Hey fellas, im going to be making this same post under my build thread. But i figured i would share it here for everyone to see. Many of us have to pull a bed for one reason or another, and sometimes finding help, and coordinating getting all your buddies over can be a pain and delay your project. Now if you dont have a garage your sol on this method, but anyway here we go. Obviously removing the mounting bolts, unhooking the fuel fill neck, and wiring harness are the first steps in this. You can find all that information on other threads here or via a google search.

So here is how i did it using 4 ratchet straps. Make sure you have good quality ratchet straps!! Dont use cheap flimsy ones, and make sure the eyelets you screw into your ceiling joists are not little flimsy ones. The ones i used had about 4" threads. If you have a drywalled ceiling you can still do this, just find the ceiling joists, do not just put them into drywall.

Go around and raise each corner 3-4 inches at a time. If you are going to drive your truck out from underneath as i did, you have to raise the bed up pretty high.

To accomplish getting the bed higher, once the ratchet on the strap is full and you cant ratchet anymore. Make sure the bed is fairly level all around. I was able to hold the weight of one corner myself with one hand, and release the ratchet strap with the other hand. Then set the ratchet strap to its release point, pull it loose, pull out the excess that is spooled up, and begin ratcheting again. Dont get overly worried doing this part, so long as you have 3 straps holding the bed, it is not going to fall to the floor.

One piece of advice, once you have the bed raised a few inches and can pull the truck forward a bit, do it. I did this because the bed will swing around a little bit during this procedure. You want to put a little bit of error/insurance distance between the front of the bed and back of the cab so you dont ding or scratch either.

One other note of precaution, if using long ratchet straps as i did, once you have the bed high enough that your tires will clear the rocker panels when you drive out from underneath it. MAKE SURE you dont drive over any excess dangling ratchet strap that is hanging down. I almost did, and it would probably have been a disaster.

 

If there's a will there's a way, I have a 57 Chevy that I was thinking of pull the cab off in a similar manner. Getting the buddies together at the same time is a pita.

 

A similar method can be employed if you build yourself a superstructure out of 2x4s surrounding the truck. Some people use cribbing methods, but a super structure can be just as strong and is just as easily torn down.

Just for fun I'll see if I can design and build one later and put up the schematics.

THEN you can use lawdawg's method without a garage.

 

Out of curiosity, how much does the bed weigh?

 

Pretty similar to what people do with truck caps. I built a structure to remove and store my cap. Just as a bed, it's a chore without enough people and now can be done myself

 

Just off the top of my head from lifting and moving them I'd say a short bed weighs probably 250lbs or so. Is not that heavy, just cumbersome. Luckily I had a forklift to remove them but I flip them over by hand to replace the supports.

 

The idea came from how I used to remove the hard top on my Jeep Wrangler. But I only used one ratchet strap with a pulley system, and a 2x4 frame I made to attach to the hard top.

 

You can also slip a big piece of cardboard in between the bed and the cab to prevent damage.