My 96's box is rotted, dented, and I want a project. It's a 96' F150, supercab short box, 5.8L/E4OD/4x4. I've been thinking about a light duty steel flatbed for my half ton for about a year now, drawing plans & revising them for a couple months, and plan to do this in about two weeks. I plan to haul two snowmobiles on it from time to time, so I'm building it 90" wide (mountain sleds are narrow) and 90" long (extends to same length as factory bumper). Front tapers from full width to cab width, rear end is square. This will stick 6-7" out from the cab on each side and hang over the rear tires ~6". I'm fine with that, I live in Wyoming, not NYC or Chicago, so width isn't an issue. Fold down side just sound like more weight & more rattling off road.

Now, two modern mtn sleds ready to ride weigh around 1100lbs, and two guys' gear is about 100 lbs (rounding up) for the day. Add in 150lbs of tools/miscellaneous stuff in the truck, two guys (we're all under 200-so about 350lbs) and we're at 1700 pounds before truck fuel (35gallons x 6lbs/gallon = 210lbs). I've hauled more across the country in this truck, but I realize lighter is better. That said, I like steel over aluminum because 1) I can build the whole thing easily myself, 2) I can easily weld it should I need to in the future.

Many guys build their flat beds to handle an atomic bomb (some need it_I don't), like 3/16" plate and tubing--crazy heavy!, so I based my design off what I anticipate using the deck for. My current deck design uses 85' of 14gauge 1.5" square tube and 77ft^2 of 14 gauge steel deck, for a weight of 390lbs (pre-accessory). Add in mud flaps, lights, sled tie downs, might be another 50lbs (let's say 450lbs for entire flatbed). Total weight adding to the truck for a trip is 2150lbs (on the high end), minus factory bed/bumper/tailgate weight (-400?), so looking at 1750lbs added to truck's curb weight, seems reasonable to me and I know many have done much, much worse with these trucks (I do realize I'd be over GVWR by a few hundred).

Anyone know what the factory short box & tailgate weigh? I have an 8" drop Luverne bumper (10k lb hitch built in) that will be removed too. So not sure how much weight I'm pulling off, guessing around 400lbs total though? Anyone have any hard numbers?

For the deck material, I was initially thinking diamond plate for traction, but realistically the deck will be covered in ice/snow and I can't imagine diamond plate providing much real traction. In my experience wet/icy steel is wet/icy steel and dry steel is pretty well always grippy. SO now I'm thinking just sheet/plate steel: it's lighter & cheaper, and if traction is an issue I can coat it in bed liner.

I'll be running LED lights, with the required resistors wired in parallel (for brake & turn lights). I'm not planning to run full DOT spec lighting, seems crazy to me for a non-commercial truck (and not 102" wide either), but will run outer edge clearance lights, S/T/T, reverse lights, and license plate lights (skipping ID lights front & rear, and rear end outermost clearance lights). Anyone that runs in the Rockies have an opinion on that?

I've read the Ford service body recommendations on mounting and will take that into consideration. My deck should be relatively flexible, similar to the factory box rigidity, as to not cause undue stress to the trucks frame. Of course I'll bolt it on, not weld.

I have newish (less than a year old) 1700lb springs out back & CC844's up front, fresh poly swaybar/ttb pivot/radius arm bushings, 4 Bilstein shocks--the suspension is in good working order. Truck has about a 3" rake. Brakes are all good (new calipers & wheel cylinders less than 2 years ago, drums and rotors are good). Steering parts & body mounts could use a freshening (so they'll get replaced) but otherwise the truck is ready to go.

Am I crazy? I won't be hauling sleds daily or anything, more like once a week, usually 90 mile round trip, sometimes 200 miles.

 

Using the term 1/2 ton and towing/flat bed in the same sentence are mutually exclusive IMHO. Since the context involves "snowmobile" you may be able to get away with it. If you try to sell it you will probably take a hit since the overall concept of a flatbed and towing is limited since the chassis is a 1/2 ton.

 

You are not going to make anything from steel that will be lightweight.

I would buy an aluminum bed

 

Chances are you can buy a nice bed, be it steel or aluminum, cheaper than you can buy the materials to build one. I know you said you wanted a project, so make the project customizing the store bought bed. You will probably be money ahead.

 

Like the others have said, you might want to do some quick math on buying a flatbed (junkyard?) vs making one from scratch.

Go for aluminum if you want to save weight. You can weld aluminum, so that's not much of a concern.

 

Appreciate the feedback on my too long of a post. Since no one called me crazy, I'm not really looking to be talked out of it, more so looking for advice from those that have built a deck (maybe you see some glaring oversight on my plan).

I'll be working in a full fab shop. Used to be an employee there. Its a family shop (tube bending & welding with some machining). I'll be in town 7 or 8 days for Thanksgiving. Get commercial pricing on material, don't have to pay for welding supplies, plus any "scrap" in the shop is fair game, so my costs aren't the same as most people's (you know, boss's "kid" & all). My cost of steel is right around $350, add accessories (lights, hardware, paint, ski glides, mud flaps, etc) and total is about $600. Don't care about resale value, just function. I've had the truck 10 years already, she's got 220k miles and is more of a toy (not my ride to work). Just about any purchased deck is catered to an HD truck, and has generic HD construction. It's not so much about price, it's about having exactly what I would like. So I am building my own. Sure I could have one custom built, but that's a bit more than $600 for any sort of quality.

Aluminum would be nice, saves ~200 pounds, but I'm not confident I can learn to weld aluminum & build the bed in one week's time. Whereas with steel, it's more like a two or three day project and I don't have to con my uncle into being my welding instructor. I don't think 200lbs will make or break the utility of it.

