flat bed for a pickup what are your opinions

[houndcrazy93]

hey everyone i was thinging about making a flat bed for my toyota, and was wondering if they gave you better gas milage ore anything. also whats good about them and whats bad about them thanks for the help everyone

[pegleg]

do you have a specific reason for wanting a flat bed? they have their use's for sure but for most people a standard bed is more practical. not much fuel savings with a flatbed as they tend to weigh more then a standard bed. they use thicker steel for strength vs. thin shaped steel for rigidity and strength. then you have the cost of a new bed to offset. unless you can find a cheaper method for your bed your looking at a couple grand most places. I've seen guys use wood beds but they tend to turn into dust or mushroom beds depending on your area. aluminum is light but damn expensive.
I guess it tends to depend on your needs. a flatbed with a dump hoist, rails, under bed tool boxes, work lights, a hidden goose neck hitch, with bed locks,receiver hitch and a few other goodies is a real work saver that really is worth installing on a 3/4 ton or larger truck in my opinion but it would be a real niche to put it on a Toyota.

[tedsmith]

unless you are going to use it to build fence or haul hay or fire wood I dont think I would bother expensive to put on and you will be scattering your tools down the road if you dont keep everything tied down

[captd]

Its the best way to go, easy to load and work on, build dog box to load from side. Ive bought two trucks, salvage title that were hit rear. discarded box built flatbed. six ft bed about 1800 or 3 bucks a foot for alum or build it yourself with treated wood, last as long as the trk. alum lasts a long time, use on different trks, good resale too. best,
D

[wyoutfitter]

flat beds on pickups are the only way to go in my opinion. They are SOOO handy, that is if you use your truck for actuall work, and not just to drive to church and back!!!

[tman308]

another advantage a good friend of mine learned is that when you slide off the road into a ditch you don't damage your bed if it is a flat bed.

[Buddyw]

I'm thinking of building a flat bed for my truck.. When I get some money for metal..

My thoughts are to try for a more of a Utility type truck with Tool boxes on each side a fuel tank, and a dog box in the middle, My thoughts are to make the top study enough to load a quad or lumber on top of the Box.

I Don't know if the top will be too high or not if I do that..

I'd also like to have it so the Top of the Box Can remove and I can install a goose neck ball down in there, (Of coarse I won't be having the dogs in there if I'm pulling a Goose neck...

Don't know if it will work or not Just one of my projects that I want to do one day.. Might never happen...

Buddy.

[houndcrazy93]

Buddy I was plaing on doing the same thing with a box I want to make for it, so u can load a quad on top of it. Thanks for the help guys, let's keep it comming I'm getting a lot of help

[catdogs]

Always been a fan of the over the rail boxes. There is nothing lighter in weight than the factory truck box, and the sides for a dog box are already there. Easy to roof it and make it strong enough for a quad. Only disadvantage is a regular box is easier to take in and out, but mine stays in the truck all the time.

[captd]

first thing i did on new power wagon was get a flatbed on it, save the new box till trade off time. my boxes are 24 by30 inches loading from the side. room for two dogs, on long haul perfect for one. keep lighting a few inches back from end of bed then you can back into trees on narrow turnaround.mount another set of lights up on headrack. if you really want toget it low to ground put wheelwells in bed. best,D

[pegleg]

If you know specifically what you want to do on a box and can't get there any way but custom then go for it. I can't say I haven't made my share of different boxes. I just didn't see the advantage of a flatbed on a small truck.
If you want to haul dogs and quads then there are some different things you could try. my first idea is to forget a "flatbed" and customize it completely. put your dog boxes in front of your tires and drop them down low like a under the bed storage box would be, but go up high enough for hound clearance.you may have to go a bit wider then your cab but shouldn't matter much. you would then have storage/cargo between the boxes. you could run a standard truck tool box between them and still have some room under it.
this would put everything low enough for a goose-neck hitch to work. usually you can scrunch things in the space but it's the height that can be a issue if you are driving through a wash/dip the trailer leans forward or if there is a little forward overhang on the trailer. turning will cause contact. with the boxes low you miss that mess.
you could do what ever you wanted between and behind the tires and still be able to load a quad/snowmobile on the top with out getting much higher then the cab or headache rack.

Just make sure you have a good exhaust system with pipes that reach the rear and points down and back.