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Built a truck bed for son

jon f mn

jon f mn

Well-known Member
My son Eric has a lawn business and wanted
a flatbed for a Ford Ranger to haul a
couple mowers. So I agreed to build him
one. He has a big truck and several
trailers too, this will be for a separate
crew. It is not quite done yet as we have
to figure out a lift assist for the ramp
and when his push mower gets in make a
platform above the front of the big mower
for that. These pics are before the lights
were added and the finish work was done.
I'll get some of that when we get it all
done.


cvphoto121345.jpg


cvphoto121346.jpg


Here is a short video of him loading it.
So far we have about 4 short days of work
in it. Should be another short day to get
done.
Loading
 
Can you show us your welding rig for all the aluminum that you weld? I know TIG is slow, but looks great. I've used a spool gun on some truck body repair and was not impressed with it. Do you run the high frequency setup to help the arc start?

Beagle
 
Aluminum GMAW (mig) is how it is done in production work. The power unit makes a big difference in the weld you get. With aluminum you need to run at a high voltage to get spray arc transfer. Which with a generic power unit make a nice weld in flat position but is to fluid to work well vertical or horizontal. The better power units have a pulse feature that can make a bead similar to tig welding.
 
Check out the gorilla lift st Northern Tool. Maybe a little old fashion engendering you can make it work, Sure is nice lifting a gate on a lawn mower trailer. You can lift it with one hand, no sweat.
 
I have a spool gun I use on my Miller vintage welder, it's the same welder as the old mm200. I also have a Lincoln Square wave 255 tig, but my torch sprung a leak so I didn't use it on this job. I use 3/64 4043 wire most times in the spool gun for these projects. I got bad wire this time and had nothing but trouble with it. The last few layers on the rolls would not feed at all and some rolls were trouble all the way. So I have to remember to be careful what wire I buy.
 
That won't work here because there are no sides for lift. I did give that some thought
 
We tried those but they were too stiff and wouldn't let the ramp down but still stopped lifting too soon. The ramp really is not that heavy and finding a spring with enough throw and light enough is going to be a challenge. We have some of those gas shocks like for car hoods on the way. We will see how they work.
 
Ooohh aluminumunun Lol did you happen to compare the weight difference between aluminum and steel?
 
(quoted from post at 06:53:23 03/28/22) Nice looking bed, is it an illusion the tires are rubbing?
Click to expand...

If it's not an illusion they are darn close to rubbing and any wow or bump in the road is going to cause them to rub.

Hopefully he's got airbags or something to raise the rear suspension a bit and support the weight. Those little trucks were not designed to haul around those big heavy mowers.

Hopefully he's also not living in an area where they get on your case for having the tires protruding past the bodywork of the vehicle.
 
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