Any Tips Or Tricks On Installing A Flatbed On A Truck

[Boss .300 winmag]

Has anyone done it themselves?

[Norman89]

Lots of times, forklift is your friend or camper jacks or highlight jacks. For ease of service put a junction box on the frame and hook your bed harness and truck harness inside it kept nice and water tight sprayed with noco treatment. Also wire your trailer wiring into it. Anytime there is a lighting issue 2 screws and everything is open to testing quick and easy. Make sure whatever bed you get will work nicely with your fuel filler, you don't want the filler neck laying flat and causing burping and filling problems it gets really aggrivating and you won't make that mistake twice. If it will get loaded by equipment a rub rail is very useful. Under bed storage boxes are always nice along with goosneck ball for big trailers. Led lights are cheap and seeing the bed at night is nice 👍

[Boss .300 winmag]

I bought a CM bed that’s already wired, including the fifth wheel electrical/ ball recessed in the bed. The dealer drew a picture for me on how they mount them. I think my fuel filler neck is going to be higher than it is now with the shimming required to clear the shock mounts.

Just looking for other people’s ideas.

Thanks

[Born2late]

starting on putting one on one of my second gen dodges this week.
I'm putting a access hole in the bed to change the fuel sending unit so i don't have to drop the tank to do it.(60 gal quite the pain).
I've seen them bolted to the frame and welded.I will be bolting mine.
will Be using my forklift to lift off and on.
Leave enough room between cab and headache rack. seen some where they were to tight.
Normans idea with the junction box for the lights works awesome!

[Boss .300 winmag]

starting on putting one on one of my second gen dodges this week.
I'm putting a access hole in the bed to change the fuel sending unit so i don't have to drop the tank to do it.(60 gal quite the pain).
I've seen them bolted to the frame and welded.I will be bolting mine.
will Be using my forklift to lift off and on.
Leave enough room between cab and headache rack. seen some where they were to tight.
Normans idea with the junction box for the lights works awesome!

I was told 2 1/2 inches cab to bed clearance, plus to bolt the front, weld the back, and something on the middle for filth wheel towing.

[Norman89]

Personally I would advise to not weld it. Frames are NEVER meant to be welded on, the heat weakens the steel and in time it will crack every single time. Through bolts with rubber pads as isolators between frame and bed using the stock mounting holes in the frame or large ubolts have never failed me, including my 26' conveyor loading trucks at work that get royally beaten 12 hours a day loading and unloading roofing materials loaded by forklifts and delivering to the roof. Beds have never shifted or loosened in 10 plus years of service

[Boss .300 winmag]

Personally I would advise to not weld it. Frames are NEVER meant to be welded on, the heat weakens the steel and in time it will crack every single time. Through bolts with rubber pads as isolators between frame and bed using the stock mounting holes in the frame or large ubolts have never failed me, including my 26' conveyor loading trucks at work that get royally beaten 12 hours a day loading and unloading roofing materials loaded by forklifts and delivering to the roof. Beds have never shifted or loosened in 10 plus years of service

My truck is a 2004 2500 Ram, haven’t taken the bed off yet to see what I have to work with yet. U bolts sounds like a really good idea.👍

What do you use for rubber pads?

[Born2late]

2-1/2 should work good.
I don't like welding to the frame because if i need to take it off for any reason your stuck.
If they have you weld the back why not the front also?
The bed of my truck is bolted on now and it works. I will have more brackets then the bed had before.
I always do stuff overkill so should be fine.
Mine has a fifth wheel also in the bed.

[Boss .300 winmag]

2-1/2 should work good.
I don't like welding to the frame because if i need to take it off for any reason your stuck.
If they have you weld the back why not the front also?
The bed of my truck is bolted on now and it works. I will have more brackets then the bed had before.
I always do stuff overkill so should be fine.
Mine has a fifth wheel also in the bed.

They use angle iron in the front with bolts for a stop.

[Heiny]

I ran different height tubing across frame rails at stock bed bolt locations. Bolted these down then welded angle clips from them to the bed rail. Spent most of the time shimming bed up and down to find the right height.

[huntandjeep]

Personally I would advise to not weld it. Frames are NEVER meant to be welded on, the heat weakens the steel and in time it will crack every single time.

There are 100s of frames across all auto manufacturers that have parts , tabs , etc welded to them from the factory

[rtspring]

Personally I would advise to not weld it. Frames are NEVER meant to be welded on, the heat weakens the steel and in time it will crack every single time. Through bolts with rubber pads as isolators between frame and bed using the stock mounting holes in the frame or large ubolts have never failed me, including my 26' conveyor loading trucks at work that get royally beaten 12 hours a day loading and unloading roofing materials loaded by forklifts and delivering to the roof. Beds have never shifted or loosened in 10 plus years of service

Wrong!!   You should talk to a welder, he or she may teach you a few things.   I’ve probably welded on 100’s of frames.  Not one ever cracked.  Metallurgy on frames is pretty basic steel, nothing special about it.  No pre heat post heat and the likes.  Just a good welder and someone who knows what they are doing. 

