[edit] Whoops, spoke too soon. I used a string over twine and went from as far as I could, seems I'm off about 1/4". Time to bust out the 2x4


I had been wondering if my frame had a twist in it as the drivers side of the bed sits lower than the passenger side (about and inch), and my drivers side frame rail is back about 3/4" than the other side (I know it's diamond'd a bit, but twisted is different).

So I was looking into it today and read on using string, tying it on known points and if they touch it's not twisted. I used two different places but couldn't go a huge length since the frame has all sorts of stuff bolted onto it at the moment.

The top spot is about 2' of frame length, the bottom about 4'. I think I might try to do one on the bottom here in a minute, but my frame does change widths so I have to be mindful on that.

I checked to make sure the string was tight, and on both of them tried it under hand and over hand, and they always touched.

So am I right in thinking this thing only has a bit of a diamond and not a twist to it? That it's just the crappy bed I have on it being twisted? Or did I not use enough length on the rails?

Thanks

 

Do the strings cross dead center between the rails? (first pic)

You might try loosening the bed support bolts. If the bed got moved a little when it got hit, the bolts will hold it there. Same with bumpers, they don't return to their original shape and will spring the frame if bent enough. I think it would take a really good smack to diamond your frame, or twist it.

 

I think it got the problems before I bought it. Keep in mind it had 9,000#s on the back of it originally and worked in a gold mind, you run into a cliff side with that at like 15mph and it be enough to tweek it. I don't think anything frame wise got tweeked in that accident last year.

I know it has to have a bit of a diamond with the way my bumper sits. I thought it was the old one (which was twisted, and that thing is 1/4" thick, and since my grille looked like it hand snagged on something too, I'm pretty positive over it's life in the mine it hit something hard) but I got a "new" one on that's as straight as they come and it sits too in on the drivers side, but it's mainly where the bolt holes line up next to the valance, they're a 1/2" in on the drivers side and on the back they are 1/2" out from the bed.


But on the twist: I used string which is the way to go, twine doesn't get close enough to see properly. I went as far back as I could and as far forward, took some work to not snag on anything, the farthest forward I could go was the back of the front spring perch. Turns out I was off by about 1/2". The bed itself is a little tweeked, I adjusted it till the top of the tail gate was level with the frame to help adjust the frame.

This is what it looked like earlier, notice the drivers side to the back line of the cab:



And this is what it looks like now:


And this is what I was bouncing on and cracking that board on, getting the whole town to give me the "wtf?" look:


That's a 2x6 and a 5' ladder.

I'm going to look into getting that diamond out myself. It's a decent amount of work I know, but if it saves me $400, it saves me $400.

 

It sure looks a lot better! Hopefully it stays like that. Little things like that always bug me on my projects...

 

On my F1 I noticed the bed wasn't level with the cab. Messed, measured poke and prodded and finally discovered the bed is fine, the cab is off.

 

I don't think you are going to come to any solid conclusions with the truck sitting on it's suspension and on uneven ground. I suggest that you should raising the truck, thus taking the weight off the suspension and the wheels off the ground. Then take a level and either level the front (across the frame rails), go to the middle of the frame and level it lengthways, and do the same at the rear across the frame rails. Then you will plainly see if the frame is twisted and also it will be so much easier to measure your diamond. You will have more confidence in your conclusions.
Good luck, hope you can gett'er close.

 

Yeah I sorta realized to do this right I'll need to take a few larger steps. I think I'll tackle it when I finally get to putting new parts in, then I'll have the bed and front sheet metal off as well as the powertrain and axles, possibly the cab too, should make the whole thing a lot easier to deal with. Right now still forever waiting on all the parts I need to get started, lol.