What kind of condition was the bed in when you bought the truck from the previous owner?
I have been in a group with about 3000+ Arctic Fox / Wolf Creek camper owners since 2016. No one else has ever experienced truck bed damage like this.
I can't envision how a camper could cause the front of the truck bed to split apart like that.
Putting a flatbed on is going to drastically increase the weight on your rear axle since a flatbed will weigh a lot more than a standard truck bed. That's not something I'd ever consider doing on a 2500 series truck.
I had a long bed 811, which is slightly lighter than a short bed version because it has shorter side wings and no generator. I weighed my truck on my way to the dealer to pick up the camper. On the way home I stopped at the same scale.
The 811 put my dually over the GVWR of the truck.
