FYI low deck height flatbed with good tire clearance

[Ugly1]

This is for anybody who cares. And maybe I was too dumb to find the right keywords, or whatever. I searched here and everywhere else I could think of and never came up with what I was hoping for so ended up calling around with fabricators, since I live here in the middle of the land of flatbed manufacturers.

It's a ProTech bed that was sourced and modified for me by Advanced Truck Body & Equip

See mudflaps for info. And I did ask. They said go ahead and post pictures and tell others where you got it.

I'm getting it all covered with storage boxes now and will put a NCO Alaskan up there when I finish.

Edit forgot to mention, if it isn't obvious, the goal was keeping the camper COG low as possible without worry for tire rubbing, even if I wanted to go up in tire size a bit.

 

[ExpoMike]

Had I kept to a truck and camper setup, this is what I wanted to do but this is more a hybrid flatbed and not a true flatbed. I think that is the problem, when folks are looking for flatbeds with low height, to keep it truly flat, the height will be much higher than a stock bed. You have to have room for the tires to articulate. In this hybrid model, it's not an issue but it's also not a flatbed.

 

[rruff]

It's the sort of bed I wish was standard on pickups. No wasted space, and you still get a low deck height... and you can put storage boxes above and below the bed with a typical slide in.

 

[Ugly1]

Keeping center of gravity low seems like the right thing to do and so figured others would already be doing this....since I could never figured out what they are supposed to be called I never did find any discussions about others doing thjis kind of build. Maybe they are out there somewhere and I still haven't found them... Hybrid flatbed? De-flattened bed? Is it now a camper tray? I don't know, but I like it. Went down to a local welder who said he 'd have some box quotes for me Monday.

 

[1stDeuce]

That is a pretty bed, but it's not a flatbed...
Looks like you have more than plenty of clearance for much larger tires, that's for sure! If you remove the front fenders, you could easily get some 40's on there with no more lift!

I built a flatbed for my GMC K2500 that had the deck height 4" off the top of the frame. (2" tube cross members under the deck resting on 2" tube "runners" along the frame. That's about 2" higher than the floor of a normal pickup bed, but 2" lower than the lowest aftermarket bed I've seen. With 265's and no lift, I had no rubbing problems even doing really dumb overload stunts in fairly rough terrain. With a full load, (~3-4000lbs) the rear did not articulate much, it just lifted front tires. Empty it wouild articulate the rear more, but I never saw any rub marks.

The point? I think a lot of guys overestimate how much clearance they really need on all but the most extreme rock crawling setups. I also think aftermarket beds build in quite a bit more clearance than they need to because of that...

 

[Ugly1]

It says flatbed on its birth cirtificate.

I would want to do the Spin Free locking hub conversion before I try torun 40s" Probably need at least an inch an a half more of wheel offset to not rub at full lock. Gonna need some decent wheel bearings on there or Ill be replacing unit bearings every 500 miles. grumble grumble. unit bearings grumble. I'd guess that's around where I start to realize why everyone upgrades hydroboost steering with these too. Oh right and I'd probably want to ditch my 4.88's for some 5.29s.

 

[rruff]

I built a flatbed for my GMC K2500 that had the deck height 4" off the top of the frame. ...Empty it wouild articulate the rear more, but I never saw any rub marks.

Mine is almost 10" above the bed mounts and tire, and I can just make it rub with full articulation, axle on the bumpstop, with 35s. I made an articulating bed too, so that's part of it. If I puts 37s on it, I'll get some generic sumos to make the bump taller.