Service Body

BigToe wrote:

This is exactly what I saw on the AT&T truck and I want one.

Standard service bodies have bed rails that are at least as tall as the stock bed and generally taller. So you can expect greater clearance problems. Also, the side boxes narrow the bed width to around 50 inches while most common extended pin boxes are longer than 25 inches, which means the back of the pin box will hit the side of the bed. Finally, the cross members are taller than a stock pickup bed, making the bed floor higher so a normal fifth wheel hitch will sit too tall. There are shorter hitches designed for flatbeds, but they can have the opposite problem of being too short for a service body. For these reasons, most RV hauler beds are really glorified flatbeds.

My ordered my service body 11 years ago from RKI in Houston and for a $200 engineering charge, they modified the stock height to my request. With the reduced height and higher load floor, bed depth is just 12 inches, but it still works for carrying things. Overall bed rail height is 50 inches compared to 55+ inches for just about all pickups today. This reduced height results in 10 inch bed rail clearance but more importantly allows the back of the pin box to also clear the rails. The lower height also means I don't need a step stool to operate the hitch. Weight increase compared to the stock bed was only 400 lbs. This year I moved the service body from an '03 2500HD to a '13 3500 SRW.

Today I doubt that RKI or anyone else would do a custom service body for just a $200 up charge. So, if I were starting from scratch today, I would probably buy the lowest height stock body available and then use a Sidewinder pin box to avoid contact with the bed rails.

vietvet66-67 wrote:
If you want a service body, think about getting a chassis/cab as most of those style bodies are made to fit chassis/cab frames.

The hauler bodies like I have are able to be installed on a pickup frame with no problems. A frame is installed on top of the frame to level it for the body.

The reason I went with a pickup frame is that Ford has different power ratings between the pickup and the cab and chassis models. Different turbos and lower horsepower and torque on the cab and chassis.

My Ford F450

If you want a service body, think about getting a chassis/cab as most of those style bodies are made to fit chassis/cab frames.

SailingOn wrote:
Payload is an issue for FW haulers.
Many of us would put enough cool essential stuff in a service body to be a problem.

I suppose that is a concern as I figured I could load a bunch of stuff that needs ready access. Sure would be convenient.

Payload is an issue for FW haulers.
Many of us would put enough cool essential stuff in a service body to be a problem.

After looking at those I think I prefer the Highwayman. That was really neat, included extra fuel, and all aluminum. It made the truck look nice, while some of them was somewhat ugly. However; I bet it was very expensive.

I saw an AT&T GMC 2500 with what looked like a regular pickup bed from distance. Once up close it had doors both in front of and behind the rear wheels. Looking inside bed the sides covered the wheel wells so his compartments were a good 12" deep and still had 4' of flat load space. Would love to have one of these.

last year we saw a little flat bed with boxes on each side it looked decent.