51 B3B build thread - after all these years

[bkahler]

46 minutes ago, ggdad1951 said:

For FEF I did the stacking method and rolled the truck under my stack and lowered it back down gradually.  You could also use an engine hoist to a similar purpose as your gantry or in combo with your gantry.

 

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?

 

 

[JBNeal]

How'bout:

• instead of pipe, ya fed nylon ratchet strap through them bed rolls...remove the ratchet, feed the nylon strap through the roll, tape some cardboard onto the strap to prevent chafing, put the ratchet back on, now you've got 2 hooks protruding from the bedside to latch onto
• place 2x4 strategically in between bedsides so that when lifting, the strategically placed 2x4 resists the bedsides from bowing inward...suspend in place with duct tape attached to lifting strap

Is it pretty?  Naw, but it's a one-time tooling use that ya minimize costs with readily available materials that can be disposed of economically. 

 

Duct tape:  the handyman's secret weapon 🏆

[John-T-53]

EMT conduit also good for fabbing stuff out of.... comes in 10 foot sticks. 

 

[ggdad1951]

18 hours ago, bkahler said:

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?

 

Sawhorses, 8x8 chunks and 2x4.  My fuzzy memory says I used 3 sawhorses (2 sides 1 back) and used blocking to support the fron so I wasn't on the bed sides.  Rear was just on the tail stock piece.

 

You have a hoist tho and there are good ideas out there to lift the bed with that.  Just be careful to not deform the bed side tubes with point loads.

[bkahler]

On 1/8/2025 at 3:32 PM, JBNeal said:

How'bout:

• instead of pipe, ya fed nylon ratchet strap through them bed rolls...remove the ratchet, feed the nylon strap through the roll, tape some cardboard onto the strap to prevent chafing, put the ratchet back on, now you've got 2 hooks protruding from the bedside to latch onto
• place 2x4 strategically in between bedsides so that when lifting, the strategically placed 2x4 resists the bedsides from bowing inward...suspend in place with duct tape attached to lifting strap

 

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"

 

 

On 1/8/2025 at 3:32 PM, JBNeal said:

Is it pretty?  Naw, but it's a one-time tooling use that ya minimize costs with readily available materials that can be disposed of economically. 

 

Duct tape:  the handyman's secret weapon 🏆

 

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....😄

 

[bkahler]

11 hours ago, ggdad1951 said:

You have a hoist tho and there are good ideas out there to lift the bed with that.  Just be careful to not deform the bed side tubes with point loads.

 

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

 

[bkahler]

23 hours ago, John-T-53 said:

EMT conduit also good for fabbing stuff out of.... comes in 10 foot sticks. 

 

 

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

 

Thanks!

[Los_Control]

I really got nothing .... was going to suggest using 8"x16" concrete blocks to stack and build up height .... then just back the truck under it and start lifting and removing blocks and sliding it in place ..... the blocks you can always use later.

I even had some scrap 2" pipe long enough to build 2 saw horses to assemble the bed on and then back the truck under it ....

 

In the end I just assembled the bed on the truck. .... I had all the original pieces I took off of the truck so I was able to bolt the cross members in place (loosely)  then I used plywood .... cheated and a lot easier but at this stage I was able to slide the front panel into place, then slide one side into place .... I just assembled it on the truck and it was too easy.

 

 

Now that you have your bed assembled .... how difficult would it be to take it apart and put it back together on the truck?

 

I always wonder why the pro's put it together off the truck then transfer it over.

[Young Ed]

Can you put eye bolts through 4 of the bed mounting points? That should get you most of the way there with maybe the eye bolts interfering with the last little drop.

[JBNeal]

4 hours ago, bkahler said:

Not sure what you mean by "duct tape attached to lifting strap"

Scratch that suggestion, I was thinking about something else...if ya lift the bed by the ratchet strap hooks, you can probably resist the bedsides from bowing by filling the bed with a temporary box by stacking some pallets in the bed, wedged in place with cardboard and/or carpet remnants.

[bkahler]

16 hours ago, Los_Control said:

Now that you have your bed assembled .... how difficult would it be to take it apart and put it back together on the truck?

16 hours ago, Los_Control said:

I always wonder why the pro's put it together off the truck then transfer it over.

 

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.

 

[bkahler]

16 hours ago, Young Ed said:

Can you put eye bolts through 4 of the bed mounting points? That should get you most of the way there with maybe the eye bolts interfering with the last little drop.

 

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!