DixieMfg

Im attempting to build my own bed for my 3500, the pictures are posted in my gallery, we should be done with it this week, at least thats the plan, i'll keep posting as we get closer to finish, but you can look at the damage so far...

RAW

I'm quite interested in your build-up. You should take some better photos. It's hard to see what you're up to in those dark pics!

Is that a torchmate cnc plasmacutter I see?
I sold my Plasmacam and picked up a Dynatorch recently.

What are your objectives with the new bed?

CJSamples

Great job on the bed so far. I am looking to build a dump flatbed and retain my gooseneck too. I like how you have built your's up on the subframe. I am hoping my bed looks half as sweet as yours when I am finished. I might have to ask some advise on a few things since you do such nice work.

Chris

DixieMfg

got the bed 95% finished this week, just got a few welds left and all the grinding and polish and paint, i'll take some pics tomorrow and post them, i'll let you guys be the judge on how it looks, i think i like it, but i dont know, anyway thanks for the compliments, i'll get those pics posted tomorrow, and by the way, yes that is a torchmate CNC table, we would like to switch to the dynatorch, it looks like a sweet system...

DixieMfg

To answer your question about the objective for the bed, i need it for work, i'm actually in the demolition business, dixie mfg. is not my main business, a friend and i started it a few years ago in college and now he runs it out of his shop in alabama, and i just help out in the designing and get to build some stuff in my spare time, but i need the 8' bed to put all of my tools on the bed, including air compressor, CPL tool box, drawer boxes, 100 gallon fuel tank, 3 hose reels, and a grease pot to service our equipment in the field...

DixieMfg

Just posted some more recent pics of the bed im building in my gallery, waiting for approval, would like some feedback on how you guys think it looks......

CJSamples

Dixie,
Can you possibly get a few more photos of how the subframe ties in on the front? Is the truck in Alabama or Miss? I am over in West georgia and not too far away from the border. I would be really interested in getting some information on the bed and install. I would be happy to shoot some photos of the complete install and finished product. I have spent the rest of my hobby money on photo gear over the last few years.

Chris

DixieMfg

its back over in mississippi now in my shop, i used some 3/8" brackets we made to clamp over the stock body mounts in the front, because the frame drops down so fast close to the cab, i can take some pics of those tomorrow, but i had to drill holes in those mounts to get any strength out of them and put in (2) 1/2"grade 8 bolts in each of those 4 front body mounts, the dodge frame is hard to work with, its wider than most trucks and is not straight at all for mounting rails, it looks level, but is actually just a little off, so the mounts have to be wierdly supported, the middle frame brackets, i drilled 2 holes on each side of the frame all the way through and sleeved them and put 3/4" grade 8 bolts through them, and on the back i got lucky and used the factory reciever hitch bolts, but all of my brackets are 3/8" mild steel, and the rails are 1/4" wall 2"x3" rect. tubing...the bed took about $1100.00 worth of steel total, for everything....when you see the new pics you'll see why......

CJSamples

Dixie,
You seem to have a grasp on this so I have to ask a few tech questions. I have been trying to find a reference for steel to see the options for using square tubing vs channel vs angle. any idea where I could find a chart online? It seems my main problem with the dump/goose bed is the additonal height that will need ot be added for the dump rail and channel to cross the bed. I noticed on your bed you seemed to build the cross channels and main rail supports on the same plane. I like this idea but I will have to make sure it will be strong enough to attach the hoist for the dump. Since there is 2 of us who use the gooseneck, I don't really want to screw the other guy because our trucks sit about the same height now. If I can possibly use 6 inch rail to run along the frame and weld in the crossmembers to the bed on the same level and not cross them over the top, it would be less than 2 inches higher. From my first measurements it seems off the rail to the bottom of the bed is 2 inches, and the ball is around 4 inches higher. I have one of the pull up ***** that coudl just be left up and have a flap style door to gain access.

