bkahler

Those are going to be some stout running boards

Yeah, his picture clearly shows countersinking and rabbiting for the shovel strips. I kind of get the impression Dodge built beds both ways. My truck had a piece of plywood on top of the remnants of what I believe was the original wood and there were no rabbits and no countersinking. I kind of like the utilitarian look of no rabbits and no countersinking.

That's pretty much what I was thinking as well.

That washer certainly appears to sitting on top of the plank. Thanks!

Your trailer matches with what I believe was the original bed on my truck. Here's the only good picture I have of the bed that shows the washers and the wood. It sure looks like they sat on top of the planks.

The title says it all, anyone know the answer? From the pictures that I have of my original bed it appears the washers sat on top of the bed surface.

Spring special

Nice work. Looking forward to seeing the completed running boards.

Dang, that's a great idea! If done properly the eye bolts wouldn't be a problem. The eye bolts can be fastened into place as shown in the picture below. The protruding threaded section would guide the bed into the holes in the frame as it's being lowered. I think I'll attempt this approach first. I've got eye bolts that I can use which gives me a no cost solution Thanks!

To be honest, I don't even want to think about disassembling it and then reassembling it. The risk of scratches, drops, etc is more than I want to deal with. I figure the factory assembled the beds in a separate location, trailered or moved them to the factory floor and lifted them into place. I think it is probably a lot easier to crawl around underneath the bed during assembly on sawhorses than if it was sitting on the truck frame. I would think lifting into place would be the most efficient for them.

I replaced the sockets the same way. It just so happened the sockets that I bought had a tab for connecting a ground wire which made it easy to take care of the ground issue. I like the idea of the sliding plate. That was my first thought when you started describing your problem. Should be quick and easy to do.

EMT would definitely be cheaper than pipe. I'm going to look into JB's suggestion of straps and see what happens. Thanks!

Deforming the sides is my biggest worry. I would much prefer the hoist, assuming I can get the rigging in place properly. Possibly this weekend, we'll know for sure

I like the strap idea! That saves me the cost of the pipe and the longer 2" x 12' sling straps that I was going to have to buy. The ratchet straps would also give me better adjust-ability than the sling straps would have. Not sure what you mean by "duct tape attached to lifting strap" I don't care if it's pretty if it gets the job done. Heck, I ain't pretty and I always (well almost always!) get the job done....😄

Stacking like you described is something I've thought about, but I keep coming back to my problem of having enough floor space on the sides for setting up 4 saw horses. If I could come up with the room, what did you used to support the bed? The side panels hang down lower than the bottom of the bed floor causing interference with the cross pieces sitting on the saw horses. Did you place smaller chunks of wood under the bed to raise it up?