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I need to swap beds on a 1987 F150 LWB. I have a shop crane but not really enough room in the shop to pull off and put new bed on. No help. I do have a rear fork for 3 pt hitch and a boom pole. Forks are 4 ft. Could slide longer tube over forks. What’s an easy way to lift?
Picture a tic tac toe grid. The green dot is 1 1/2" EMT electrical conduit. It comes in 10" lengths. Cut two pieces so they touch the sides of the bed but can't clear the bed rails when you lift up on them. The yellow dot is 5/8" unistrut. It also comes in 10' lengths.
Connect the conduit to the unistrut with strut clamps.
You'll be coming at it from the back, so you'll have to modify your grid.
I connected minerallac conduit clamps and 1/2" beam clamps to my conduit, and drove by bucket into the opening on the beam clamps. Minerallac strap
1/2" beam clamp
Obviously, yours won't be the same but maybe this will give you some ideas. You can buy all of the parts at the electrical department of any big box store.
Maybe jack the truck up as high as possible, drive in and connect your boom to your grid as low as possible, then lower the truck, with wheels removed, as low as possible.
Above works, your boom Im sure would work too.. if you have a shop floor and shop crane that’ll work too. I use ratchet straps with a cable loop in the center, others use lumber etc. If you lift it up, you can drive it out if not enough room to maneuver it around. Two guys with good backs can get it off, one on each corner works even better.
I built a rolling stand. I can stand them up on end by myself, and lay them down on the stand. The stand doubles as a rolling shop table when not needed.
Haven’t done it myself, but I would think so. Might bend the inner lip a little though. If it were me, I’d make some longer stand offs to lift directly on the bottom side of the bed rails, not the lower lip.
I did it the same way Jeff did.
A cherry picker reaching to the center with tie down straps from all 4 corners of the bed to the center hook.
Lift and slowly drive truck out from underneath and place it on a wheeled cart
