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BradW's avatar
BradW
Explorer II
Mar 03, 2019

Don't bend your flimsy steel truck bed

https://youtu.be/WyqGVRmcB2Q

Good part starts at 4:00.

Bad part is, this is EXACTLY how I carried my old Lance to the dealer for trade-in. I put a 2x6 crossways at the very front of the truck bed to lift the cabover higher to clear the truck cab. Since my TC was 1,500 lbs heavier than this StarCraft, this is unimpeachable scientific empirical proof positive that the new ford aluminum truck beds are stronger than steel. ;)

bradw
  • Run the boards front to rear so that they are supported by the bed supports. Running them cross-ways and not directly over the bed support can easily cause this.
  • To give them some credits - at least they let others to learn from their mistakes.
    At least they had light camper and did not break camper floor.
    When I drop my camper, I add horizontal support under front of the floor. Once I put 4x4 2 inches farther and even with only part of the weight, the floor start breaking. With my 4000 lb camper, I believe about close to 3000 lb goes into front wall area. No truck floor is going to hold that much between the supports and camper floor will break in the middle as well.