I’m surprised they skimped on the welds. I’d have done the same to strengthen it up. Definitely food for thought if I ever buy or build a flat bed. I’m excited to see how you build the boxes. As always I appreciate the videos I always learn something.
Why when welding vertical to weld upward: If you weld vertical downward, gravity pulls the puddle and you naturally weld faster just to keep up with the puddle. This reduces penetration. When welding vertical upward, you control the puddle and you get greater penetration and a stronger weld. Your welds look just fine!
That truck is gonna look awesome. Especially on the day it brings a 95-97 Powerstroke Dually home. I always liked the top mounted spare btw. Just my 2 cents.
Sam, get yourself a mirror dashcam. You WON'T be disappointed!!! The one I use is the Vantop H612T Mirror DashCam. The last one I bought from Walmart, and I got the hardwire kit from Vantop. I mounted the rearview camera on the top middle of my headache rack and it gives me a view over the top of the gooseneck. Between my headache rack and tinted rear windows I have virtually no visibility out the back. I have it recording front and rear at 2K resolution whenever the truck is running. There's several videos on my channel showing the view out of both. I have not done a video review on it yet, but I absolutely love it! When you are driving down the road and look at the "mirror", you see everything behind you and even cars that are along side the flatbed. You can also use it for lining up your gooseneck to the ball. And a dashcam is 110% required for anyone with any kind of numbers on their vehicle as you are a scam magnet. NEVER drive without a dashcam!
That flatbed is looking good Sam, a little bit more bracing can be a good insurance policy down the road, can't wait to see all that you got planned for it.
Glad you’re going through it and finding the weak spots. Even on nice stuff, sometimes they just don’t fully get it. Also your downhill weld looks nice because most self shield flux core is a downhill process. Check your filler metal spec sheet to be sure, but a lot of the self shield stuff is single pass only because of how much deoxidizing material is in them
awesome video no matter what you buy there is always room for improvement . by the time you get all the bracing in it will be waaay better than an installed bed .
The rear louvers help keep your cab cool in the summer. I was amazed how much cooler my cab was after installing my Tumbleweed Mfg headache rack. I didn't like the visibility at first but after a while I didn't even notice it.
If your interested in a steel grill guard/ bumper replacement, look into fab fours. American company built with american steel and great build quality. ( no skipped welds) still light enough you can pick it up yourself, but makes most of those steel bumpers look cheap.
Looks great! Truck sounds great! Wish they reinforced that bed better than they did. It's pretty, but I can't stand just getting by with something. I'd want it bomb-proof like yer making it!
Curious if there are any access panels on that flatbed to get to things like fuel pumps. Might be a worthy investment if not. Some of our utility trucks come with them right from Altec.
Really enjoyed the video. Just got myself the same rig and also putting a flat bed on it. I had a few questions. Did you set the bed directly onto the frame or did you use something in between the chassis and the bed? Also how many bolts did you use in each of your brackets going into the chassis? Lastly were you able to use the factory holes or did you have to drill new ones when you installed the brackets onto the chassis?
Ordered a 4500 Laramie this week and was disappointed I couldn’t get the dual tanks. Guess with supply chain issues dual tanks aren’t available right now
I ran into the same issue. Even your big name flatbed companies like CM, their truck bed tow numbers were lower than what the Ram 5500 is rated for towing. CM gooseneck -30k, Ram gooseneck factory tow spec- 34k, CM bumper pull-18.5k, Ram factory bumper pull tow spec- 23k. Why can't bed companies make a bed strong enough to fully utilize the truck's capabilities?
Ram 5500 flatbed truck build series. Unfortunately, I don't live in California. I'm Born in Puerto Rico. I came from New York in January 2008-November 2014. I was leaving New York. I recently moved to Texas in November 2014.
Trust but verify. Gussets and a little time. I've been accused of 'overbuilding' all my life, but its my peace of mind! I lost a trailer once when I was 17 years old, I swore 'never again'!! LOL 8) --gary
They don't weld every joint because of cost I suspect. The extra time (labor) and materials (grinding wheels, welding rod/wire just increases production costs which decreases profit margins.
Rather pay more like I did and get something that won’t fall apart. That’s a terrible excuse to give the manufacturer. Paid for quality and didn’t get it
Hate to tell you but some/all of the welds were short on purpose, welding all the way to the end is often what causes cracks to start. I welded semi trailers years ago.
@@VBELTandSON Yeah, I can't speak to their engineering. Also it doesn't really matter because you can weld and therefore you can always fix it. I just thought I would throw it out there as I hadn't seen another mention of it. Appreciate your videos, about to buy a 3500 C&C to go with my old 95 12v that just broke 200k
For a premium bed it seems very chintzy. I know you can beef it up, but you shouldn't have to. I miss the days when companies gave a damn about their product and built everything overkill. This bed looks like a death trap from the factory.
Most companies level it up to the welder "we pay you do to a good job". Thats fine if the welder cares. Sadly many do not. All companies need a quality control system
I work closely with a lot of trailer companies in Idaho. Most pay a piece rate not hourly so all the welders care about is getting them out of the door so they can get paid for that one and on to the next.
Exactly, seems to be all across the board with every company, that’s why I have opted to just build my own, then I can also build it exactly to my liking
@@VBELTandSON My buddy Layne with Denver off road in grand junction makes an aluminum winch bumper. Let me know if you want the contact or some pictures. Stout bumpers and look bad ass, I own 4 of them.
Buckstop in Prineville, OR makes a bad to the bone bumper. Just had them install all aluminum with steel hoops on my ‘21. Dirt cheap too! 💪🏼 go with the “classic 2”
You know that if you would have had the dealership put your flatbed on your truck you would have gotten to use it right away instead of you installing it yourself which takes time away from wanting to use it right away
You just voided your warranty on that flatbed if some goes wrong with it you can’t fix and the company sees you did some of your own welds they may make you pay for it even though you have a warranty on it
Another interesting video Sam, thanks for sharing. If l may make a suggestion, please leave your “subtitles” on the screen long enough to read. They disappear too quickly when l’ve barely read half way through them, it’s annoying having to keep going back on the video then getting ready to hit the pause button so l can read what l missed before. 😊👍👍🦘🇦🇺🦘
