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Hello All
debating on the bed for my new old truck, 1963 chevy c30. I am already figuring building the boxes out of 1/8" aluminum. I did some figuring and if I build a stout aluminum bed i could save another 300 lbs. Just not sure how good that would be, I do a lot of welding on the back of truck bed, it is my work bench in the field. A friend of mine told me just to line the top with steel where I work like the back 18" or so of the bed, seems to me that would cause some issues like corrosion between the steel an aluminum and also if I am welding up a spool setting atop could get hot enough to melt the aluminum under . Any one tried something like this ?
Thanks
Tom
Just build a STEEL Pull Out Table.. Lot's of Rigs have them
Thanks that is a better idea
I'm working on a steel bed that won't weigh much more than an aluminum bed and will be half the price. I've considered sheeting mine in aluminum but cost is an issue again. I can put 22 gauge sides on my bed and be not much heavier. Sure, 22 gauge is not heavy at all. Sure, I can dent my bed. I can also dent my cab. I'm not going 4 wheelin', I'm not throwing things at my bed and if somebody runs into it they will pay to fix it as would be with the rest of the truck. If my body panels on my cab are thin why do I need 3/16" or 1/4" steel on my bed. If I ding it up because I can't drive then maybe I better learn how to drive. The bed of mine will have a heavier plate at the rear for working off of. Problem with some of the truck beds is they act like they're going to haul fully loaded rail cars on them(like the one currently on my truck) Goose neck ball attached to my frame and I don't need a bed that weighs half as much as Jupiter.
If you did a steel plate at the back have everything painted/ bedliner whatever and seal it up. Don't worry about corrosion, it'll get a scratch, ding or something and it will corrode/rust somewhere. Or if your lucky some guys you work with will not be doing fire watch and your truck will catch on fire and burn the paint off.
22 gage is getting light, just depends on how you use the truck. I have seen thicker than that get dented/creased driving down the rows of trees to get to pumps, My problem is there will be a small auto crane on back corner, cant build it to light
One of the reasons some flat bed are built on the heavy side is to smooth out the ride, we don't have that problem with welding trucks
My truck is like a cat and whiskers. If I can't get my cab thru without beating it full of dents then I don't need to go!
I have looked into the slide out table as Cactus pointed out. When you think about it that's the way to go. Get's you off the back of the truck, you can set it to a height that is comfortable. 2000 pounds worth the gear or more on our trucks and your right, we don't need heavy beds!
I am admittedly aggravated by waste and one waste of resources that gripes my rear is over-built bumpers and beds.
Boy, I know what your saying about the bumpers! I see some out on the highway or in parking lots and often wonder if they are planning an attack on a locomotive!
Don't waste your time building an Aluminum bed. Every one I have ever looked at up close had stress cracks at the joints. Too much trouble keeping it looking nice. Look at the Aluminum rock hauler trailers. They keep hands welding on them continuously.
Spend your time and money on something worth the effort.
I helped a welder (Nuncio) build an all Aluminum bed several years ago, it look great for awhile, then the cracking issue raised it's ugly head. After a few years looked like a big mistake.
Thanks for your input. Yep that is a problem with aluminum and flexing, pretty much have to go overkill on everything. Just on my little bed being 7' x 8' I was thinking 5" channel frame runners and perimeter with 4" channel cross braces at 16" centers with 1/4" decking with gussets at the lower corners and cross braces to frame runners. even with that just hope for the best. Lots to spend just to save a few hundred pounds
Just my take....14ga is more then enough for toolboxes and bed metal..overkill really...16ga is better if you use it where you can get away with it. Compared to like my bed in which the lightest is 11ga that is a serious reduction in weight. Put reinforcement where you need it like under your machine, or where the bottles are cradled and leave the rest sheet metal. I built my bed to drop big buckets on top of to haul off so it is beastly. Aluminum beds sound cool but you will save little in regards to weight for a given strength but spend much more. Thoughtful building in steel and just using light sheet to skirt and form the body will save gobs of weight. I have 16ga 4ft toolboxes under my bed that carry regularly 200lbs or more bouncing up and down the road....you could not tell looking. IT is just a mindset of overbuilding that kills us....most welders homebuilt beds will last 4 generations or more of hard use. I know mine is just a highway borne can opener...anything that hits me behind the cab will get totally F***D up. My simple bed weighs 960+ lbs. A cool usefull bed can be made under 450 easily.
To the others posting about overbuilt bumpers etc. Shawn the one on the back of my truck is reinforced with 1"x6" flatbar on top of the rest of it....LOL I did not build it but I left it on for a step up on the bed....probably weighs in at 400lbs...utterly ridiculous. If you want some trees pushed over just call me, the blade is on the back of my truck!
EDIT btw the slide out table is a great idea. I have seen them and my next bed will have one for sure!
I'm talking about the guys with the 800 pound mega bumpers on the front of the truck that look like their ready for the Mad Max sequel!! LOL!! I knew a guy that had one on his dodge. Ran off the road and hit a tree, a big tree. Bumper had some scratches in. Not bent, twisted or anything! Pretty amazing considering the tree. So most would be thinking that the bumper did it's job, protected the truck. Well, that's where they would be wrong. Bumper was built so well that it bent the fram on the truck so bad the insurance totalled the truck!! How do I know, guy said they were pulling parts off the truck and wanted to know if I wanted to buy the bumper.
LOL they build car parts nowadays to ABSORB impact and create a deceleration to protect the occupants. So that is why your prius is totalled in a 25 mph accident. It saves folks but at the same time cars are totaled easily. Well better to save a life I reckon...we all must pay for that with our premiums. When you drive a 4x4 and have aftermarket stuff hanging on it...well thats where that premium came from...you are going to annihilate that prius at the intersection. I just remember the old days and cars with metal dashboards...a wreck...hose the blood off the dash and sell it to someone else. It is sick but I miss those days.
