Topic: Noob looking for flatbed design

[firemanpig]

Under the heading flatbed designs and pics...there is a white toy with a square tube flatbed. Does anyone know the person that owns the rig ?  I am wanting to know if it's 2x2 tube or 2x3.  I realize that the post is old but any info would be appreciated. Thanks FMP

[Rocksurfer]

Pics may help.

[Snowtoy]

Link
http://board.marlincrawler.com/index.php?topic=33555.msg382114#msg382114



Looking at the pics the tube looks to be smaller than the license plate #'s which are just over 2.5".  The horizontal side rails look a little bigger, might be 2x3 or 2x2.5.

The design isn't that good, in a flop those sides are going to bend, same with the roll bar section.

[firemanpig [OP]]

I agree it doesn't look like cross bracing was even considered.. i like the simple design of the flatbed and without a bender this looks like a fairly straight forward design that a noob can start with. my plan was to cross brace the headache rack and 1/2 way up the rear window have braces that go to to rear and mount the spare on it. you think that would be stronger ?? and do you think 3/16 or 1/4 wall tube?

Thanks for your help

[Snowtoy]

You can also do a combination of square and round tube, that is what i did with the bed I built for my '91.  Having a background in carpentry the square stock seamed like the best to work with.  I did bend my own using the old school sand and pipe bender approach, you could also have the tube bends made at a muffler shop that does mandrel bends.







While 1/4" sounds good and manly, it is overkill and the weight makes it ridiculous medium to build with.  I built mine using .125 wall(1/8") 2x2, for the outer rails and inner rail(that runs over the truck frame), the cross sections across the bed(between the boxes) are 1x1x.095, for added impact strength, I welded strips of 1/8" plate along the outer bottom rail sides, similar to armor plate.  The plating probably wasn't needed, I use .125 on the sliders I make, and they have take quite a beating w/o any issues.

[firemanpig [OP]]

 what an awesome bed  super clean and very functional. how much do you think the finished product weighs ?  ...is it 1 1/4 round that you used?
 next i will need to fix the frame twist it has in the rear before i start.

[Snowtoy]

Thanks, I do more of expedition type wheeling than strictly rock crawling, so I needed somethingthat would carry all the gear I usually bring, as well as spare parts.

The truck weighs 4400lbs as it sits now, title weight is 3640(IIRC), I would guess there is about 250-300lbs in the flatbed itself, not including the safari rack.

I used 1-5/8"x .125" round tube.