Advice on bad truck and trailer turning radius

[RoMad]

It sounds to me like your best option is to round the corners of the truck bed for pulling tag a long trailers. A lot of pipeliners pull tag a long travel trailers due to thier welding machines being on the back of thier trucks. We were in a campground on vacation and a big gas line was going through the area. There were a lot of them in the campground. They have some very nice rigs. Here is a link to some pictures of some. Welding Rig Photos - Portable Welding Rigs that Give you Wood

A lot of them are on narrower trucks so they dont have the same width problem as you. Some of them have rounded the corners of thier beds.
If you decide to round your bed corners, you should be able to do most of the cutting with a 4" grinder with wafer wheels if you stick with straight lines and make the corners on 45 degree angles.

 

[Harold_J]

It is welded to the flatbed.


I have been doing a ton of research pulling my hair out before I posted on here. I took it to a hitch specialty place and they said the same thing, that I have to cut the edges off and they even said 45 degrees. I measured the back of that truck and the back of a regular box and there would be 12.5" taken off of each corner to make it the same width. Tomorrow I'm going in to get a quote on what it would cost cause I am absolutely horrible with a torch and make huge messes, lol. They thought about a new/ longer hitch but upon further inspection found out the frame was extended 1' and they didn't want to risk welding a hitch onto that extension and putting more stress on the frame's extension.

I've been looking for a regular dually pickup bed but couldn't find one anywhere around here that would fit on this truck.

The picture is clearer now in that it was in fact a regular pickup that a longer bed was added to. That is really the root of your problems. If you just slap on a pickup box you will have that 1ft extension sticking out and it will look funny, might be dangerous and you might not even need it for clearance with the narrower pickup box; it also won't tow as well with the extension.

What I think you should do since it seems you tow a lot is get someone to shorten the current body AND round the corners, and get rid of the 1ft frame extension. You will then have a nice towing flatbed. It all depends on what the various options cost and how much you want to put into the truck; it sounds like you like the truck.

Pickup box versus flatbed has been discussed a lot on this forum and I think the consensus is that in the long run you'll find the flatbed with the side boards more versatile.

 

[56FordGuy]

I have been doing a ton of research pulling my hair out before I posted on here. I took it to a hitch specialty place and they said the same thing, that I have to cut the edges off and they even said 45 degrees. I measured the back of that truck and the back of a regular box and there would be 12.5" taken off of each corner to make it the same width. Tomorrow I'm going in to get a quote on what it would cost cause I am absolutely horrible with a torch and make huge messes, lol.

I've had a couple of thoughts. I think a very large portion of your problem may not be width, but length.

Your truck was a pickup that someone added a foot to the rear of the frame, correct? That means the rear axle of your truck is probably further from your hitch than on a chassis cab truck that was designed for a flatbed. When you turn, there is more tail swing behind the axle than your bed was designed for. I bet if your rear axle was moved backward a bit, you could turn the trailer tighter, at the expense of a slightly larger turning radius for the truck. Granted that would be a large, expensive job (new driveshaft, brake lines, suspension mounts, etc) but what if instead of angling the rear corners of the bed in, you simply shortened it down to the factory frame length?

 

[Harold_J]

I've had a couple of thoughts. I think a very large portion of your problem may not be width, but length.

Your truck was a pickup that someone added a foot to the rear of the frame, correct? That means the rear axle of your truck is probably further from your hitch than on a chassis cab truck that was designed for a flatbed. When you turn, there is more tail swing behind the axle than your bed was designed for. I bet if your rear axle was moved backward a bit, you could turn the trailer tighter, at the expense of a slightly larger turning radius for the truck. Granted that would be a large, expensive job (new driveshaft, brake lines, suspension mounts, etc) but what if instead of angling the rear corners of the bed in, you simply shortened it down to the factory frame length?

Just shortening the bed (or moving the axle if one were to even attempt something as crazy that) wouldn't help at all. The trailer will still hit the truck exactly the same, it just happens a little quicker with the longer overhang.

 

[corey9212]

I've had a couple of thoughts. I think a very large portion of your problem may not be width, but length.

Your truck was a pickup that someone added a foot to the rear of the frame, correct? That means the rear axle of your truck is probably further from your hitch than on a chassis cab truck that was designed for a flatbed. When you turn, there is more tail swing behind the axle than your bed was designed for. I bet if your rear axle was moved backward a bit, you could turn the trailer tighter, at the expense of a slightly larger turning radius for the truck. Granted that would be a large, expensive job (new driveshaft, brake lines, suspension mounts, etc) but what if instead of angling the rear corners of the bed in, you simply shortened it down to the factory frame length?

Yes there was a foot added to the chassis and the bed extends another foot beyond the added chassis. There is quite a huge overhang. I don't know if I'd want to make the turning radius of the truck any wider, it is unbelievably wide already (a tri-axle semi turns tighter than the truck.) The hitch place said best bet is to cut the corners at a 45 starting at the cross member, add skirting to where the cut is and that will solve the problem. It's going to cost me $1000 to do and 8 hours. It's booked in for the end of February and it will be a little narrower than a normal pickup rear end.

 

[brain55]

Here is what I did to a friends F-550. Your stake sides might make it a little tougher but it might give you some ideas.

F-550 mods

Brian

 

[corey9212]

Here is what I did to a friends F-550. Your stake sides might make it a little tougher but it might give you some ideas.

F-550 mods

Brian

Wow that is some sweet fab job. I wish I had that skill, I'd be able to do the weld but hand me a torch and I will show you a mess that looks like I had a seizure while cutting with the not so straight cuts and blobs of metal clinging to the cut.