Anyway, I'll update this thread in a couple weeks when it's built & installed. I'll weigh it before I install it, and compare it to the stock bed/tailgate/bumper weight for others' future reference.

 

Nothing wrong with a purpose built deck. Sure, you can buy something, but I have never experienced savings in doing so and you lose the opportunity to tailor it to your needs. I've seen those add on 2 sled decks that hold the sleds over the box go for $1000 and up. That's for beat up used ones.

2 sleds, riders and gear does not sound like too much for an F150. I like the idea of a purpose built deck over the box mounted sled deck simply because you can lower the center of gravity of the loaded vehicle. Those sleds perched above the box always looked mighty dangerous to me. Lots of them in BC and Alberta.

So, looks like you have a plan and I'd say it sounds feasible. Any drawings or other pics of what you are building?

 

FYI an Aluminum bed is gong to be quite a bit lighter than 200lbs.
Just a sheet of aluminum diamond plate(4x8x1/8)is 60lbs. steel is 175lbs

Any steel bed you make is going to be 1000lbs+

 

Brad, any steel bed you build may be 1000lbs, but I assure you I'm competent in basic math and recognizing I'm not building a bomb-proof truck. I'm using 14ga sheet, which is 0.083" thick. A 4x8 sheet of 14ga. sheet weighs 100lbs. I need 2.5 sheets @ 250lbs. Tube frame is 1.5" 14ga. square tube @ 1.6lbs/ft, with 85 linear feet I get 136lbs in tube. That's 386lbs, add in 20 lbs for mounts, just over 400lbs in steel. My design in aluminum (1/8" diamond plate & 1/8" wall 2" square tube) is 220lbs. I agree completely that that's more desirable, but it really is only ~200lb difference.

NotEnoughTrucks, appreciate the feedback. I had an over box deck at one point (2"x2" 16 ga steel tube with plywood deck). It put the sleds up too high for my taste, and overall those deck setups weigh a fair bit more than a flatbed setup. The ramp was much heavier than my current aluminum one too. That was likely pushing over 2000lbs (older/heavier sleds at the time too), I didn't like it so I bolted it to a utility trailer (that's long gone). It drove OK but was clearly heavy.

I have hand drawings, gone through a few iterations. I'm thinking I may add another cross member for the deck, so the supports are 18" on center instead of 22.5" on center. Weight penalty of 12lbs.



I've sorted out the "additional plans" already.


I saw this deck on this site, and liked the basic design. Mine will be similar, just a little wider with tapered front corners.



This uses the decking in a structural way. Saves making an outer perimeter of tube (lighter).




Open to constructive criticisms/ideas. Haven't ordered steel just yet.

 

Mines pretty heavy duty, designed solely for a sled hauler (on a half ton I know hah) but it works awesome!! The flatbed looks good too. Good alternative if your box is no good anymore. I have 4 bolts on each side of the frame so 8 total. No rattling St all. Can't leave junk in the back either!!!

Oh and before I put the deck on I did put 1 ton leaf springs in and heavu duty shocks to bare the extra weight. Works really well hardly get any sag with the deck and 2 sleds.

 

I think your challenge may be torsional stiffness. Going to be pretty tough to keep the twist out of the deck with those 1.5" tubes. Anything you can do to add cross section to your framing will help. Maybe some sort of girder like structure to the crossmembers without adding to the overall height can be accomplished. Since you have to clear the frame/wheel hump anyways, you may be able to do this by careful placement of the crossmembers. Sure, it's going to add some weight, but I see you are already placing that on your considerations.

 

This is the type of critique I was hoping for.

You don't think the headache rack & rear end skirt will help stiffen up the deck? It wouldn't in the center, but I would expect it to at the ends. I don't mind a little flex, but bending would obviously be unacceptable.

Hansen, good to know you like yours. I have Bilstein HD shocks, and my leaf springs are the 1700lb "tow/haul" springs from JBG. Truck rides much rougher than stock, and can take some weight without pointing the headlights at the sky. Axle shafts are Yukon with relatively new bearings (30k miles or so). Hoping I won't need any more spring, but may end up trying air bags, add a leaf, or Timbrens if it's bit soft yet.

 

If you look at the picture of the white truck that you posted, it looks like the left rear corner of the new flatdeck droops slightly. This is what I mean about torsional twist. The headache rack and the skirt will stiffen the deck side to side at the respective ends and may give you a spot to work from to add bracing that will improve fore/aft stiffness as well as torsional stiffness.

I think I would look at making the formed sides as wide as possible and triangulate a brace to the rack and skirt in order to stiffen up the assembly. Idea is to make as large a box as possible without adding too much weight. You want to avoid those narrow areas that will flex. Of course, building in a jig that keeps everything flat and level while welding is important, but I think you already know that.

Are you planning the cross braces to incorporate the frame mounting points? Might be able to make those 3 heavier and save some weight using lighter material on the non mounting crossmembers. Also was thinking you may want to incorporate some access panels for the inevitable fuel pump repairs.

 

I don't think that you would have too much of an issue with torsional twist on that small of a deck with your proposed layout. Once you have it mounted to the frame of the truck it will stiffen it up. Plus you want it to be able to flex with the frame of the truck. Standard, prebuilt flatbeds have the same bracing layout from what I remember (I used to install flatbeds). As long as the cross member steel is strong enough to take a snowmobile or 4wheeler on one side of the deck without it bending or sagging it ought to be fine. You don't want to load 2 sleds on it and have your deck look like a frowny face driving down the road haha.

 

you need more than 1.5" tubing if you don't want it to bend. Also 14 ga floor is going to dent so EASY. The stock sheet metal bed was 12ga

Also any bed I would build is over 1500lbs(in steel) and it will not bed or brake like the bed you want to build