Flatbed for my 720

[nathan_454]

box was trashed on my 720, so decided to build a flatbed for it, coming along nicely, going to add a headache rack as well. heres a bunch of pictures!

 

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once the steel work is done I will have it powdercoated, and will treat the wood to seal from the elements. will update as I make progress!

[wayno]

Nice job on the flatbed, it looks good.

I have concluded that corner stake pockets are a must for me, as I haul debris a lot, I also added tie downs on the sides, I used the tie downs from the 720 box, they work great, but I used thick angle iron for my sides, so I have access to the back of the metal.

Here is a photo of my flatbed truck, as you can see, I need tie downs, and so will you.

I guess I only used the front tie down in this photo, but as you can see, the side boards are held on by angle iron posts in the corners

[nathan_454]

Yeah already in the plans, going to put weld-on stake pockets down the sides, then will lay a piece of flat stock over the length of them, dovetailed in at the ends, like this -

 

 

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[nathan_454]

heres another picture showing what i plan to do for stake pockets:

 

 

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[wayno]

You will not regret it, I mean I don't expect that most Ratsun owners will treat there datsun like I do, but if you want to haul anything, you need some way to hook straps to the bed.

I find that I haul more loose materials than stuff that needs straps, so I have 8 inch side boards, I used to have two boards on top of each other, but when I changed over to a dually axle, the boards were to high, they blocked the mirror.

[nathan_454]

I want to find a dually axle, but am not having any luck. have been searching off and on for about a year, been tempted to measure up a Toyota dually axle/see how much work it would be.

[wayno]

I want to find a dually axle, but am not having any luck. have been searching off and on for about a year, been tempted to measure up a Toyota dually axle/see how much work it would be.

 

I know where one is, but they want $500.00 or more, that's to much as far as I am concerned, I offered them half of that, and they said no.

The reason I like the nissan dually is that they are 14 inch wheels, so it keeps it low, but I beleave the toyota axle uses 14 inch wheels also, so it won't make any differance, as the rear bolt patterns are differant than anything else anyway, but there is one differance between the toyota one tons and the nissan one tons, the toyotas use the dually wheel on the front also, nissan does not, so I should to carry two spares, but I don't.

If you want to pay that much for one of them rearends, PM me, and I will tell you where to find the one mentioned.

[Z chopper]

now that is a solid flatbed

[nathan_454]

now that is a solid flatbed

 

yeah its acutally too solid, its all 3/16 thick, and is ending up HEAVY!!!, but oh well. if its worth building its worth overbuilding.

[Z chopper]

maybe add an extra leaf to make up for the extra weight?? or get heavier duty shocks in the rear??

[nathan_454]

I dont think its any heavier then the stock bed. but it will be close!

[mklotz70]

Great metal work! Nice!

I really like the pockets covered with flat bar idea....very clean :)

[nathan_454]

Thanks for the kind words!

[wayno]

It's looking good, if you are going to haul any heavy loads, I would suggest more cross braces, mine are only 1 inch square tubes, but I have about 5 or 6 of them, so it will take the weight.

[nathan_454]

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[nathan_454]

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[poor-mans-720]

dude... that metal work is great!!!

where do you get your metal? and how much did just the metal run? I want to pick up some steel for bumpers, but kinda need an ideal how much it runs.

The tube steel is exactly what i need :)

good looking welds outta that miller too... congrats

[nathan_454]

Thanks for the comments!

 

 

I try and buy most of it from Centralia Steel here in town, I have gotten some of it from Capital industrial in Olympia, but I feel the material from Centralia steel is of higher quality. it is kept under cover and comes coated in heavy nasty black oil, which is kind of a bitch to clean but the mill scale comes off easier and theres not rust.

 

I've spent probably 400 in steel thus far, give or take 25-30 bucks, don't have the receipts handy.

 

This is the first project with the new machine (miller 211) and I am liking it so far! starting to get familiar with the machine

[wayno]

This is looking real good, your a better welder than I will ever be.

[nathan_454]

thanks wayno! I don't consider myself to be all that good of a welder, I have been around some VERY talented welders in my life at various jobs, and have picked up some good info/pointers along the way. I would say the number one most important (after learning machine setup) is to put yourself in a comfortable position to make the weld, nothing is worse then to be trucking along laying a nice bead when your arms get in eachothers way, or your elbow hits your knee, etc, etc. lol

[wayno]

My biggest issue is being able to see what I am doing, even with the shade on the helmet set on the lightest setting it will go, I need flood lights on the work to see, and that is a hassle, so a lot of the time I am welding blind.

But a lot of the welding I do is spot/tack welding on sheet metal, don't need to see to do that, just aim and pull the trigger for a second, but it's always nice to see a good weld, and that flatbed is full of them.

[bananahamuck]

Looks good man very beefy.. the pyramid made of the rectangle and triangle pieces is pretty cool fabbing , :thumbup:

[nathan_454]

Made some progress over the weekend, took today and tomorrow off work to keep working on it!

 

the pictures are out of order again, but you get the idea

 

[nathan_454]

[wayno]

All the bells and whistles, it's look'n good. :thumbup: