Thanks for sharing that. Honestly, had I seen this before (and noticed that), I probably would have reconsidered having them build my bed. Thankfully, my bed itself isn't nearly that bad, but as I said before, it's certainly not worth the premium that I paid even aside from all of this other nonsense.
2000 Super Duty CC SB 7.3: Alum-line flatbed and installation
- Thread starter cbattles
- Start date
Thanks for sharing that. Honestly, had I seen this before (and noticed that), I probably would have reconsidered having them build my bed. Thankfully, my bed itself isn't nearly that bad, but as I said before, it's certainly not worth the premium that I paid even aside from all of this other nonsense.
Alloy
Well-known member
If you get into the re& re and need info I've worked with architectural and structural alum for years.
For anyone following along:
I pulled the bed, which took maybe an hour. This was aided by the fact that it was exceedingly easy to remove the 4 clamps because they were barely right.
I first noticed that they cut off one of the old bed bolts and left half of it in the nut clipped to the frame. Not surprising.
I also noticed that they clipped the old brake light/signal wires, left the wires unterminated and then left the harness plugged in even though it went nowhere else. Also, not surprising.
And finally I noticed that they didn't even use the right size vent hose for the filler neck, which I did think to grab a picture of, even though I was still not surprised.
Now that we're free of all of their handy work, here's what we have going on....
I cut 4 crossmembers out of 3/16 wall 2x2 tube. The front and rear are on spacers made from some 3/4" thick bar stock. They're all on sitting on 3/4" thick, 2" diameter polyurethane donuts sold as CJ body mounts, and bolted into the original bed mounting holes in the frame using grade 8 bolts and lock nuts.
Then, we have some 1/4" thick 4" angle bolted to the crossmembers (again grade 8 with lock nuts) to create a channel that the new bed will sit in. The damaged long sills will rest on the horizontal leg of the angle and bolt into the vertical leg.
In total, this should put me at about 3" higher than I was, with a lot of extra strength (plus, it won't even be twisted and wonky).
Also, I have some heavier duty springs installed, and when I was bringing home the steel for this, it rode SO much better than with the flatbed alone. The little bit of extra weight will be welcome even though it's probably overkill.
I pulled the bed, which took maybe an hour. This was aided by the fact that it was exceedingly easy to remove the 4 clamps because they were barely right.
I first noticed that they cut off one of the old bed bolts and left half of it in the nut clipped to the frame. Not surprising.
I also noticed that they clipped the old brake light/signal wires, left the wires unterminated and then left the harness plugged in even though it went nowhere else. Also, not surprising.
And finally I noticed that they didn't even use the right size vent hose for the filler neck, which I did think to grab a picture of, even though I was still not surprised.
Now that we're free of all of their handy work, here's what we have going on....
I cut 4 crossmembers out of 3/16 wall 2x2 tube. The front and rear are on spacers made from some 3/4" thick bar stock. They're all on sitting on 3/4" thick, 2" diameter polyurethane donuts sold as CJ body mounts, and bolted into the original bed mounting holes in the frame using grade 8 bolts and lock nuts.
Then, we have some 1/4" thick 4" angle bolted to the crossmembers (again grade 8 with lock nuts) to create a channel that the new bed will sit in. The damaged long sills will rest on the horizontal leg of the angle and bolt into the vertical leg.
In total, this should put me at about 3" higher than I was, with a lot of extra strength (plus, it won't even be twisted and wonky).
Also, I have some heavier duty springs installed, and when I was bringing home the steel for this, it rode SO much better than with the flatbed alone. The little bit of extra weight will be welcome even though it's probably overkill.
Thanks, should be able to get everything tightened down and get the bed fitted over the next couple of days. Hopefully there aren't any surprises, it should be pretty straightforward.
I actually ended up filing one dispute for the installation charge, and another one to account for the fact that ultimately, they also delivered me a damaged bed.
I'm still crossing my fingers that I don't find out that this thing is all twisted still from the way that they installed it the first time. Even if it's not, there was a lot of material hacked out of the supports. The way I'm reinstalling it will reinforce everything a good deal, but that only became necessary as a result of the condition that it was in after the failed install. I certainly didn't leave with a bed in good condition that they could sell at full retail, so I feel the second dispute was totally justified.
As of now both amounts have been credited back to me, but we'll see what happens as this plays out.
Oh, yeah, they're going away. Aside from the issues that you mentioned, they'll also be short by a few inches with the changes that I'm making.
