Dump bed on a 1st Gen ?

[GIT-R-DONE]

Has anyone out there put on a kit to make their truck a dump bed? I found this:



http://www.johnswholesale.com/dumpkits.html



was wondering if it might be cheaper to make my own? Any ideas ?

 

[Philip]

Northern tools also has those style of kits.



If you thinking about using the stock P/U bed something to think about is you will not have a class 3 hitch any more and the bumper has to be mounted to the bed. So no tow point there eather. All you can do is haul in the bed only.



I had a friend used on of those kits years ago. He sold the truck about 2 months later because he couldn't tow anything.

 

[TKingsbury]

Also, I believe the beds are too flimsy to use without a sub frame. There are dump bed inserts available, might look into that if you really need a dump. My . 02

Travis. .

 

[tugboatphil]

Ditto what Travis said. The front vertical corner seams of my bed have split right along the edge. Once exposed, I could see that it had rusted and weakend from the inside.



That said, I see municipal D-350s with regular dump beds on them.

 

[HGreen]

I have an EZ-Dumper insert that I had in my 89 Ford. Worked well, but retails around $2200. Since I now have a short bed, I'm going to make a trailer for it this winter.

 

[GIT-R-DONE]

Ditto what Travis said. The front vertical corner seams of my bed have split right along the edge. Once exposed, I could see that it had rusted and weakend from the inside.



That said, I see municipal D-350s with regular dump beds on them.

This is why I ask questions. I never thought about the bed possibly needing a sub frame. I realize the beds werent intended for this, as I only planned on doing light hauling 1000K or less, ie firewood, gravel, etc. Basically for home use.



Maybe it would be better to put the effort ( $$ ) into a trailer that dumps.