Truck bed floors, that still get used....

So, im at the point on my truck build that i need to address the bed floor.

I use my truck for truck stuff still. I throw shit in my bed, load quads into it, and just all around use the hell out of it.

I want to raise my bed floor so i will have a completely flat floor, but i am admitedly not sheetmetal guy, so im asking for some advice here on this, to see what my best options are.

The stock bed floor gains a lot of its strength from the ridges it has it, it keeps it solid. Unless there is a place that makes bed floor sheets that i dont know about, im going to have to make mine from flat steel. If i frame the new floor all in from 1x1 tube, what gauge sheet metal should i use for the actual floor? is 16g enough to withstand the abuse?

As far as the frame goes.... how tight of a grid should i put on the floor?

Any advice from someone who has built a bed floor or knows sheetmetal would be great. Im just not sure where i should start with it. I dont want to build it all and have it dent when i load my quad in there. I also dont want to build it and need a damn crane to lift it on the truck.

Thoughts?

you can buy a c10 or silverado bed floor from lmc if im not mistakin and make that work in anything
last i looked they are quiet pricey at $800ea.

yea, and shipping on top of it was another 285$ or so.

I really didnt want to drop a grand on a bed floor. I could probably find another bed cheeper...



Taylor

I have seen people using 1/8" for the floors which I think is way overkill. The Chevy I did was 16 ga. and it was heavy as hell, but I had over 100' of 1x1 .065 tubing into it. It had an opening to view the rear frame and the sheet metal and bed frame work followed the frame in the opening. It wasn't a bed to be used as a bed, like you want, I am just saying that even with 16 ga. and .065 wall 1x1 was still heavy as hell.
My only advice for a strong bed floor would be... the tighter the spacing between the structural frame, the thinner you could go with the sheet metal. I would run 16 or 14 ga. and keep the spacing of the frame at about 16" or so and run diagonals in between. Shouldn't go anywhere. Maybe step the 1x1 up to .083 or .095 to be 100% safe.

The guys in my club just cut under the bed rails and lift the stock bed floor up. If you did that you would have the factory strength still in the floor itself and you could always add more bracing under the floor.

Edited: 5/12/2011 10:51:26 PM by I8NT2LO

Here's mine on a 98 Tacoma. 16 ga. sheet over some 1x1 .120. I welded some square tube under the bed rail lip and then attached the bars to that. I could easily walk across this, but I built it to have a cover, not necessarily towing things. I'm sure yours would be plenty strong considering your skills.

Just body drop the bed and then use raised bed mounts. Then you would have a perfectly stock looking bed floor.

I forgot to add the S10 we just raised the bed floor in is being built strong enough to hold his street bike. I will be at our shop tonight and can take pics then.

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Syk96Rngr said:

Just body drop the bed and then use raised bed mounts. Then you would have a perfectly stock looking bed floor.

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Trust me, i understand that. Its just not that simple. The bed floor on this truck is not use able, it needs to be re-built.

Im starting to learn towards finding a bed somewhere and robing the bed floor out of it.

Taylor

If you have access to a bead roller you could roll beads in some 16 ga. sheet metal. the pattern would probably need to be dense (probably on 2" centers) and therefore labor intensive, but it would probably look good and you could roll some designs into it to be unique.

Cutting out a floor from another bed would definitely be the easiest and probably cheapest way to go, although you will probably need to put in some fillers in front of and behind the wheel tubs

If you'll be putting quads in the bed maybe leave the floor at stock height if the frame allows and build a hump over the axle or have it rise up just before the axle and then level out (sort of like this __/--).