I love it when a plan comes together. I'll take some better pictures of the whole thing at some point in the near future, but I wanted to snap a quick picture of the progress:
The bed whole bed is now sitting at about 3 1/4" higher overall and it's not even twisted anymore. The bottom of the boxes line up nicely with the bottom of the body and the tire clearance looks a lot more appropriate IMO. The filler neck and vent hoses have been replaced with Gates 23964 and Gates 27010, which seem to be pretty high quality rubber hoses and the vent is now actually the right size. As a side note, I didn't even have to loosen the clamp on the vent hose to pull it off, which is par for the course.
In the future, if I go with tires that won't fit in the factory spare location, I'll move the spare. But for now, I just don't want to have to deal with it being anywhere else. With that said, my goal for now is for that spare to be the lowest thing on the truck in terms of clearance back there. Currently, the tail pipe is WAY lower (partly due to their handy-work) and while the hitch is almost on the same plate (maybe a hair lower), it sticks back further so it would be the next limiting factor in terms of departure angle.
With that in mind, next on the to-do list is going to be having an exhaust shop work some magic to try to tuck that massive tailpipe in somewhere.
For the hitch, I picked up a Draw-Tite 41991 class V receiver hitch crosstube and brackets. It's a 62" crosstube and is designed so that you can set the brackets where they need to be on the frame, then position the crosstube in the brackets, weld them together and trim the tube as needed. It's a pretty serious piece of metal so the idea here was to leave the extra length of the hitch as a bumper replacement of sorts. So, I'm going to try to set it so that it's closer to the bottom of the bed but still at legal bumper height, and maybe behind the bed by an inch or so.
Lastly, I'm removing those Alum-line decals as soon as possible. The last thing I want to do is advertise for them.
The bed whole bed is now sitting at about 3 1/4" higher overall and it's not even twisted anymore. The bottom of the boxes line up nicely with the bottom of the body and the tire clearance looks a lot more appropriate IMO. The filler neck and vent hoses have been replaced with Gates 23964 and Gates 27010, which seem to be pretty high quality rubber hoses and the vent is now actually the right size. As a side note, I didn't even have to loosen the clamp on the vent hose to pull it off, which is par for the course.
In the future, if I go with tires that won't fit in the factory spare location, I'll move the spare. But for now, I just don't want to have to deal with it being anywhere else. With that said, my goal for now is for that spare to be the lowest thing on the truck in terms of clearance back there. Currently, the tail pipe is WAY lower (partly due to their handy-work) and while the hitch is almost on the same plate (maybe a hair lower), it sticks back further so it would be the next limiting factor in terms of departure angle.
With that in mind, next on the to-do list is going to be having an exhaust shop work some magic to try to tuck that massive tailpipe in somewhere.
For the hitch, I picked up a Draw-Tite 41991 class V receiver hitch crosstube and brackets. It's a 62" crosstube and is designed so that you can set the brackets where they need to be on the frame, then position the crosstube in the brackets, weld them together and trim the tube as needed. It's a pretty serious piece of metal so the idea here was to leave the extra length of the hitch as a bumper replacement of sorts. So, I'm going to try to set it so that it's closer to the bottom of the bed but still at legal bumper height, and maybe behind the bed by an inch or so.
Lastly, I'm removing those Alum-line decals as soon as possible. The last thing I want to do is advertise for them.
Superduty
Adventurer
I just looked at the Draw Tite 41991 online.
The brackets are only 7" long? How does that provide enough strength? Most hitches have brackets that go back 20+ inches.
Wonder why they powdercoat the parts. You have to weld the hitch, which means you will have to grind off the powdercoat, at minimum, where your welds will be.
The brackets are only 7" long? How does that provide enough strength? Most hitches have brackets that go back 20+ inches.
Wonder why they powdercoat the parts. You have to weld the hitch, which means you will have to grind off the powdercoat, at minimum, where your welds will be.
Yeah, I agree, especially considering that they're sold as class V hitches. If the brackets end up getting used, it won't be exactly as pictured. I only bought them because they're heavy steel with a nice stiffening bend and a very clean cut for the tube. But, to clear the spare, the crosstube will need to be set back farther than the brackets allow when oriented as pictured.
I bought the longer brackets (part 4916) and planned to see if they could be oriented differently and made to work for my application rather than starting from scratch. This isn't something that I'm going to be doing myself so I figured I'd just take them with me the fabricator and if he can (or wants to) use them and if so and it saves me a few bucks, great. If not, I'll just send them back.
I do think that using this crosstube and receiver and as a base will be a win though, for what I'm looking for.
mangymarmot
Lost
Looking much better!
huntsonora
Explorer
When life gives cbattles lemons he makes lemonade. Glad to see it coming together. Hope the disputes work out in your favor
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DirtWhiskey
Western Dirt Rat
LOOKS GREAT BUDDY!