I was also wondering if the 2X3 tubing might be a choice for the sub rail and dump rail. I would still need to figure out if I can build that in the same fashion as the bed you made. I know the internal crossmembers would be strong enough, but what about the sides? I guess I could tie the side rail supports into the headache rack and also at the back of the bed to give it a little more support.

I am thinking the frame was around 38 inches wide. If I run a 7 foot 6 wide bed then that would leave roughly 24 inches out on the sides. That might work, but I really need to see the dump hoist in person to figure out the mounting.

I would certainly entertain other ideas if you might have a better plan. Thanks for offering up the photos and good discussion.

Chris

DixieMfg

well there should be plenty of room to put the hoist toward the front close to the cab, because my aux. fuel tankwill actually sit 7" down into the bed, that leaves plenty of clearance to get to the factory tank if needed, but on the rear of the frame, you should have substantial strength and mount holes for the subframe where the hinge point is, but my crossmembers are 3" tall formed channel,subframe is 3" high, and my toolboxes stick up 12" from the bed deck, that gives me clearance to pull my lowboy type gooseneck with the neck all the way down, you might be able to get by with taller sides, but that 1/4" wall rect. tubing should be plenty to support the dump bed, our big mack dumps only have 1/4" wall channel as their frames, and the tubing is actually stronger than the channel if sleeved right at the hinge point, but i think the hoist mechanism could possibly sit in that low spot behind the cab, and a piece could go between those body mounts up there to attach it to, might have to plate them in to beef them up, but that might work....

DixieMfg

i'll take some pics of our dump trucks and our roll off dumpster truck tomorrow to show different types of hinge configurations...but i guess you could make some type of pin that you could put in the bed when pulling a gooseneck to keep the trailer from trying to pull up on the hoist as you drive, and of course just set one set of rails inside of the other, or one on top of the other with the dump rail piercing the crossmembers....but that's sorta speculation without doing alot of measuring, but if you need me to measure anything on my truck, let me know, because the bed's coming back off tomorrow to get painted....

CJSamples

I looked at the possibility of mounting the hoist in the low spot but Dodge put a weird crossmember in there really messing things up. It actually angles up to the rear frame height and thus closes off that nice place the hoist should go. With that member in there, I am back up to the rear frame height. I did see a guy who's hoist lower frame was actually angle, but the hoist drawing says it needs 6 1/16 clearance to operate. From what I can see the hoist itself uses angle to sit on the frame and then angle to also sit on the top rail. Wish I coudl draw it out but it looks sort of like this "L0" The zero being the rail and the L being the angle from the hoist. Flip it over to make the bottom attach point, so both angles actually sit in between the rails. Stack 2 of the 2X3 and add the angle and it should come out to 6 1/16. I have the drawing and can email it out. I was originally looking at the hoist from Piercewrecker.com They have some pretty good installation drawings on each tonnage hoist and I was thinking about the 5 ton. The only problem is their mounting height. Their hoist takes over 10 inches of operating room so that would kill it for my application. My second choice would be the Venco hoist. The guy at Venco was very informative and sent my the line drawing for their hoist. A local installer says they never have any trouble with the Venco's and stopped selling any other brand. the local guy was also very helpful, but he has never done a Dodge install. He usually does bigger trucks.

This forum is great for exchanging ideas!!

Chris

CJSamples

I uploaded a jpg of the line drawing so you could see how much lower it sits. Of course it needs admins approval so it might be a day or so. If the ends of that hoist are tubes, then I might be able to use large pins to go right thru the frame on top and bottom to make installation easier.

I should call it a night so I can be productive in the morning. Thanks for all the replies.

Chris

CJSamples

I had thought about pinning the bed, but I really want the gooseneck to remain tied into the frame. I am a safety freak about that trailer being solidly attached.

Chris

CJSamples

one more thing then I am really going to bed!! The third photo on this page shows it kind of how I am thinking. http://www.tgsales.com/dumpspecial.html

It looks like they actually used a pin on the lower attach of the hoist. Maybe??


Chris