[Special T]

If its welded behind the axle even if it weakend the frame you would be fine. Bolt and weld away.

[follow maggie]

Personally I would advise to not weld it. Frames are NEVER meant to be welded on, the heat weakens the steel and in time it will crack every single time. Through bolts with rubber pads as isolators between frame and bed using the stock mounting holes in the frame or large ubolts have never failed me, including my 26' conveyor loading trucks at work that get royally beaten 12 hours a day loading and unloading roofing materials loaded by forklifts and delivering to the roof. Beds have never shifted or loosened in 10 plus years of service

I believe you’re thinking of medium duty & heavy duty frames, which use tempered steel. I think tempered steel requires some specific processes to weld on or drill, but pickups don’t use tempered steel frames, they use mild steel. They’re welded on all the time without troubles.

[Norman89]

I can tell you if you weld a frame on a Kenworth, Peterbuilt, sterling,paccar, freightliner, heavy ford Chevy or dodge you instantly just voided the warrenty. And dealer will tell you to get bent on repairs, you ignored the sticker ON THE FRAME from the factory instructing you not to do so. Previos shop I worked at had multiple dump trucks red flagged at the scales for welded frame patches where the torque arms on a mack had cracked the frame and had been welded back in. They started to plate the inside of the frame so it couldn't be seen that the frame was welded so they wouldn't get red flagged but DOT had there number by that point and they started replacing frames to keep DOT off there back. I have over 50 trucks in my fleet and every truck that was retired was from a frame that cracked from a flatbed being welded on. Still have a 89 Peterbuilt sitting in the back of the yard with a broken frame. I have welded flatbeds onto Toyota wheeler trucks that were mostly tube chassis and it cracked in the first year of being a trailer queen, but I wouldn't do it on a over the road truck ever. When insurance gets involved and they find that stuff that's how you end up losing your tail end in a lawsuit after a wreck where someone gets injured. This is why most flatbeds now come with a bumper built into it and tow hitches for bumper pull gooseneck and fifth wheel rails. Some are option with brackets to brace the hitch to the frame but never welded that I have seen. In the chance of a wreck you sky rocket your odds of totalling the truck with a welded frame to bed connection because there is nothing to give. This is why trucks are now built with a "crumple zone" in the frame that will give out before the passenger compartment takes any severe damage  I saw this many many many times when I worked in the wrecking yard. People would buy up any truck with a crumple zone drill out the rivets replace the bent section and resell the trucks. Rangers were a common one to get bought instead of disassembled. The last 15 trucks I have ordered at work have all been ubolt or plate and bolt systems for bed mounting, I'll stick with it and my insurance company is happy with it

[Norman89]

I'm only giving my advice here, not telling anyone don't weld your frame, not questioning anyone's welding skills, not questioning anyones metallurgy knowledge, this is my experience in the heavy diesel industry and how things are done to my knowledge

[Boss .300 winmag]

Kinda hard to change the back widow if the beds welded on isn’t it?🤔

[dyhardhuntr]

Norman is right. ALL heavy truck manufacturers and in the owners manual of others they state Do Not Weld to frame or drill flanges. Welding frames is something that a backyard mechanic does or someone trying to do it the easy way(In my experience). However that being said there are 2 ways we do it at my work. We either use the factory bed hold down mounts or we use 2x2 wood and ubolts. Just shim your flatbed up so it has the clearance you need and go from there. A little more work but not difficult. Add in a junction box for lights. Set it up so if you have to take the bed off it’s nice and easy. Also like previously stated make sure your fuel fill is at an angle and not flat. Good luck and post some pics as you go!

[Boss .300 winmag]

Got it on this week. Ended up only using 4” wide x 1” thick rubber on the contact points with the frame, it gave me my clearance I needed to be above the right shock.

Fortunately my job this summer used heavy duty rubber in its design and plenty of it left over for me to have some for the install.

The four front pillars I used bolts with a piece of flat metal stock,” across the top of the flat bed rail, the rear I used two 3.1 square u bolts on each side. That gave me the same amount of mounts as the factory uses.

I’m going to have to watch myself driving it due to the weight distribution is quite different.

[Boss .300 winmag]

I love the look of the rear.

[Boss .300 winmag]

The day the bed came off.

And the day I sprayed it with Raptor liner.

[TVHunts]

That looks great! 

[dyhardhuntr]

Nice job! Looks awesome!

[LDennis24]

Very nice!

[Boss .300 winmag]

Thanks for the kind words guys. It was a lot more work than I had anticipated, but we’ll worth it now. Painting vehicles is so expensive it’s not worth it for the ranch/hunting truck. I’m still have to replace the headlight assemblies, grill, and front bumper.

And get the OEM steel wheels powder coated, new tires will be in next Friday.

[Boss .300 winmag]

Added side racks today from old 2x6 boards I had in the barn to hold hay and firewood up.

The end board is temporary till I get some hardware from the interwebs.

Might cut a 45 on the middle board as well.

Put on some new Duratracks Friday.👍

[Boss .300 winmag]

Schreiber's Meadows today with about six inches of the white stuff.

[Special T]

Work truck have flat beds! Welcome to the club!