Anyone use a bed slide in their 6 ' Ranger?
My wife and I run a cleaning service and use the Ranger to carry supplies and equipment.
I have made a few slides out of wood, steel, casters and various materials. Most of them have worked fine but are light duty at best.
I have waited to purchase a mfg. one for a couple of reasons, price and the height.
Recently I have had a need to carry some weight in the back of the truck so I take out the homemade slide. If I had a manufactured slide it could handle the weight and I could leave it in.
But the real issue is that the ones I have made only reduced the bed capacity by about 3/4". I can easily put a gas can in the back and still close the tonneau.
The mfg. slides I have seen can easily raise the tray 2" to 4" above the bed and reduce the useable height.
So all of that being said. I am looking for a bed slide that has a low profile that can handle at least 1000#.
That doesn't seem like an unusual product but I haven't found one yet.

 

Problem is the 1,000lbs weight rating you need, the parts that can support that weight and also slide will need some "beef" so if you can find 2" height then great, but I would think 4" to 5" would be minimum height for 1,000lbs rated slide

Have you considered a cap vs tonneau so height is not a issue

 

That is, of course, true.

BUT, there is no need for the bulk of the supports to be all on the underside. A slide with raised sides would handle the weight in the slid-out condition, while not changing the "daylight" space above it that much. It would only need to support the span across, which is considerably less than the extension. There is the opportunity to provide a center support under the slide at the rear, as well. It need not take up much vertical space, and would further reduce the sideways span, and reduce the needed thickness of the slide.

Another consideration is that the "ratings" of such things normally do not apply to a single point load. A 1000# load rating would normally be the allowable load spread out over the surface of the slide, not concentrated in a small area in the middle at the extreme rear.

 

Not sure pickup beds metal are designed to support 1,000lbs at the edges, the frame rails are the supports where most slides try to have their support
I guess if you spread out the mounts and used a 3 thicker metal "U" channel cross bars under the slide mounted to the frame it could be done

But nothing off the shelf for Rangers, maybe F-series

 

I am more thinking that the slide would be supported by a side rail that is part of it. There would be a second part of it to receive the load and distribute it to the cross-rails. The actual supports for the slide would not be changed from cross-rail location. If anything, supports at the sides on the cross-rails would be closer to the point of support of the cross-rails, and so stronger than a support elsewhere.

Combining that with the distributed load rating would make it quite reasonably practical. There may well be nobody that thinks it worth the trouble to make one for sale. That's a different issue.

The Ranger having a total "load" of 1860 lb makes it certainly a "heavy half-ton" pickup. Such a product is quite reasonable from the standpoint of the capability of the truck, whether or not any company wishes to bring it onto the market.

And, thinking about the load rating, I have never seen a load distribution chart for the Ranger. I have no doubt there is one at Ford somewhere, but I do not recall any description of where loads are acceptable. Nothing about what portion of the total load is acceptable as a "point load", nor where such a point load is acceptably placed without compromising the stability of the truck.

If it were a MIL vehicle, there would be a published load chart for sure. And it would include point loads as well as distributed. Obviously there is no such thing as a true "point load", but if you assume instead, a single heavy item, such as a 1 x 1 x 2 foot chunk of iron, that is a fair approximation of one. And not so far-fetched, if one thinks of a person wanting to haul a machine tool, for instance.

I have hauled a number of them, but had to use my own judgement about the loading (they were not in the Ranger, not yet, anyhow). Two mills, two shapers, a die filer on a stand, a large drill press, and a couple of lathes so far.