i am making a flatbed for my 94 f-150 as a welding project for school. i need to know where i can get some info and designs for it. i want it to have wheel wells though so it wont exactly be a "flat"bed. i dont have the money to get lift blocks for clearance for my tires. so any info or design prints would be appriciated <!-- / message --><!-- BEGIN TEMPLATE: ad_showthread_firstpost_sig --><!-- END TEMPLATE: ad_showthread_firstpost_sig -->

 

well a good base to start with woud be using your origanl bed and cutting the sides off of it then adding what you want.

 

yeah but i need to build it all myself. it is for a big part of my grade. i just need to know demensions and where to put the mounts and a drawing to give me a basic idea of what to start with. i need this info to purchase the metal needed to do the project.

 

You don't necessarily need to lift it to skip the wheel wells. Use treated wood as spacers between the frame and your bed, you'll have to do that anyway to level the thing, so just use bigger wood. Just make sure to make it so you can secure the wood spacers, as the PO of my truck didn't, and I have to weld up some brackets, because I'm tired of having to slide my front wood blocks back into place on a weekly basis.

If you insist on wheel wells, and want to do it on the cheap, you could cut oil drums. Another idea, since diamond plate is so expensive, would be to reuse two regular truck bed floors, if you can find a second.

Wish I could find you the pictures, but someone made a sweet looking truck bed by cutting angles in two or three inch steel tube, and the bed and rollbar were all one unit that looked fairly organic to the truck. The potential for a project like this is limitless.

One thing, though... when hooking up the lights, ground the flatbed and the light fixtures... just ground everything. It was a nightmare getting my lights working right on my truck, the previous owner screwed up the electrical side of it to a ridiculous extent.

 

here is a pic of one sweet flat bed for ideas
<a href="http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=463319924& albumID=941080&imageID=8542795"><img src="http://hotlink.myspacecdn.com/images02/109/62cd3427311d4fcbb32a1d1b2ae011f4/m.jpg" alt="" /></a>

 

The fastest, easiest way to get ideas for a flatbed is to visit a home depot or a lowes, or any other home center that rents pickups for hauling your bigger purchases home.

Considering the top of the tires are above the top of the frame rails, you either have to raise the flatbed above that line (with room for the rear axle to travel upwards) or have rectangular "slots" cut where the tires can poke through, which you would cover with something you fabricate. I would have suggested a simple metal box out of 18 or 20 ga however I like the oil drum idea - quite clever.

if you google for "homemade flatbed" without the quotes you'll get a ton of hits for both pickups and trailers - the construction is at least similar as you'd want to adjust the dimensions to match your pickup specifically.

While gross overkill for what you are looking to do, here is a good set of pictures detailing a builder's creation of a pickup bed from absolute scratch.

http://www.snowplowing-contractors.com/alan.html

 

I would advise just trying to find flatbed pickups and look how they are built. It might be cheating, but you could even go to flatbed dealer and look how new ones are built.
After that, I would pull your existing bed off and start measuring and visualizing what you want. Draw a picture. I would also list out all the materials and price them because its not going to be cheap. I took a welding class a year ago and was going to make a flatbed, until I priced the steel....so I made a bumper instead. Good Luck

 

I have a flat bed on my 93. To start with it sits roughly 4 inches above the tires. it is made with 4 channel iron, two out side rails and two rails right above the truck frame. It then has one each across the back and the front. The crossbraces are 2" channel iron spaced 24" on center welded between the rails. Then underneather the back rail is a 1/4: plate cut on an angle from 1" down to 10" in the center what ever angle and width you want in the center is up to you. Mine is big enough for a recessed license plate and 2- 4" round lights on each side. The end of the side rails have 2 1/2" diameter tubing on the end of each making the the back corners rounded, so that I can put my 2" diameter ladder rack on. The bed is 1/4" plate. the head ache rack is 2 1/2" diameter tubing cut on a slight angle narrower at the top kinda on the same angle as the cab. there's one tube spanning the rack at window hirght, with 1'4" plate under that bar and 1/2" expanded metal above the bar.n At the top of the upright tubing I capped them off and had 1/2 x 2" bolts welded in the caps so I can mount a 31/2" wide channel iron with my off road lights on it.

I had to cut holes in the side rails to mount the gas filler necks. And had to modify the necks to to reach the rail at the right angles and to mount them.when it was done the filler caps sit flush up against the side rail.
I had to make cca (green lumber) runners between the bed and frame, this was easy, I made card board patterns, then transferd them to the cca 2x4's and did some fancy cutting with worm drive saw. and a sawzall. the bed sit level.
To mount the bed to my truck, I cut two holes in each center rail one in front one in back of each rail. and bent up 3/4" bar into U bolts and threaded each one 3" up and then cut 1 1/2 angle iron two inches longer than the U bolts are wide and drilled holes in them to accept the U bolts then mounted my bed with 8- 3/4" nuts and lock washers.

I hope this gives you some general idea for a bed.