It's All About The Little Details---Trailers Flatbeds and Tow Rigs

YotaAtieToo said:
I always thought a flat bed that used the stock bedsides would be cool, have them hinge out at the bed hieght to make a full 102" wide bed
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I have thought similar, except having the top half pin on using stake pockets. Look/works like a stock bed, but can lift off the bedsides when needing to load from the side.
 
YotaAtieToo said:
I always thought a flat bed that used the stock bedsides would be cool, have them hinge out at the bed hieght to make a full 102" wide bed
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Lots of pipeliner beds out there that to some degree integrate stock bed sides. Random Internet pic

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In some of Rory Irish older Trail mater videos he has a 2 gen Dodge with the bedsides cut down like half height from the bed floor. Was pretty handy for reaching over the sides to grab stuff in the bed.
 
Wades_76_cj7 said:
In some of Rory Irish older Trail mater videos he has a 2 gen Dodge with the bedsides cut down like half height from the bed floor. Was pretty handy for reaching over the sides to grab stuff in the bed.
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I can get behind that. I don't know why (I'm sure there is some valid reason) that as trucks get newer they keep getting taller and taller. My old 1992 Chevy, can reach right in the toolbox. The 2002 Duramax 2500 I had was taller, but manageable for me at 5'8". My dad's whatever year, pretty new, 2500 Chevy hell the tailgate is higher than my belly button. If it didn't have step bars on it it would be almost as big of a bitch to step into as my old Jeep when it had 35s on it, if not when it had 38s on it.
 
Drummer79 said:
I'm not positive but it looks kinda AI to me.
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That one could be but lots of that style bed running around on pipeliners pickups.

Drummer79 said:
I can get behind that. I don't know why (I'm sure there is some valid reason) that as trucks get newer they keep getting taller and taller. My old 1992 Chevy, can reach right in the toolbox. The 2002 Duramax 2500 I had was taller, but manageable for me at 5'8". My dad's whatever year, pretty new, 2500 Chevy hell the tailgate is higher than my belly button. If it didn't have step bars on it it would be almost as big of a bitch to step into as my old Jeep when it had 35s on it, if not when it had 38s on it.
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I was listening to a podcast with a designer from Ford who happened to be the head designer on 04 F-150 design and he talked about how they drug the belt line up to make it look better. Doing that pulls the bed side up but because it looks good everyone started doing it.
 
The chevies up till recently were total low riders. It may be convenient for reaching in the bed, but a crew cab one ton 4x4 with the frame 6" off the ground is pretty lame, imo.

We had this debate years ago. My 97 F350 and works 2018 F250 were almost identical in total height and bed depth. So the beds haven't actually gotten way deeper like people say.
 
I was under the impression that the side doors metal part is larger for crash safety and then they make the bedsides taller to match the window line. But yes trucks sit up higher than they used to.
 
Gonna be building a rear bumper for a camper trailer for towing. Was thinking about frenching the receiver into the bumper, but then thinking that’s stupid because you can’t store the poop hose in there. Would have been nice to not have a low center point to drag.

Guess I’ll put a receiver under in the middle and one over in the middle.

Anything else it should get? Thinking about some receivers off to the side to hold bike or kayak racks and other ****.
 
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Muckin_Slusher said:
Gonna be building a rear bumper for a camper trailer for towing. Was thinking about frenching the receiver into the bumper, but then thinking that’s stupid because you can’t store the poop hose in there. Would have been nice to not have a low center point to drag.

Guess I’ll put a receiver under in the middle and one over in the middle.

Anything else it should get? Thinking about some receivers off to the side to hold bike or kayak racks and other ****.
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If you're going to store the stinky slinky inside, make some square steel caps for the ends. Put a pivot point in one top corner, so they swing out of the way, and add a simple stop so they swing down to the right position. I don't know how many times I had to replace the plastic caps on my old camper, or pull over when I saw the slinky working its way out.

Years ago I built a basic bumper for my old camper. I think the tube typically used is 4" square 14 gauge, which wasn't super common. I removed a factory motorized slide out rack/bumper combo and replaced it with a basic bumper and a hitch. The hitch wasn't tied to the bumper, it had a crossmember at the rear of the frame, plus one a few feet further up the frame. If you're towing any substantial weight, I'd go this route.
 
I believe it’s only going to tow a single axle landscape trailer with a sxs on it, or small boat trailer.

