i threw together a tube bed for my parts hauler. before, it had a fullsize truck flatbed that somebody cut and narrowed but it still stuck 4" past both sides of the cab and it was useless for hauling anything.

this is what i came up with:



i patched a couple rusted spots on the frame, welded a peice of 2x3" tubing between the framerails with holes cut for lights as well

 

Looks good. Let's see a pic with the tailgate open.


I like the wheel wells. I did mine basically the same, with the angled plate/sheet metal.

 

 

Looks great.

 

thanks wabbit. i did a lot of looking at other designs before i settled on this. mos t beds i saw were mostly off-road oriented which i didnt want because they compromised hauling room. i also saw a lot of the typical "flat" bed i.e. farm beds that are totally useless as everything has to be strapped down and they are ugly as hell

 

That looks awesome! You ever think about closing in the sides with diamond plate?

 

i want one. if you dont mind me asking, how much was that in materials? and how long did it take you?

 

that is boss. i've never seen another one like it. great job.

 

cool i like it

 

make me one?...that looks awesome, im gonna have to learn to weld better asap!

 

the bed cost about $150 to build, not including the toolbox. it took me about 3 days on two different weekends. in total it weighs about 250lbs. if i were to do it over again, i wouldnt have used the treadplate for the deck. its 14ga and i would have used some 16 ga. the tubework weighs very little, it wasnt until the decking was added that it really started to gain weight.

if i was going to close in the sides, i would probably use some expanded metal or just some 20ga, but i dont see the need at this point.

 

That looks great. I really need to buy a welder!! I need to make a flat bed for my 82

 

like the bed, I have a truck with a crunched bed ( thanks to an oblivious teenager ) and a new lincoln welder. Thinking about building a new bed to haul a 36" mower a few weed eaters and a blower. Good design on yours.
Thanks for the pics.