stickyeye
New Jersey
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Joined: 05/22/2005
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A while back someone posted about the sheetmetal in their truck bed developing some small tears towards the rear. I don't remember the brand truck they had but my Dodge seems to be having the same issue. They are not very big but they are an obvious stress point and don't want them to grow! My best guess is that it happens either while I'm traveling and the rocking motion causes it or when I load and the rear makes touchdown before the front sometimes. I have a bed liner and rubber mat but I guess this is not enough to disperse the load. Any suggestions or comments on this would be appreciated to correct this problem.
Thanks,
Sticky
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silversand
Montreal
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Sticky:
It was a Dodge truck.
I was thinking over this issue, and came up with what I believe to be a potentially good reinforcement: have the bed professionally sprayed with Line-X (or equivalent). IMO, this may protect againsed additional cracking that could occur just about anywhere on the sheet metal, and would be far better than patching a 1 sq. inch area, and random reinforcing (without any finite-element analytical data on this bed, with your particular load, random reinforcing would be hit-and-miss; so why take a chance?).
You could contact their technical people (not the franchised applier, but contact the manufacturer, and talk to their product development people), and inquire into possible research they may have conducted into/vis sheet-metal~Line-X reinforcement data.
The trademark Line-X is owned by: LINE-X FRANCHISE DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION, Suite 500 6 Hutton Centre Drive, Santa Ana CA. The Spray-on polyurethane and polyurea coating material itself was originally developed by: Burtin Urethane Corporation, 2550 So. Garnsey Street Santa Ana CA. However, Burtin LLC. was bought-out by BASF in 2001. So, you'd need to contact BASF's Urethane Specialties group. Start with: David Kielbasa, Urethane Specialties: Tel: (734) 324-6318.
Let us know what you find out!
Cheers,
Silver-
Silver
2004 Chevy Silverado 2500HD 4x4 6.0L Ext/LB Tow Package 4L80E Michelin AT2s| Outfitter Caribou
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Super_Dave
Sacramento, CA
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I would think that a sheet of plywood under the rubber mat would also do a pretty good job of dispersing the load.
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TonysDodge
AZ
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I too recall it was a dodge; Checked mine nad had no cracking.
I have to disagree with the line-x suggestion. While it may bond with the painted surface, there is not much material there to add strength to resist tearing sheet metal.
Instead, I suggest a 4x8 sheet of plywood and a bed mat. This helps to spread out the load and may keep the crack from spreading.
Tony
2006 Dodge 3500 QC LB DRW CTD
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jmtandem
carson city nv
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I noticed some minor issues. I corrected this with a one inch plywood the entire length and width incl to the sides front and back of the wheel wells. This disperses the weight over a larger area. Then use a thick rubber mat on top of the wood.
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SoCalDesertRider
SanDiego, CA, USA
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It sounds to me that if the sheetmetal is cracking from weight in the truck bed, the truck bed must be insufficiently supported underneath somewhere, allowing the bed to flex too much and over stress the metal at certain weak points.
Maybe adding longitudinal or transverse support under the truck bed between factory mounting points would stop the source of the flexing. Take a good look at how the bed is supported and see if you can spot any weak areas that would allow it to flex too much.
If the rear end of the truckbed floor is not supported all the way to the rear edge, as it was in one of my Chevy's that had a body lift that didn't support the last set of bed mounts at the right height, then rear of the truck bed floor will want to sag down anytime weight is placed in that location. My truck bed was cracked and bent at the rear because of it.
If the camper is tied down to the truck bed rather than to the truck frame and the sheetmetal is cracking because of how the camper is tied down, then I would say getting rid of the bed mounted tie downs and upgrading to frame mounted ones would be the obvious answer.
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snowranger
sf
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This is the thread
http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseac........hread/tid/21309917/srt/pa/pging/1/page/1
The tear was caused by the raised ridges that concentrate the weight unevenly over the bed. I just bought a heavy mat. If it gets worse, I may place quarter inch spacers between the bed ridges. In any event the damage is mainly cosmetic. The camper is not going to fall through the bed. There are other support areas.
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jmtandem
carson city nv
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I think I fixed the issue. I use one inch pressboard that covers the entire width of bed, not just between the wheelwells. It allows for the distribution of weight across the larger area and eliminates the pressure points at the corners of the camper. What happens is that the truck bed flexes in response to the road irregularities and the camper resists that flex at the corners. Then cover with a rubber mat and don't overtighten the tie downs. If you fill in the troughs in the bed you are partially fixing the problem but not fully as the press board allows the pressure to be spread to the edges of the bed, not just the edge of the camper. Fords are not immune to this issue either.
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stickyeye
New Jersey
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Thanks all for the replies. Sounds like the plywood may be a good solution, just wonder how well it will hold up to warping when wet even if it is treated. I was thinking maybe a thick piece dense foam insulation to act as a cushion between the bed and camper. I figured that the foam will just compress at the pressure points and take the shape as needed. Am I wrong thinking this??? As I said before, the cracks are not that bad yet (similar to the pics in the other thread) but I want to avoid any worsening. Should I do something to repair these cracks first or just rust proof them?
Sticky
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SoCalDesertRider
SanDiego, CA, USA
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stickyeye wrote:Should I do something to repair these cracks first or just rust proof them? Weld them up, spray with primer, paint to match. 
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