Yep 16 gage steel works fine for tool boxes, I have done quite a few of them for people. After a test of time with employees using them I would have to recommend going heavier on the single skin door, 14 gage or even 12 gage would be better.
Formed beds or formed bed rails are nice, light compared to channel. I have only put one together that way but all the parts were broke up from an outfit that knew what they were doing. I am in the process of doing one now but the air valve went out on the press brake , the guy wants 2x wood floor so I am going to brake up all the parts from 10 gage to keep it light.
One way I have been thinking about if I don't go with aluminum is using 12 gage top and side in one unit IE 4 x 8 sheet with 90% broke length wise at 46.5" and 42"
Hello all
With what I need I gave up on aluminum, I still might do the boxes out of 1/8 aluminum just need to figure out the weight difference from 16 gage steel to see if its worth it. Any how the weather finally started cooling off some so I managed to get a good start on the bed the last couple weekends. I still couldn't convince myself to put the welder cross ways behind the cab , I guess it's just what your use to, that and I like to keep a little more weight over the rear axle
Tom
Looking good! Keep the pictures rolling in.
Thanks
will do
The racks take a bit to get use to 'cosmetically' but they are so handy, I wouldn't do without one now days .
Racks are so UGLY! Not really, just non traditional.
But SO HANDY to have!!!!!
I got something I learned from a friend. Put into the receiver hitch and serves as a temporary rack. Racks may not be pretty but if I have to choose between hauling a stinkin' trailer with a few 20 foot sticks of metal or putting them on my rack, I'm going with the rack. Saves fuel mileage as well!
I will agree there. Most of the cool welding beds/rigs you see are not usefull for ANYTHING other then showing up and burning a rod. If you are gonna do fabrication/repairs or much other kind of work you need space for TOOLS and being able to carry material, ladders, and such is very handy and saves a lot of heartache. A nice pipeliner bed looks slick as heck going up the road but is utterly worthless on job shop road calls or structural work or mechanical jobs.
Another simple way if your only going to carry a few lighter sticks is with L brackets that slide in the side of bed .
I am planning on welding in a couple 2" receivers on the crane side and a couple on the back
Tommyjoking spot on again. Sometimes I think weird looking service trucks built in Germany look like the cat's meow for a guy wanting to actually perform a valuable service using appropriate technology and that technology is very very likely not 5P.
Well didn't get anything done this weekend. had a loader bucket on the back burner that had to get done, what a mess that thing was, the bottom folded under and they kept using it
On the truck I am figuring 5 boxes 4 under bed and 1 large top and side loader with drawers so the large one I am going to make out of .100" aluminum to see how it goes
Sounds like your doing well. I'm excited to the photos of what you have done.
I was thinking about buying a good tig machine even though I don't have much experience or call for one but the prices of a good one kinda changed my mind, i will just stick with the spool gun or push pull.
Couple weeks ago I was using the Invertec stick welding and the dang thing shut off and restarted a couple times on me so I just shut it down and figured I would take a look at it later, had a little time today so started tinkering with it and found the power plug had all the wires loose in it and one was out of the spade just touching the side, how the heck it was working at all is beyond me but it does explain why it acted a bit goofy at times, anyway I replaced the plug clipped the wire back and have good clean tight connections and now it runs good and has lot more power than it did . Then I had me one of them Sr. moments hook up the cobra loaded with 035" 4043 and set it up 5 X pulse on pulse, screwed around with it quite a while trying to weld outside corner on .100" material and it just would't dial in right then the light bulb comes on and I realize I 'm not running 5356. switch the machine to 4 X pulse on pulse and bingo running sweet.
Hello all
Well I got a little done on it ,managed to get the decking fit. To keep it light I used 14 gage on the right side and 12 gage on the left with the 14 gage on the head board,
Not welded yet need to bring home the little mig with the .025" wire . FYI the drop in section for the welder is 16 gage, rear work deck 3/16" and the crane mount 3/8".
I don't know how smart this was but I just orderd a made in china tig welder AHP Alpha tig 200DX, at least I bought it from Amazon so if it shows up a total POS I can return it.
I went down to the local welding supply to take a look at the new Thermal arc 186 looked nice with a lot of neat features but found out it was made in china also.
Tom
Love the crane! Good luck on 200dx I'm sure there's a lot of us weighing blue machine prices against the promise of a much much less expensive machine.
Yep if your buying one to make a living with I would say plunk down the coin and get a good tried and true one.
I like the Lincoln 205 AC/DC but that is a heck of an investment for one just to piddle around with at home
Mainly I just want to do some comparisons between pulse on pulse mig and pulse tig
Well I have a lot of learning to do when it comes to tig, the ol hand eye and foot coordination sure aint what it use to be. Fun and frustrating at the same time. The tig showed up and actually worked, on dc is seemed to be nice and smooth, had a little trouble on ac at first acted like it got a little confused between 2t 4t and the foot pedal then after a couple minutes it started working right. Pulsed works. I can't really say if it's a great machine or not, not enough experience with tig nor anything to compare it to . Heck I still remember from many moons ago taking miller HF unit and hooking it to a lincoln 150 amp ac portable, what a sweet setup that was LOL, managed to get the job done though
Hello all
Here are some pictures of my first aluminum truck box, it was the simplest design I could come up with for a top and side loader . Made from .100" 5052 sheet and mig welded using .035" 5356 wire in pulse mode, took a bit to get the bugs worked out with the spool gun, mostly it was the spool having a little to much tension on it causing inconsistent wire speed , when I got that figured out and fixed it welded a lot better unfortunately I had the box about finished by then.
Tom
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