I bought my '86 F-250 with no bed. I hvae it running and ready to drive, except taillights and a driveshaft. I took my driveshaft to be shortened and will have it back tomorrow and in the truck and I have some taillights from my old stepside truck I'm gonna wire up. This weekend I want to go get a bed from a junkyard so I can start driving my truck.

How much do beds weigh? Need to know how many buddies to bring to help get it up on the frame and position it. Not sure on laws about running without a bed. I am planning on wiring up taillights, installing the rear bumper from my old stepside truck, and making some mud flaps and hopefully the local PD won't hassle me during my 20-30 minute drive to the junkyard. I know in many other states people will run trucks without a bed and it's legal. I live in NJ (basically California of the east coast), so the cops may hassle me about it. Unfortunately I have no way to transport a pickup bed to my home so the most practical option is to drive it and install the bed there.

I believe it's only about 8 bolts and the wiring for the taillights. Should be pretty easy, my only concerns are the muscle required to get the bed on the frame and the cops harassing me. Shouldn't be a big deal I hope.

 

If you've got 3 friends to help you lift the bed onto the truck, you should be good to go.

 

4 guys should be able to lift a bed. I would hope the cops would be a little forgiving especially if your only trip without the bed is to get the bed. Good luck.

 

Just have someone follow you with their car with the hazard lights flashing making sure to take backroads and never speeding, that should give the cops some idea that you're being safe if they hassle you.

 

i did when i did all the body work on my 85, it has 87 F-Superduty springs. without the bed it rode like a tractor. me and my brother lifted the 8ft bed. i'm 6'4 230 and pretty cut if i say so myself, my brother is about 6'6 240 and doesn't lift and we did fine.

but we did have extra hands to help available.

it was cool driving a truck with a freshly painted frame and primered cab around for a few min. i did it just to see what it rode like.

the new bed that was from an 80 model weighed more than the 85 bed, both 8ft.

oh my original bed had 6 bolt holes, the 80 bed had 8, so i put 8 in. and i hate those carraige bolts, so i just used grade 5 stainless hex heads with washers. they don't stick up anymore than the carriage, and are covered by the bedliner anyway

no clue why

 

Wow' ya'll must have some heavy beds. When I peeled the old one off of my truck and put a new one on a buddy and I did it no problems. We're both about 5'7", 140 lbs.

Just got one person under each wheel well and lifted straight up and back, came right off.

Justin

 

two people can do it, its not that bad, but i would have four just in case the bed rocks forward and dents the back of the cab. ( i have seen it happen)

I drove my truck for a while with no bed on it. It was cool to see the driveshaft spinning. It was also a lot easier to back up, I could just look back and see where my bumper was. It did ride pretty rough though, no traction either

 

ya i have a gooseneck hitch, it looked like a mini semi with that on there.

it wasn't heavy, just awkwardly balanced. we just stood at the wheelwell, and grabbed about 2ft forward and 2ft behind the opening for stability. picked it up and carried it about 25 ft over to the deckover. then rolled the new bed over(i made a platform for it so i could rollit around the garage and work on it easier) got 4 people, i did alot of work to this bed, and carefully put it on. didn't have any bolts, so i bungied it so i could go over to my friends to show him.. got dads truck and went to lowes and got the bolts.

i still need to post some pictures of it now that it is dent free. NOS fenders i found for 75 a piece......and a new bed.