I'm choking on the cost of a used bed for my 72 F-100. :-X23
Anyone know where I can find some ruff plans for a wood flat bed?
Info like lessons learned, don't do this, do this, don't use this wood, etc...

Thanks!
Dan
72 F-100 (8 ft bed hit by my neighbor's tree)
Akron, OH

 

I am interested as well. I have scoured the internet for this. The best that I found was a rough plan for a toyota...

http://www.wcnet.net/adc/TruckBed.html

The finished product looks rather nice...but requires a welder and cutting torch. Not sure I have the expierience to pull it off.

Kevin

 

That toyota does look nice doesn't it. A lot of work though. Here is what I did. I decided how high I wanted the bead and then I built beams out of treated two by four that ran across the frame rails at the mounting points and then tapered out to the edge of the bed. I built four of these. Then I decked it with treated two by tens. The whole thing is bolted down to the frame with half inch carraige bolts. Then I built a steel rim for the whole thing to protect the edge. It is 2*2 by 3/16 inch angel braket with a 1 inch rail welded above it for tyeing the dirt bike down. Then I made a headache rack that bolts down to it. It isn't fancy but it looks pretty good and you can't beat a flat bed for convenience and hauling (imho). Cost around a hundred bucks and took about eight hours. If you want to know more I will go into more detail. I can't take postable pictures though. Hope this helps.

 

My flat bed is more involved. I have a 12'bed. I used 4x6 beams as longitudinal members. Then I used 4x4 cross sills about every 18". Then 2x6 decking. I have steel around the edge for protection and to install stake pockets. I used white oak for appearance. You can use pressure treat but it's not as strong as oak. You could also use a product called Trex for decking. It's made from plastic and wood chips. It's used for home decks and is good at resisting decay. Better than pressure treat I don't remember. You could find out. there are some other similar products as well. I didn't want any fasteners to show on the decking so I screwed the decking from underneath. I figure when the decking starts to look bad I can just rent a floor sander and sand the entire bed. Carriage bolts can scratch what you put in the bed and if you counter sink them they collect water. If it were me I wouldn't use 2x10's. Decking that wide will also collect water and rot the wood faster. And it's more likely to cup.
John