Building a flatbed for my F350

[coldsteelva]

Any response to Post #5?

 

[TSO]

Any response to Post #5?

No... I'll have to address it once i finish the build, paint, and mounting. I also need to drop the truck off at my sandblast guy so he can clean up the frame. I want to repaint the truck frame and mounts while it's all exposed. Also going to swap in new rear shocks and service the rear axle while I've got room.

I'm probably going to skip the amber lights to the rear and do 2 Red, 1 white.

 

[jb1390]

Ongoing project... I'll post updates as it goes. I'm hoping to complete the project within the next couple weeks. This is going on my 05 F350 ShortBed. The flatbed will measure 94"x80". The deck material will be wood.

Took the bed, bumper, tailgate, lights... off the truck and sold them on Craigslist.

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Picked up my steel order from my local steel shop. I have about $750 in steel (which includes the custom cuts). I'm using heavy gauge structural C-channel for the framing. 1/4 " plate for the side rails. 3/16 " plate for the rear "apron". I'll be building the bulkhead/headache rack out of 3/16" walled 2"x3" box tubing.

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I'll be retaining the factory rear trailer hitch, but building in recessed 5th wheel rails with a gooseneck adapter plate (for towing flexibility).

Spacer blocks for the frame rails:
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Each frame rail will be mounted to the truck frame with (5) 5/8" grade 8 bolts, bolted thru the original mounting holes on the top side of the truck frame. There will be an additional (not pictured) 5/8" bolt on the outer side of each frame rail, bolted thru a C-channel bracket.

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So in total, this flat bed frame will be mounted to the truck with (12) 5/8" grade 8 bolts.

...........

Now that the mounting points are drilled and completed, today i can start welding the cross-channel pieces.

More to come...

Looks like you're probably too far along now to reconsider - but I've been unhappy with the wood decks I've had on truck beds before. I have had much better luck with diamond plate steel. The wood shrinks, and gaps form so stuff is always falling on your truck. Sand, mud, etc makes it through the cracks and finds hiding spaces on/in the frame underneath.

 

[jb1390]

A couple points: If your 2005 only came with red tail lights (tail/stop/turn/hazard), how are you going to make it so your taillight reds don't flash with the turn signal? Can't cut the wire to the high filament because then you would have no brake lights. Making the amber signals work is easy if you run them off the front turn signal circuit, but you will still have the issue of the reds being brake lights, but not a turn signal.

I've solved this before on a couple chevy trucks by using dual LED's - and leave the inner lights brake lights, and the outer lights turn signal. So they don't all operate the same. If that is unappealing, you could tap into the trailer wiring to get dual functionality out of one led.

 

[TSO]

I've solved this before on a couple chevy trucks by using dual LED's - and leave the inner lights brake lights, and the outer lights turn signal. So they don't all operate the same. If that is unappealing, you could tap into the trailer wiring to get dual functionality out of one led.

The reds I'm buying have dual intensity built in, actually a "halo" ring for the running lights... Along with 3 wire input (ground, running, turn, brake, your choice)

 

[franklin2]

The reds I'm buying have dual intensity built in, actually a "halo" ring for the running lights... Along with 3 wire input (ground, running, turn, brake, your choice)

If you read the description of the lights he was looking at here 4" Inch Piranha 1 LED Round Stop/Turn/Tail Truck Light 2 Red 2 Amber 2 White | eBay It says those red leds also have 3 wires, so he should be good, just put the amber lights up front on the sides of the new bed.

One warning; Sometimes LED's don't work well with the OEM flashers. By 2005 you may not have a problem, especially if you leave the front bulbs regular incandescent bulbs. But if you start having problems with the lighting, suspect the LED's not being compatible with the trucks's flasher. You can get load resistors if you need them to fix the problem.

 

[jb1390]

If you read the description of the lights he was looking at here 4" Inch Piranha 1 LED Round Stop/Turn/Tail Truck Light 2 Red 2 Amber 2 White | eBay It says those red leds also have 3 wires, so he should be good, just put the amber lights up front on the sides of the new bed.

One warning; Sometimes LED's don't work well with the OEM flashers. By 2005 you may not have a problem, especially if you leave the front bulbs regular incandescent bulbs. But if you start having problems with the lighting, suspect the LED's not being compatible with the trucks's flasher. You can get load resistors if you need them to fix the problem.

3 wires - ground, running, and brake/turn. On the chevy trucks I have done, the brake and turn are separate bulbs on the OEM setup. For this setup, you would need a 4 wire bulb, if one exists. I used 3 wire leds, and used 2 of them per side to match the oem wiring. So both lights work for running, but only one works for brake, and one works fur blinker.

I am not sure if Ford does their wiring similarly, with a separate bulb for brake/blinker - but the chevy trucks do not operate like a trailer light setup, which is a 3 wire setup.

 

[aczlan]

One warning; Sometimes LED's don't work well with the OEM flashers. By 2005 you may not have a problem, especially if you leave the front bulbs regular incandescent bulbs. But if you start having problems with the lighting, suspect the LED's not being compatible with the trucks's flasher. You can get load resistors if you need them to fix the problem.

You can also get a digital flasher that has a little timer circuit and doesn't care how much (or how little) load is on it.

Aaron Z

 

[Rustyiron]

I'll be retaining the factory rear trailer hitch, but building in recessed 5th wheel rails with a gooseneck adapter plate (for towing flexibility).

Will this be attached to the frame or body only? You have some nice "iron" in your sig. pic and guess you move it with a g/n. (that should be frame mounted).

 

[TSO]

Will this be attached to the frame or body only? You have some nice "iron" in your sig. pic and guess you move it with a g/n. (that should be frame mounted).

The fifth wheel rails are welded to the main flatbed framing beams, which will be bolted to the truck frame with twelve 5/8" grade-8 bolts.