Hey all! I took my bed off yesterday and it was held on by rust. So what I'm thinking is making a flat bed for the truck. My idea would be making it a dumping bed, with electric actuators on both sides of the bed towards the cab. One other idea I had was adding a fuel cell where my spare tire was with a spring loaded trap door in the bed for refueling and a switch in the cab to select the tank like in the older F150's.

I looked and measured out the area and what I came up with was a 6'x6' area to make a bed. My ideal way to make the bed would be to use wood and cover it with sheet metal then line-x or whatever over the metal. I'd also like to angle the sides of the bed about 45* and add some tiedowns.

I think this would be a pretty cool project. Anyone else have any comments or concerns? I welcome any suggestions as well!

 

Go for it. There are dump bed kits available that you could use to start. I would recommend boards or diamond plate for the bed, sheet metal will not last.

 

Yep, I thought about that sheet metal too. My dad and I figured 4x6 boards coated in bed-liner should do the trick. As for the diamond plate, that would blow my budget on it's own. Not that I have a budget, I just can't afford it.

 

The extra fuel tank sounds like a great Idea since everyone knows you can only get like 250-300 miles per tank stock. with that you could tack on a greater driving range on one tank for long trips.
I've seen normal flatbed Rangers before and they look okay, but I know a dump would look better on it. Just don't forget the suspension while doing this.

 

I plan on adding one of those helper springs to the stack.

 

That sounds alright. Depending on how heavy the new bed is, you may want to put some new shocks on too. Possibly even some heavier duty ones.

 

Already done. I put the Monroe heavy duty shocks on last year.

 

Sounds like you got the right plan.

 

Dont jump to quick, look around in metal scrap yards or thereabouts and see if you can find some aluminum channel, I beams or square tubing.that is husky enough. 3 to 4" material and fabricate the bed. Believe me it can be done. Big hinges for tilt, get creative and think outside the box.

You can have it welded or bolt it together, I do that stuff all the time.

 

^x2. I don't think using 4x6s coated in bed liner is the way to go. If you're going to coat it anyway, you might be able to get several scrap sheets of diamond plate and square them up yourself. If you bolt them down to some steel channel or tubing you should be able to save on weight. That said, coating the aluminum sheets in bed liner would cover up any lines from putting several scrap pieces together and it will last forever.

 

Mazda, but you get the idea. My buddies truck. Bed was build by him. Hes got wider wheels and tires now so hes thinking about building prerunner style flares out of sheet metal to cover them.

 

dang, I want that hah