Haven’t seen it in person yet, but have this pic. There’s some kind of fold down cargo contraption already. Looks like the spare is already mounted to it, and folds down with it? It all looks alright, I guess just adding some crossmembers would allow the original stuff to all stay.

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Muckin_Slusher said:
I believe it’s only going to tow a single axle landscape trailer with a sxs on it, or small boat trailer.

Haven’t seen it in person yet, but have this pic. There’s some kind of fold down cargo contraption already. Looks like the spare is already mounted to it, and folds down with it? It all looks alright, I guess just adding some crossmembers would allow the original stuff to all stay.

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I don't have any pictures of the hitch I built, it was back in 2009 (pre smart-phone). My understanding is the the tongue weight is pretty critical with the long distance from the trailer axles to the back, too much and it's easy to bend the frame rails. I set ours up to pull a 3500 lb. boat behind it. Friends of ours had a camper very similar to ours; they had one professionally built/installed and I just duplicated theirs.

I would definitely consider adding a crossmember further up for pulling the sxs.
 
Drummer79 said:
I can get behind that. I don't know why (I'm sure there is some valid reason) that as trucks get newer they keep getting taller and taller. My old 1992 Chevy, can reach right in the toolbox. The 2002 Duramax 2500 I had was taller, but manageable for me at 5'8". My dad's whatever year, pretty new, 2500 Chevy hell the tailgate is higher than my belly button. If it didn't have step bars on it it would be almost as big of a bitch to step into as my old Jeep when it had 35s on it, if not when it had 38s on it.
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Side by side, measured with a tape. Step in height to the floor on a 2023 2500 HD is 13 inches taller than my 2002 2500HD. Both on stock tires and suspension. It's ridiculous how big these trucks are.
 
Can't back the big trailer in my driveway without something on it because you can't see **** over the rediculous besides.
Miss my old f350
 
the medium duty trucks used to be noticably taller than the 2500/3500. my 5500 doesn't look out of place next to current 3500 trucks. Probably lower than the jacked up GMs.
 
It's because the 90s and 00s Chevy were low riders and they sucked at anything remotely offroad like any kind of job site. Then you have the Chevy 5500s that are ******ed tall, but still have the tcase 6" off the ground.

My 97 F350 was almost identical to my 2018 F250 company truck.

It does suck for getting **** out of the bed, but ripping **** off underneath or popping holes in pans or tanks sucks worse.
 
So, the guy hasn't picked this trailer up yet. I'd like to order some material.


Are the frames usually channel or tubing?
Assuming the frame width is something like 72 inches.

Does 4 inch channel sound about right for hitch crossmembers? Spaced 1 or 2 feet apart?

I'll also tie the hitch into the original bumper.

Think I need a couple pieces of something for triangulation?

Pic below. black is camper frame rails
green is original bumper
red would be 4 inch channel crossmembers iron mounted so the strong dimension was vertical
blue would be receiver stock
pink is maybe some gussets to handle forward/backward force from the hitch.
alternatively I could mount the forward 4 inch crossmember so the strong dimension was horizontal. It could then handle the forward/backward force, and the up/down force on it would be less as it's farther from the tongue weight.

I kinda feel like I wouldn't need any "triangulation" because the horizonal forces would be handled fine by the two channel irons and the original tube.

camper hitch.jpg
 
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Done. Used 4inch channel iron.

Left a 3/8 gap to the original bumper to allow those clamp on hitches in the future.

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Finally added E-track to my enclosed for tieing down my samurai. It's the easiest and my favorite tie down method I've ever used for an offroad rig. Never moved or loosened at all on a ~2500mile trip.


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Everything is from harbor freight. I put these

E-Track Roller Idler https://share.google/NV7ie2Q14ZKG4zjcu

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On the end of the rachet on these

1467 lb. Capacity, 2 in. x 20 ft. E-Track Ratcheting Tie-Down https://share.google/Y0yI4hVnkeBxnqSsX

Screenshot_20260504_073039_Chrome.jpg


To make it so the rachet wasn't on top of tire. Which probably would have worked fine, just thought this would be easier.
 
It's annoying to clean those out, muddy tires fill them up with crap when they're driven over - that's my only complaint with that method, especially if getting the one that's under the rig hooked on has any access challenges
 
Mr. Mindless said:
It's annoying to clean those out, muddy tires fill them up with crap when they're driven over - that's my only complaint with that method, especially if getting the one that's under the rig hooked on has any access challenges
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Tilt the nose of the trailer up and hose em out? Or wash the truck before you put it inside the trailer. It is an enclosed after all, lol.
 
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