Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Flatbed conversion of pickups

This what I was thinking on reading the title....
Figured the flat bed might be lighter. But not with aluminum factory beds.

RBBR, nice rig. That is like a utility body crossed with a flatbed. But more versatile..

Redneck, (two Lee's here)
In some states, if you up rate the springs the DOT will allow you to up-rate your load rating. The downside is you have to up rate your insurance too.

Dave, I don't know what it has for springs other than they are weak sauce.

It has a total of 4 springs. 3 mains and a helper.

Our dually has a total of 10.

My '03 has a total of 6.



I didn't even think to question it but it's going back to Ford for heavier springs no doubt.

You can change out the rear springs to the exact same as your dually.

Did exactly that to my 99 7.3.

Worked out great and rides fantastic.

I'd order this spring from ATS Springs.

https://www.autoandtrucksprings.com...w-heavy-duty-rear-leaf-spring-43-1263hd/

You gotta buy older sam..lol we have 1992 superduty with a 5 ton dump bed. I've hauled 6 ton with it and its squatty but still drove good. It's a dump truck, not hauling a dump bed trailer.

I like your set up though.

Higginez, thanks for the link man. I'm checking out their options as we speak. I'm not much of a gearhead, just load 'em up and go. We'll get something figured out!




Joel, I think they gayed up the suspension on these things for the weekend warrior Home Depot mulch crowd!

Those bales weren't even that heavy. I was curious so I drove into the elevator and checked the weight. 3300lbs for the pair, 1650 apiece. Nothing crazy at all.


Duals are great for hauling and pulling but I wanted a feed pickup with singles for mud and snow work. A Ranch Hand bumper grill guard is on back order and when these tires are shot I'm getting a set of Toyo MT's.

Already deleted and piped it. It hauls ass.......grin

One thing though - look at where the weight is. The front bale is only slightly in front the axle. The other is way behind it plus there's the weight of the loader back there. It's leverage and it'll take considerably heavier springs to handle it. The same setup on a longer wheel base might work just fine.

Laffin

Round here unless you're pulling the space shuttle you ain't got schidt. My truck'll haul a fair bit, but isn't rated for texans. A guy needs to step up to the F550's or Chebby Kodiaks to haul that much hot air.

Even for singles, 3300 shouldn't be a problem. I agree trucks nowadays aren't trucks. City cars with beds. I will admit though my friends 2019 superduty is nice, just dont want the payment

The same setup works really good on a regular cab with duals and heavy weight springs. That is the gold standard for hay hauling.

The extended cab uses a slightly shorter bed and the weight hangs further back.


Snow White just needs some beefier springs and she'll be fine.

The bed must be heavy as well. It was about 1/2" away from bottoming out on the 'rubber stoppers'.



I like to rag on newer pickups but they are pretty nice. Roll down the highway pulling a trailer at 75mph and no worries. You wouldn't do that with 1977 F250. I guess you could but it would be a handful!

I heard those badass Toyata's can pull anything...............ANYTHING!

Sam, ain't nothin' a new set of airbags won't fix. I love airbags, until you get a leaky fill line one one side or t'other.

Les Schwabb will put a set on there for you, or additional leaves in the springs. Just a few crisp new $100 bills.

I had a 98 f150 in AK and with my Yamaha bigbear in the back I was on overloaders. I bought 3/4 ton springs for it and it was a rough ride but could handle weight. Borrowed my buddies 1979 f150, threw a Polaris 6 wheeler in the back and the bed barely moved. He laughed at me and I coulda shot him...

I can deal with older trucks just to have a real truck.

'Shooter, we thought about airbags but I'm afraid they might not fare well in frozen mud/ice?


Heavier springs should be worry free.

Air bags Sammy, air bags. Da be da chitzels.
Turns an F250 into a F350 with a squirt of air.

W. Bill

Profits go to the emperor sipping sake in his silk kimono, but the labor was American so by jiminy they are awesome.

Of course the high milage they used to tout went down the shidter when they started making them big enough to compete with American trucks, but hey let's not get into the weeds.

Sam, how many over the road tractors use air bags in Montana weather? Most of them.

We are already in weeds billygoat...lol

I got a 96 z71 1/2 ton with airbags. Also had it in AK. Airbags worked. Haven't put air in them in 10 years but up there they worked. I just didnt want to carry around a air compressor so I went with springs on my ford.

I had bags on my '76 3/4 ton when I bought it. They leaked. I tossed them. But they were a shadetree install. I thought about putting bags in my power wagon, but figured if I need that I needed a bigger truck. And one more point of failure I'm introducing into the equation.