[Nathaniel Carr]

Does anyone have any ideas about truck beds?
I want to take off the factory bed from my F350, and put on something more practical for our work.

Mainly I want to be able to set the Bucket or forks into the bed with out reaching up over the sides.

Any one know any truck upfitters that have something with some added utility? Built in tool boxes, transfer tank, that sort of thing.

[dan deutekom]

Just go to your local truck upfitter and tell them what you want built and they will do it. It sounds like you want a basic stake truck with some additions.

[Nathaniel Carr]

Dan, thanks for your advise.
I was wondering if anyone has come up with any labor saver truck bodies. One guy just posted about a crane that he welded on. I have an asphalt shoot on my 1 ton and that has come in handy. Does any body keep all of their hand tools right on the truck??
What are guys doing?

[dan deutekom]

I also have a small crane installed in the back of the pickup. It will lift a section of stone or the packer. It is rated for 1000 lbs although I think that is optimistic but it will easily handle 500 lbs. Saves my back and I can pick up material or tools by myself. Only cost me $50.00 on sale. I also have a tool rack behind the cab for my shovels, rakes, picks etc plus I have a tarp attached to the tool rack so that I can just pull it over the load when needed.

[dan deutekom]

Picture of crane

[Pelican]

I have an Alum Line flatbed on my F-350 you can see in the truck color poll. They will custom build a body to your specs, take a look at their website, www.alumline.com. You can get underbody boxes attached to it, or even a backpack tool box. I mounted a hoist under mine so it dumps, I put a leaf box on in the fall.

[4seasons]

If you would like to store tools on the truck, build the tool box behind your cab as tall as your cab. Then install a stake bed or put sides that fold down. a lift gate system helps a lot of guys around here also.

[Green4Me]

checkout www.bradfordbuilt.com. They make a fine looking bed in my opinion. I am outfitting my newest pickup with this bed (dually model)and will do so with future pickups. This to me is a great looking platform that can accommodate all sorts of boxes and racks and sides, depending upon the mission of the truck that day. I have plans to fit out a crane and a vice for this bed, along with underbody boxes.

These beds present the professional and unified look for my trucks that I am trying to accomplish. The look nice and are very functional for my operations.
Good luck.

[4seasons]

One downfall of toolboxes around the wheelwells, is that they rust out pretty fast. Then your tools get nasty. The further you move the boxes away the better off you'll be.

[r schipul]

If you've never done so, you might want to take a look at the book or video Systems for Success.

I think you'd get some ideas

[Nathaniel Carr]

Got any more details on System for success? Is it the AM Leonard publication?

[r schipul]

Deleted see post below

[r schipul]

Sytems for Success is a book written by Dwight Hughes a landscaper/nurseryman in Iowa. He lectures on how he is able to gross upwards of $750,000 with 4 employees by minimizing waste and creating simple systems within his company. Some of those systems is the way his vehicles are set up and used
The book shouldn't be hard to find.
It is somewhat out of date though. He's incorporated many new ideas which the book doesn't include such as a ramp style car carrying trailer with underneath storage which he uses to carry multiple machines. He was the one who came up with the idea for the Tree Boss and the first landscaper to use and heavily publicize the Power Trac.
If you can ever see a lecture it's worth the trip whether you incorporate any of his ideas or not.

[synner]

I've gone through the Hughes book several times. Its full of lots of good, back to basics info. Every little bit helps at the end of the day.

My favourite is keeping a metal paint scraper in the tool box to scrape off shovels and tools at the end of the day, certainly saves the fingers and gloves.

[daveyo]

We use the AmeriDeck product from Buck's Fabricating. It lowers flat on the ground so your able to drive mowers, quads, etc right on to it. Once they're strapped on you just press the lift button and up she goes. It has been a "HUGE" backsaver and timesaver for our company. We lost the use of it for two weeks last summer, and boy did we miss it. SuperDeck Truck Loading System from AmeriDeck™