Flatbed Information Thread

Nice. Definitely helps speed a project up too. Was going to say got a lot done for a day and half. Those brackets would have taken me a better part of a day to get cut out and fit that nice with a grinder and porta band.

 

Got less done yesterday, did the other 4 bed mounts and cut out the upper shock mounts. Now I have to figure out how close to put the shocks to the frame.

Also one of my first posts I had the measurements wrong. This flatbed will be 72" wide by 74" long. Rear mount to deck surface at 11.5"

 

Just curious, I didn't see any tube style beds in this thread. Any reason for that?

 

Only assuming that most people don’t have the tools to bend up round tube. I know in my neck of the woods it’s close to $1500 for a decent manual bender. Also the knowledge to work with round tube compared to square. Between getting total lengths with specific bend radiuses and then notching. Working with round tube is an art for sure. Square is much easier, speaking for myself atleast.

 

That makes a lot of sense. I'm fortunate to have a friend who has a business fabricating jeep bumpers, so he has the equipment already.

 

I am also prefer tube but I couldnt figure out how to make it look good with some of the features I wanted (center drawer and side boxes).

Also tube is expensive and it is easy to mess up 1 bend and need to throw away a $100 piece of tube

 

Whew.. this project is taking longer than I wanted ahaha.
Getting blasted and coated today. Ended up going with a 1 piece swing out tailgate. Just easier and quicker on my end to build. Can always change it later.



Oh and this was a pain. Couldn't get a piece of diamond tread wide enough to cover the top so I had to weld 2 old pieces I had together. Was super corroded. Found out... I do not enjoy polishing metal. Not perfect, but it works for a Tacoma.

 

Shocks, Lights, fenders, stake pockets. Hoping to paint next weekend. Curious on the weight.

https://youtu.be/D7BV3lNMfWw

 

Looks awesome. Love the shock tie ins to the bed.

 

Im lovin how it is coming along. Yeah decided to go that way to get the shocks as high as possible. The top of the shock eye is within 1/4" of the bottom of the deck surface.

This thread made the taillights so easy. I just used the harness off the old lights and put resisters on the turns. Stock wiring was long enough so itll be clean.

 

Just some compiled information courtesy of some members on here. Happy it helped. Lots of good info coming along in here.

 

Where did you source the fenders?

 

I just made them. Bent up some 5052 at work and welded them together with a spoolgun. Lots of grinding.

 

Sweet! They look very similar to the Summit Expedition fenders but undoubtedly much less expensive.

 

Any chance this works? Just used the stock filler piece from inside the gas door

 

Maybe. Or maybe it'll tear through the plastic.
Mine is just held in place by a 1/4" U-bolt.

 

Im going to make a mount for it like the stock setup but I just want to make sure itll fill cleanly first

 

Oh, in that case...
Mine has the opening "lower" to the ground vs stock, meaning it doesn't fill as nicely as it used to. I end up inverting the pump handle and resting it against the fender and it works fine, but it does require a workaround.

 

Yea I was very concerned about the ease of filling, after the flatbed went on.

Turned out perfectly with the extensions suggested here.

Put some fuel line over the threaded rod, cleaner look.

 

I like that yours is vertical. Does seem like it would work better.