking forward to hearing from you guys...if we can prove the market is there and that our concept is viable, we can apply for some funding and maybe bring a much-needed innovation to the truck market!

 

Already been done Amp Research's bed extender.
Also i think Jeep did your idea on a concept vehicle several yrs ago