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Building a flat bed

Well take a gander at my ugly welds.... ):h . I tested out a paint sprayer...seemed to work really well, but I got a little carried away and painted the whole headache rack so I bet I'll end up beating off some of that paint while I'm finishing up. I ended up with some complimentary head lights for the work lights...those things are BRIGHT! Now I have to reroute the fuel fillup, finish the tool boxes, put on the trim, and grind grind grind, then paint.
 
1994ch said:
Well take a gander at my ugly welds.... ):h . I tested out a paint sprayer...seemed to work really well, but I got a little carried away and painted the whole headache rack so I bet I'll end up beating off some of that paint while I'm finishing up. I ended up with some complimentary head lights for the work lights...those things are BRIGHT! Now I have to reroute the fuel fillup, finish the tool boxes, put on the trim, and grind grind grind, then paint.
Click to expand...
What ugly welds ):h:eek:
lol looks good though all designed real well:thumbsup:
 
Not to shabby the welds aren't all that bad l9ooks like you got grinder happy to me, but all in all that is a very good and clean design.
 
Well I think I am rapping it up for a while. I added two more bolts per side so now it is a total of ten bolts holding it on. Still have not done the tool boxes, but some day..... ):h I may also eventually paint the trim silver.
Thanks for all the help
 
Outstanding job. If you lay down a coat of flat/matte or primer, you can always touch up pre rust spots as they occur. I keep almost all my oldies in primer.

I built a flatty out of redwood on my ol' '65 (5 ton?) Dodge, except for the hitches; those were steel. Varnished all the wood, 2x painted everything else, ran it for years. After a while, I wished I had layed a sheet of diamond on top for some hauls. Unique and pretty; glued, screwed, and put to work!
You do great work.
 
Phil and Blake, can you tell me your opinions on not using rectagular tubing for a flatbed?

My theory is that when you are building the bed, as long as it is fully welded, there is no way moisture can get in. plus, if you are good with the welder, cant you actually turn one or all of the crossmembers into an air tank? That way, if you hear hissing, you have a cracked weld.
 
GM, condensation alone will cause moisture inside any sealed tubing, just like any other "tank". In theory though you are correct, sir.
I'm not sure what you have in mind with the question? Do you have a lot of flat bar or angle iron laying around that you wish to build a bed frame with or something to that affect? The labor and material cost(rods/wire/gas) would deter me from not using tubing unless the prior was the case.
Not sure if I helped any, but would like to hear more.
 
GM Guy said:
Phil and Blake, can you tell me your opinions on not using rectagular tubing for a flatbed?

My theory is that when you are building the bed, as long as it is fully welded, there is no way moisture can get in. plus, if you are good with the welder, cant you actually turn one or all of the crossmembers into an air tank? That way, if you hear hissing, you have a cracked weld.
Click to expand...

As Phil said above, even if you weld end-caps on the tubing "sealing it from the enviroment" condisation will still build inside slowly but surely it will start rust. Now if you were to get it galvinized I would say it would be good to go but if you have welded on galv you know it is no fun. I would much prefer to use C channel and heavy angle for my builds.
 
One trend that i am wondering about is one that i have seen on recent PJ traiers. What they are doing is having the outside rail as a piece of tubing, rather than a piece of channel. If one was weight conscious, wouldn't tubing net you more strength per pound of steel?

and on a side note, I was wondering, would an all tubing flatbed shed winter road slop better than any other design? (fully enclosed, no real corners to get slop packed into)
 
Makes sense.

Making it from tube or box stock makes sense for strength and durability, if you could pour some anti-corrosive into it, weld it up, and let that stuff slosh around in there forever.:rolleyes5:

Just thinkin; last flatbed I made was from redwood.):h
 
The reason I am not too giddy on channel is that we own a used dropdeck semi trailer that has channel crossmembers, and they are pitted and rusty, but still solid, but at truck auctions, we have seen dropdecks that the crossmembers are see-thru because of rust holes, and they are in horrible structural shape. I think that anything smooth would deflect more road slop than their non-smooth counterparts.

But I guess in all reality, everything will rot out if you don't wash it, so if you build or buy it new and keep it clean, any design will last a long time.

Shifting gears, how would the flatbed building boys (Phil, Blake, and Dave) design an aluminum Flatbed? I am thinking with an aluminum design, box would be allowable because it can't rust out from the sealed in humidity talked about earlier. I am thinking our operation needs aluminum on C3500HDs cause they are heavy to start with, and if one wanted to legally stay under 26K GCWR, aluminum components would be a simple way to cheat the scales.
 
GM Guy......man if cost of material isn't an issue then boxed is the ONLY way to go, IMHO. I can see more into your reasoning now on questioning the channel or angle iron builds...........but as you stated....keep it clean.
Going aluminum sounds like a splendid idea. I'd figure a build from both aluminum and steel, compare the cost vs. benefits.
Not saying you're not thinking ahead, but remember the repair cost of aluminum vs steel, not to mention the cost of "add-ons" if you should choose to make changes down the road. Also note, I never build a pulling frame solely built into the bed, always attached your hitch frame to the main frame of the vehicle. I have seen many manufacturers and "home builders" use only the bed frame for what their g/n or other device is "anchored" to and this is NEVER a good idea.
 
agreed on the GN hitch. If I do build aluminum, no part of the goose will be in the bed, it will be just one big ol bolt on thing on the frame. (kind of a beefier home made B&W w/o the turnover.) The one thing that i love about steel is its resistance to cracking. It seems that aluminum construction seems to crack easier when exposed to road vibration.

Also agreed on the modability, we have bought trucks with flatbeds configured for something, and an hour with the grinder and we have a perfectly "restored" flatbed ready for plain hauling.
 
that looks like a great job!!

I always thought it'd be a cool idea to build a flatbed with slide-out toolboxes underneath the bed. and instead of having 2 8' slideout drawers at the end of the bed, have 3-4 slide out drawers on either side - with a single locking cover that folds up/down over the tool box fronts on either side. I just don't have the time nor the material to do such a project.
 
they do offer a box built just for flatbeds that mounts on top of the bed and has a big pullout, it is built to last, but it costs about 800 bucks, obviously it doesn't take near that to built considering you can get complete flatbeds for 1000.

But no, i haven't seen a big pullout drawer idea like that, it sounds awesome though.
 
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