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Car Forum / Ford / Ford Trucks / January 2007How to build a bed for a 2000 F-450 ?
Hi - as the elected "webbie" in the family my dad has asked me to help him with the following: *** I just bought a 2000 Ford F-450 without a bed. I figured I might build a wood flatbed on it. I don't have a problem building it, I am not too sure how I would anchor it to the frame. I spent over 3 hrs looking for a set of plans to build wooden truck beds. I can't find anything. The bed will be 14' long. *** I searched through this group for plans for building beds but didn't come across what I'm looking for. If anyone could point me i ntherght direction I'd appreciate it. My dadthinks I'm a googling genius and I'd hate to disappoint him ;) > Hi - as the elected "webbie" in the family my dad has asked me to help > him with the following: [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > direction I'd appreciate it. My dadthinks I'm a googling genius and I'd > hate to disappoint him ;) At least with lighter trucks, people have removed beds and learned the hard way that the bed or something of similar weight and centroid location was needed to keep the truck from pivoting on its front wheels in a panic stop. The f450 might be immune, but it's worth checking. Bill He was asking about building a bed. Not the safety of driving without one. Also, in my experience, invariably a homebuilt wood bed will be heavier than the tinfoil one that came off.  SignatureSteve Barker >> Hi - as the elected "webbie" in the family my dad has asked me to help >> him with the following: [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] > > Bill F-450's DO NOT come with a bed, they are only sold as Chassis Cabs. > He was asking about building a bed. Not the safety of driving without > one. Also, in my experience, invariably a homebuilt wood bed will be [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] >> >> Bill > He was asking about building a bed. Not the safety of driving without one. > Also, in my experience, invariably a homebuilt wood bed will be heavier than > the tinfoil one that came off. So I should not mention something that might save his life???? That is a point of netiquette that I missed. Bill > Hi - as the elected "webbie" in the family my dad has asked me to > help [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > direction I'd appreciate it. My dadthinks I'm a googling genius and > I'd hate to disappoint him ;) Anchor the bed rails to the frame with 2 threaded rods per attachment point cut to length and at least 3/8 inch thick metal straps top and bottom. That said, your dad is not very smart if he thinks that truck will handle OK with a 14 foot bed. It's built for an 8 foot bed. Tom J The most I'd go with if I were you would be a 10'....The last poster noted that 14' was too long and I agree. A 10' is fairly representative of the length the truck is designed for if you have a standard 8' bed with the tailgate dropped down for an additional ~1-1/2' of length. Now you want to have an extra 4' past that with a wood bed and no support underneath it?! Putting the truck handling issues aside, an ~6' section of wood with nothing under it is asking for trouble. But just curious, why do you need such a long bed anyway? IYM > > Hi - as the elected "webbie" in the family my dad has asked me to > > help [quoted text clipped - 25 lines] > > Tom J To be honest I have no idea why he needs a 14 foot bed. He is a homebuilder, so I guess it has something to do with his work. Thanks for the help -- I will pass along the info, minus the appraisals of his intelligence. . Well, if you need to talk him out of it, there is another reason you don't make that long. Considering that the length of the bed behind the rear wheels would be somewhere in the area of approx 8-9' or so (give or take), chances are the a.s end of the bed will bottom out when turning into up into standard parking lot apron, to say nothing about wanting to back up a driveway on a hill at a clients house.....Larger/longer trucks have the rear wheels further back and are higher for this reason...Just a thought. BTW, mentioning he is a homebuilder sheds a little light on why he might want a 14' bed, as this length is the longest length that stores like Home Depot and such sell at. Anything longer, and you have to go to a lumber yard. You really can't (shouldn't) carry anything longer than that in the back of a pickup, as the center of gravity of the boards will still be in the bed of the truck with a 14' board in a 8' bed. He probably wants the whole 14' foot board lengths supported and laying flat. Anyway, the longest truck beds I've seen on the F-series chassis are the flat bed tow trucks. I'm not sure how long they are, but a guesstimate is about 10' to 12', and they have the last 2' or so angled underneath to a point more or less, and most importantly are made of steel. This may be an alternate for you if you can find an old or wrecked wrecker. The bed need not move or have the hydraulics....Just another thought and will probably be shot down by another poster with more knowledge on that, but I was just shooting out an idea as it