Has anyone out there got or made a tipping bed? I have been mulling over the idea of making the bed into a tipper, but was wondering what to use/how to make it tip.

It would only really be for show, so would not need to be ultra powerful to lift anything other than the weight of the bed itself. The obvious thing to use would be a hydraulic pump and ram, but I was thinking that that would be a bit of an overkill for what I am after. I was looking at electrical linear actuators, has anyone any experience of these? Or even possibly use some high power gas struts suitably powered to make the bed movable by hand.

I am just thinking aloud at the moment.... I want to make the bed different in a number of ways and this would be a major one of them if I can sort it.

Thanks
Lee

 

An actuator big enough to lift the weight of the bed, whether electric or hydraulic, will probably cost you lots unless you could acquire one from a dump truck or garbage truck. Maybe a jack screw mounted to an electric motor?

 

LWLANDY-

I have a friend who has done this on a Ch**y truck and is in the process of doing it to a second Ch**y truck. He has his own compressor repair and maintenance business and I'm pretty certain he used air cylinders to lift/control his. I will try to get some additional information for you in the next few days. It works very smoothly.

 

Thanks Code3,

I will use what ever I can find, from what I have seen an electrical linear actuator is just what you suggest anyway, but as you say probably an expensive version.

LecKart,

That would be great if you could ask your friend, as I will be running airbags anyway, so if I can do it with an air ram I will already have the supply sorted.

Cheers
Lee

 

Lee,

At one time someone around here (I think it might have been fatfenders56 but don't quote me on that) mentioned that he had used early Ford spring shackle or hangers for the pivot points on a tilt bed.

Since you are going to be running air bags already I think you are on the right track with looking for a pnuematic ram as an actuator

Good luck with it
Bobby

 

I have seen some videos or lowrider trucks where they would not only hop the truck up and down but could dance the bed as well not unlike the 3D movement systems used on flight sims and some amusement rides. Might check the ads in some of the lowrider and import truck tuner mags.
One tilt front clip arrangement I read about used linear actuators salvaged from large office copy machines.

 

Pretty good Bobby, I did indeed do one of these and used the front suspension mounts and pins from a '56 to pivot them, it worked like a charm and was damned cheap. I'll post some pics if anyone is interested

 

2 pics in my ''construction pics'' gallery

 

Thanks Fatfenders56,
What did you use to raise/lower the bed. It looks like it is just propped up in the photos.
Did you have any pics of the hinge arrangement?

Cheers
Lee

 

Sorry, those are the only 2 pics of that bed I have, I built that truck in the early 80's and it was totalled some years later. The lift was never finished although I had a hydraulic assembly for it. For the pivots I used the triangular pivot for the front springs (the truck had a subframe so I had extra front susp parts) and welded a bracket to the bottom of the bed, which had a steel floor by the way. The bracket used the stock spring pin(?) to move on, you could never wear this thing out in this configuration. If you look at the picture closely you will see that the pivot is not at the extreme end of the bed, movng the pivot forward just a few inches dramatically reduces the power needed to raise it. Good luck

 

http://www.aircylindersdirect.com/products/aircylinders.jsp
I would be a little sceptical of using air without a good control system. I wouldn't want the bed up and have it fall on someone. An electrical setup would avoid that problem.

 

I would recommend a good mechanical lock in both the up and down positions too