Aluminum vs Steel flatbed

[NorseNW]

Making a transition to an F550 chasis cab and flatbed with storage boxes. I'm going with the Stable Camper bed kit with the CM flatbed. Here is my struggle - aluminum or steel?

I live in Vancouver, WA so plenty of rain and damp. We do about 4 trips a year to the coast to go clam digging and drive the truck on the beach. The truck gets sprayed down as soon as we return. I take it to a car wash and spray the undercarriage out. We tow a boat to the coast 4 times a year, so it sees saltwater environment a bit.

I plan to have the entire bed and boxes sprayed with a bed line regardless of what I go with. I don't have a need for the shiny finish on the bed and boxes so no reason to pay for that.

My main concern is having the steel turn into a rusty nightmare. Just curious what folks' experiences have been with different type beds. Clearly aluminum is more expensive but maybe it's worth it???

[covered_wagon]

be sure and ground the aluminum well with a good bond to the cab. Use all stainless mounting bolts. I recounted the years with my aluminum and it's actually almost 26 yrs now. Been on two different trucks. If it was steel it would look like 26 years are on it. It still looks good but, has scratches like your old pots and pans. no corrosion

[valhalla360]

mkirsch wrote:
Aluminum is not immune to corrosion either. It can be worse than steel.

Aluminum + steel + salt + moisture = battery = galvanic corrosion.

If you install it incorrectly, this is true. Hopefully the OP will take the time to isolate the aluminum from the steel if they are installing it.

Just bolting it direct metal to metal is where galvanic corrosion comes into play.

Assuming it's installed correctly and price isn't significantly different, I would go aluminum. It will save weight and not be prone to corrosion.

[JRscooby]

Grit dog wrote:


I don’t think so. A TC should only be loading the bed floor and bed mounts. Tailgate on or off wouldn’t help or hurt that.
Big camper and a nice new truck, I’d definitely run plywood under it the next time. Our 4000lb camper did a nice job of denting the bed floor.

I wonder if sheets of Styrofoam would not work better? Back when driving screws in plywood by hand we would sometimes find a hard spot. I could see a chance of damage to bed or camper floor.
And when wood gets wet, can be slick. Styrofoam will not absorb water.

[biggjb]

Grit Dog the plywood is an excellent suggestion. My TC weighs about 3500 lbs and I really want my truck to look newer...

[Grit_dog]

biggjb wrote:
This question/concern may not be related but I have recently changed my F250(steel body) for a F350(aluminum body). I have heard that the tailgate of the F350 aluminum body is an integral part for strength and removing it may compromise the strength of the box. Has anyone heard a similar story and is it true.

I don’t think so. A TC should only be loading the bed floor and bed mounts. Tailgate on or off wouldn’t help or hurt that.
Big camper and a nice new truck, I’d definitely run plywood under it the next time. Our 4000lb camper did a nice job of denting the bed floor.

[JRscooby]

biggjb wrote:
This question/concern may not be related but I have recently changed my F250(steel body) for a F350(aluminum body). I have heard that the tailgate of the F350 aluminum body is an integral part for strength and removing it may compromise the strength of the box. Has anyone heard a similar story and is it true.

If you look at a old steel pickup box that has been used without a tailgate you can often see stress cracks in the corners where floor meets sides. Would aluminum be better?

[biggjb]

This question/concern may not be related but I have recently changed my F250(steel body) for a F350(aluminum body). I have heard that the tailgate of the F350 aluminum body is an integral part for strength and removing it may compromise the strength of the box. Has anyone heard a similar story and is it true.

[Bedlam]

I have taken mine down 50 PSI with little visible squish. It really did not help with flotation on sand.

[Grit_dog]

mellow wrote:
I couldn't believe my eyes with the one rig, guy had a Dynamax isata 5 out on the beach, said he was aired down to the 40's. Our sand is not hard packed like some beaches and he was floating good on it, like I said it really surprised me this past year seeing rigs with 19.5's out on the beach aired down.

Interesting.
I've never messed with airing down 19.5s. Only used them on commercial work trucks, but am aware of the considerations or potential issue.
Wonder if anyone else has experience how low you can go and still keep em on the bead.

[mellow]

I couldn't believe my eyes with the one rig, guy had a Dynamax isata 5 out on the beach, said he was aired down to the 40's. Our sand is not hard packed like some beaches and he was floating good on it, like I said it really surprised me this past year seeing rigs with 19.5's out on the beach aired down.

[Grit_dog]

Back to the OPs post.
I missed it too. He will be ordering a bare flatbed or having it sprayed with bed liner.
IMO this is a huge mistake.
First, the underside with the most of the “hard to reach” areas is not conducive to bed liner material.
Second, the exposed surfaces just look like poo after a handful of years. And although some people do it, it’s a ridiculous look. It was messing to protect from heavy abrasion and impact.
Not as a pleasing or easy to clean/ keep nice looking/finish.
Third , “double” the coating cost. Since you’ll need to get it coated first anyway. Or more than double once you see what the charge is to rhino liner the whole thing inside and out. Better be sitting down.
And lastly, the 2 big name bed liners add 60-70lbs to the inside of an 8’ pickup bed. That equals about 200? lbs of coating or more on a big flatbed with boxes 100% coated.

Now the smaller “challenges”. If you don’t pay for paint or powder first then you have all the interior surfaces like in the tool boxes getting rhino lined and even more hard to reach areas.

Bottom line, get a good quality paint or powder coat. And be done with it. Rhino line the floor if that’s your thing (not a bad idea) and don’t try to reinvent the wheel.

[jimh406]

mellow wrote:
This is not true, I have run into many guys running 19.5 aired down on the beach with big rigs, and this is in sugar sand not hard sand, so it CAN be done, I couldn't believe it till I saw it.

Of course, you can drive anything on a beach. Fwiw, I’ve driven even a Class A on the beach and my TC as well that has 19.5s. My main point is that if you main goal is traction on soft sand, 19.5s aren’t the best choice. Sounds like OP is getting ready to drop a lot of money on a setup, so I wanted him to be aware. Obviously, he can do what he wants.

I don’t know what you saw. The minimum tire pressure for 19.5s is a lot higher due to the type of bead with most people recommending going no less than 60. Technically going from 110 to 60 is airing down, but not anywhere near what standard E DRW tires can do at 20 or even lower.. Furthermore the carcass is a lot thicker and stronger as a commercial tire which means you have very little benefit of low pressure.

[markowwes]

Have had an aluminum service body on my F550 for 15 years now without any corrosion or paint problems.
If the material, being steel or aluminum is prepared properly, you won’t have a problem either, my deck was washed down with acetone and powder coated properly, any steel deck should be sand blasted to shiny metal and primed and powder coated too. Don’t cheap out on the finish either way and you won’t have problems, steel over aluminum will make it considerably heavier even though you have a 550 it will still make a difference in the final GVW so look at all your options (trailer tongue weight, generator, extra equipment, camping gear, fuel) they all add up and the next thing you know is the 550 isn’t enough.

[Grit_dog]

mkirsch wrote:
Depends on where you get the steel flatbed from. If they use garbage metal and paint, it will be rusty before you can blink.

Sage advice. Even moreso in NY.
Of course it was on the internet but I recall someone saying one of the big mfgs, CM I believe, had poor quality coatings.
If I was buying a steel bed long term this would be one of my primary concerns.

Same with aluminum I suppose. A bare aluminum bed will look like poo soon and very difficult to maintain appearance. So quality of coatings is almost equally important but more for appearance.