came in my head.... Sorry for rambling... IYM > To be honest I have no idea why he needs a 14 foot bed. He is a > homebuilder, so I guess it has something to do with his work. > Thanks for the help -- I will pass along the info, minus the appraisals > of his intelligence. > . >Well, if you need to talk him out of it, there is another reason you >don't make that long. Considering that the length of the bed behind [quoted text clipped - 27 lines] > >IYM The rollback tow trucks use a 16-20 foot bed. They also have the extended frame rails as part of the package to move the axle rearward to maintain load distribution. He should also remember that even a large car or full sized pickup carried by a rollback is not as heavy as a load of lumber. In my business, we have had numerous losses related to improper load distribution. One was an auto parts delivery unit with a 24 foot body on a chassis designated by the manufacturer for a max 20 foot body. The delivery system started the vehicle out with the new parts loaded forward. Things like old cores including engines and transmissions were picked up and loaded to the rear. As the load shifted, the vehicle became uncontrollable to the point that it was unable to steer on a wet road resulting in some serious injuries. We reconfiged a sister truck and recreated the load he had as it was loaded. The vehicle weighed in over 30K lbs with less than 1000 of it on the steer axle because of the long body allowing such a load shift. It is imperative that the load center of mass be considered when specifying a body config. Lugnut >> To be honest I have no idea why he needs a 14 foot bed. He is a >> homebuilder, so I guess it has something to do with his work. >> Thanks for the help -- I will pass along the info, minus the appraisals >> of his intelligence. >> . > Well, if you need to talk him out of it, there is another reason you > don't make that long. Considering that the length of the bed behind [quoted text clipped - 25 lines] > > Sorry for rambling... If the intended purpose is to haul "long things" (I'm suspecting roof trusses), why not build the bed with an over-the-cab extension and possibly some collapsible mid-bed supports. The only problem is that there's no way that plain ol' wood alone is going to support the weight over the cab. The only 'all-wood' beds I've seen are those short little "vanity" beds or the abbreviated ones on hard-core fourwheelers. I've been around truck beds since 1955 and I've seen some abortions built of only wood before. Use steel or stout aluminum where the strength is needed. It's not unusual to see 14' beds on the 450's. SignatureSteve Barker >> Hi - as the elected "webbie" in the family my dad has asked me to help >> him with the following: [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] > > Tom J > It's not unusual to see 14' beds on the 450's. Yeah, I agree. I'm not understanding how all these posters can see the wheelbase of the truck via the internet. it's very strange. I think Dad may be smarter than the people wasting their lives handing out non-answers on usenet. Or maybe he's just less ignorant. At least one guy did attempt to answer the question, although I admit I'm not fully clear where you'd use all-thread in his scheme. Back in the olden days, all truck beds (flat or otherwise) were sitting on oak blocks on top of the frame. In the case of a wooden framed bed, that block would just become the cross beam. The floor of the bed was then through-bolted through a cross-beam or oak block and into some hole in the frame. In this day and age, you might prefer to go with steel framework on steel. That's fine. You still need to through-bolt from the bed floor through a cross-beam into a hole in the frame. They didn't do that without an oak cushion years ago, but I'm not really sure why not. > Hi - as the elected "webbie" in the family my dad has asked me to help > him with the following: [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > direction I'd appreciate it. My dadthinks I'm a googling genius and I'd > hate to disappoint him ;) > Hi - as the elected "webbie" in the family my dad has asked me to help > him with the following: [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > direction I'd appreciate it. My dadthinks I'm a googling genius and I'd > hate to disappoint him ;) Send him to the dealership to get the build specs for the truck. Every ford dealer can access a body builders website that has a list of specs on the vehicle they are modifying. That should give you a start as to measurements and so forth. I will say this, all the guys that have posted about weight distribution are onto something, and should really be considered when thinking about a 14' bed on a dually truck, especially if the truck was only set up for an 8 or 10' bed. Ford Tech >> Hi - as the elected "webbie" in the family my dad has asked me to help >> him with the following: [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] > > Ford Tech UPDATE on my previous post. I have found the Ford body builders website, and here it is!! https://www.fleet.ford.com/truckbbas/index.htm Hope that helps out some. |
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