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building a flatdeck

Squamch

Canadian
Joined
May 19, 2020
Member Number
93
Messages
1,498
Loc
republic of Vancouver island
I've got an 01 f350, and the box is about reached. Crossmembers rotten, fenders gone, dents...fuck it. It's a work truck. So I started buying steel.
2x4 .120 wall main outer frame.
2" 3/16" "joists"
Dropped some 2" receiver inside in each corner for a job crane/moose picker upper.
dimensions are 86" wide X 96" long, tapering to 72" over the last foot to 9' total length.
decking will be 2x8 fir

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Headache rack was made of 2x2 .120 wall
bulkhead and skirt sheet is 12ga.
 
Mounting rails are 3" c channel, it'll sit a little higher than it looks like in the pictures. Going to add 1.5" strap across the back to hook ramps and straps to, as well as under the side rails. My stake pockets are inside the main frame.

Holy fuck this picture is just not meant to upload i guess. Jesus. I've tried like a dozen times.

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Showing up for me...

Widen that headache rack at window height or cut the 90* corner to match the angle. That would drive me crazy.
 
Showing up for me...

Widen that headache rack at window height or cut the 90* corner to match the angle. That would drive me crazy.

Yeah it took a ton of tries to get them to show.
I may cut that corner off and just run it straight down. Haven't made up my mind yet. Long story short I fucked up my measurements or angles, or something, somewhere to cause that.
 
Can see but add a gooseneck ball. I like the sketchy hoist tube clamp extension.
 
Blazing fast progress on this.

Its now in my shop. Along with almost everything else. My bender and notcher were on long term loan, and were returned the same day the flatdeck had to go in. There is a dump/scrap run in my future. Facilities are not on the same level as the borrowed space, but it had been there long enough.
Cut the headache rack off so it can be mounted centered. Still don't know wtf happened there.

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I really need one weekend to get it finished and a day to get it on the truck, so hopefully it'll be on the truck by april:laughing:
 
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I've had the deck on for awhile, been rear ended by a guy so hard his doors wouldn't open, to no ill effect. Haven't sorted out the filler neck yet. Also have a little manual crane on it that's nice for loading bikes and transmissions....and hanging deer up to skin em:laughing:

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Crane shown here with voice activated controller. Still a little finicky, but it's improving.
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I ran my filler neck up the front next to the cab. Granted, I think my deck is a bit wider, 7'. Deck is bolted down steel-on-steel, just like the old pickup bed, to the same points. Keeping it low was a priority due to lift and tires.

I'm re-thinking the rack already. I want it squared off at full width because i like to tuck long goods over to the side (leaning on rack) and still have rest of the bed available.
 

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I would actually like mine to sit just a smidgen higher, as it is my boat has to have a block under it or the bow will touch the roof. Or I could lower the rear rack a hair, but then the bikes won't fit under the boat:laughing:.
 
I used boat rollers as body mounts, which was a shit plan. They're too soft. I've gotta get some body lift pucks.

hard mount it, it'll be fine. thats how i've done all the 8ft beds i've built. even 90% of the truck that that come to my shop and hard mounted up to 12ft beds. full service bodies and all. they come to me to fix the bird shit welds, not different mounts.

i like them as low as possible, and with lots of storage.
the flatbed i made for my old sd has now been on 3 trucks. all hard mounted. was also able to fit 36" and 18" boxes (ish i cant remember exactly at the moment) each side, 18" deep. the front ones i had to cut a little out for the spring hanger. and move the ebrake cable a little.

did 3x5 angle to the frame, 2" to support the deck, and 3x5 and plate to finish the perimeter. 2 pockets int he back are recievers, all sorts of uses.

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been running this bed for almost 7yrs now.


also just make the filler neck work, at first i had a little hole in a board i pulled it up thru to fill. and i only say dont finish the filler... because i did it twice now and soon as i did bed went to a different truck.


beds currently on my cheby truck... its meh, i had to hack allot of crap to make it fit-ish and it always bugs me how high the rack sits. i'd like to build all new of aluminum. if i could only find the time.

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Mine sees some kinda wheelingish type use, so I can't have it sit too low. I think I'm about stuck with the metric 35s if I want to keep it flat, which I do...but naturally, I want more bigger tires.:laughing:
 
Mine sees some kinda wheelingish type use, so I can't have it sit too low. I think I'm about stuck with the metric 35s if I want to keep it flat, which I do...but naturally, I want more bigger tires.:laughing:


the grey truck saw some deep shit, and also on metric 35's. boxes dragging thru mud and sand plenty. but not much tight stuff, like i know you be into in BC. the only thing over the tires is wood deck and it had tire scrub. but not bad. (did have a cross member at first, it had to go) Thats what airbags are for! i've always ran a bag with the most range i can fit. i'd rather temporary lift over permenantly lifted. and would also limit travel before i lowered the deck. but i'm more work than play. bigger rigs dont need much up travel. a 2wd superduty has less than an inch up before it hits the bumps. just ideas.

you've still got running boards attached to the body, boxes would be fine.

oregon coast. florance
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and since i seem to be able to find pics tonight, funny story, we totaled an early bronco... and lost track how many times we rolled that ranger on this trip.

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this was only the first mishap of the week for blue bronco, riding passenger i had to swim to shore later this night. derail over!
 
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a 2wd superduty has less than an inch up before it hits the bumps. just ideas.
I assume you're talking front because rear has way more in stock form. A 2wd superduty has a 3" tall soft as fuck bump stop and a decent motion ratio up front. So it's got way more than 1" of travel before the bump at the tire and it can get way into that bump before it feels it. Not like bottoming out the rear of a 90s Dodge that has a bump stop that may as well be made of concrete.

I absolutely want more than 1" of travel before you get hard into the bump for the sake of not beating the shit out of everything. Sure you'll notice the harshness less on a long wheelbase vehicle but it's still not great for everything.
 
Mine sees some kinda wheelingish type use, so I can't have it sit too low. I think I'm about stuck with the metric 35s if I want to keep it flat, which I do...but naturally, I want more bigger tires.:laughing:

We had a 2016ish f350 on 37's. Had a skirted CM flatbed that had been trimmed and then some flat bar welded in as they kept cutting tires. We were building logging road, and it got put into alot of stupid places. It worked well.

It was a bit tall for working out of everyday like Tracyb's doing. But it wasnt bad.
 
We had a 2016ish f350 on 37's. Had a skirted CM flatbed that had been trimmed and then some flat bar welded in as they kept cutting tires. We were building logging road, and it got put into alot of stupid places. It worked well.

It was a bit tall for working out of everyday like Tracyb's doing. But it wasnt bad.

Those are the sorts of places I take it. Half washed away roads and...er...bypass routes.
 
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