I am looking for a utility bed for my short bed 250.. I am having a bad time finding one but I found one that is off an 85 full size Chevy.. are these beds universal or can it be add to fit a 2001 250?

 

What's your cab to axle centerline? Almost all utility beds are made to fit cab and chassis trucks only. Those trucks use industry standard 60,84 and 120 inch cab to axle measurements. Being that you have a short bed you won't have any of those measurements. There is custom utility beds out there for short bed trucks.

 

I'm going to have a Hillsboro aluminum flatbed for sale shortly. It's mounted on a 2001 F250 shortbed.

 

One of our trucks has a Reading bed and we are switching it from a 2005 Chevy 2500 to a 2019 F-250, the shop that is switching it out said Reading beds are interchangeable across the big three. Of course ours is a long bed, is the one from the Chevy a short bed? I would think that the manufacturers are going to try and make them as interchangeable as possible otherwise they'd have much higher production and inventory costs.

 

His cab to axle centerline is 40".

Not at all true. Plenty of pickup beds are removed and service bodies put in there place. Short beds (40" CA), long beds (56.2" CA), Ranger beds (37.5" CA RegCab 4x2; 37.6" CA RegCab 4x4; 37.7" CA SupCab 4x2; 37.9" CA SupCab 4x4")... doesn't matter. Lots of service and utility bodies out there that are on pickup frames. The take off beds pile up in upfitter yards around the country.



Ford even offers a "Box Delete" option, so that customers don't have to pay for a pickup bed they aren't planning to use, and so that upfitters don't have to add yet another take off bed to the pile.

Make no mistake, Ford's "Box Delete" option results in a truck with a cab and no bed, that looks like a chassis cab, but that is on a wide frame, rather than a narrow frame, and that has the same cab to axle distances as the pickups have. The industry builds service and utility bodies for these vehicles too.

Harbor Truck Bodies, Knapheid, Douglas, Warner, Highway Products... all offer ready made off the shelf service bodies designed for the 40" cab to axle distance of the 99-03 Ford short bed pickup. There is no need for one to be custom made, but many do end up making customizations to suit their needs, just like any other service body can be customized.

The point is, service bodies are not limited to the province of chassis cabs in 60, 84, or 120" CAs. There are probably more 56" CA 8 foot service bodies available in the new and used market then there are 60". The shorter 40" CA's are not nearly as often seen, but as the photos below show, they are still out there.















































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