Wow, sorry I am late to the thread artisan. Now where to start...
You mention telescoping cylinder. Those EAT ground clearence. So.....if you can come up with a geometry that is acceptable, then by all means. But Those cylinders arent cheap either. Upwards of a grand each:confused2:
I'll start with this
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/projects/158521-turning-1985-dodge-into-real.html
It covers some of the math involved.
Mike was right about your angle. The effective angle is between the cylinder-bed & bed-frame pivots.
So...in your first example using a 12" cylinder, you angle actually would have been a little better than 12*. But by turning the cylinder around like you did in the second drawing with the 24" cylinder, your effective angle is actually worse than appears.
I actually like the first design better than the second because of the direction the cylinder is pointing, BUT...you have a lot of bed overhanging forward of the lift point once it starts to raise, and would have to be built really strong. If thats not a problem, then yes a 12" cylinder would work. Lets walk through some math now...
A 4"x12" cylinder @ your Bx's 2400psi will make ~30,000lbs of force. Given a 12 degree mounting angle, thats about 6000lbs of vertical force to initiate the dump cycle. Since it looks like the cylinder is mounted to the bed about 2/3rds back from the front, figuring a load in the center, you are further reduced in capacity by 33%, or down to 2 tons of dump force now. Not bad right.
But keep in mind those axles you said look big, those are going to be seeing 15 TONS of force RIGHT in the middle of the span. NOT good.