Heads up for tow vechicles

joelc wrote:
I have a 2006 F-350 Dually long bed and a brought it to the shop today due to a charging issue. I had the mechanic check out the truck to be sure there were no other issues. Upon inspection, he noticed that the 3 beams that hold the trucks bed to the truck frame were rotting. I notice the rear one and it looked like swiss cheese. With this situation if the "beams" failed I could loose the bed or if towing my 5er. I have very light miles on the truck for its age, so that has nothing to do with mileage, but age and salt. The truck was purchased new in New England. A word of warning, is anyone that tows should also occasionally check their vehicles frame integrity. I was told that I could either find a "junk" bed or a welder who would remove the bed and replace the supports. est. cost $1500 to $2000 per phone conversation.

Appears you’re not a diy er because this is not a terribly difficult fix, to just shore up what’s there.
The real question is how bad is it, what is it worth to you to repair or replace and how long are you keeping the truck?

If your truck is from the rust belt, this is just the first thing to rust out. Your truck is getting old, so resale if it’s a gasser dually is pretty dismal. And resale if it’s a 6.0 is even worse. I’d be hesitant to drop a bunch of money based on that alone. Much less the rust condition of the rest of the truck.
Or to put it succinctly, rust repair is not generally a good investment on a vehicle that is not valuable as a classic.