Uneven bed alignment

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Mar 25, 2009 | 10:43 PM

gg1968

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Mountain Pass

Joined: Mar 2009

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Uneven bed alignment

My truck has an uneven alignment in the bed. From the back, it appears like the right rear is higher than the rest. The frame to bed from the underside looks like it's fine. Truck has a 4" lift. Could the lift cause this? Thanks guys!

Mar 25, 2009 | 10:51 PM

phoneman91

Cargo Master

Joined: Jun 2002

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From: Aurora,Colorado

Is the cab even?? Are the front and rear bumpers even to the ground??

Mar 25, 2009 | 11:21 PM

gg1968

Thread Starter

Mountain Pass

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Cab seems even. The bumpers are even also.

Mar 25, 2009 | 11:24 PM

condolan

Senior User

Joined: Jan 2006

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From: Montana

Do you tow a lot or pull stumps?

A bit of stump pulling is all it took to shift my truck's bed to the right about a 1/2-inch.

Mar 25, 2009 | 11:36 PM

phoneman91

Cargo Master

Joined: Jun 2002

Posts: 2,033

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From: Aurora,Colorado

The Ford factory shop manual has a section on getting the bed level. It involves shimming the bed. Ford says that this should only be done if the difference is more than one quarter inch.

I had a one year old Ranger that had the cab and bed both higher on one side--about 1 inch--the dealer shimmed both to correct. The bumpers were even horizonally-but the cab and bed wasnt. I cant believe that it left the factory uneven like that!!

How much of a difference is there from one side to the other??

Mar 25, 2009 | 11:46 PM

gg1968

Thread Starter

Mountain Pass

Joined: Mar 2009

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Seems like around 1.5". Is the shimming easy or hard to do? Thanks!

Mar 25, 2009 | 11:47 PM

gg1968

Thread Starter

Mountain Pass

Joined: Mar 2009

Posts: 154

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Truck has low miles, but the previous owner pulled horse trailers twice a year.

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Mar 25, 2009 | 11:57 PM

phoneman91

Cargo Master

Joined: Jun 2002

Posts: 2,033

Likes: 32

From: Aurora,Colorado

Just remove the nuts securing the bed to the frame. My dealer used thin washers. He placed them between the bed sills and the frame.

Look at the character lines of the cab and the bed from the side of the truck-are they misaligned now??

Make sure that both rear tires are the same make and size and that the air pressure is the same for both. And that the truck is on a level surface.

The shop manual states that you should be 6-8 feet from the back of the truck on a level surface and have someone with a 6 1/2 foot long straight edge on the top of the tailgate lift the side of the straight edge until it appears to be level to the bottom of the rear window of the cab. And then note the distance between the level straight edge and the top of the tailgate-this distance will be difference between the high and low side.

I just noticed that the shop manual states that if this difference is more than 1.20 inches-that the axle and the bed should be shimmed. If the difference is between .70 and 1.20 inches-just the bed can be shimmed.