Bed bolt upgrade?

[AtomicPlayboy]

Hi folks,

This should be an easy one but Google can't find an authoritative answer; maybe someone here can help.

Have a 1989 F250 with rusted out bed. Have located a new-to-me ratty-but-not-rusted bed which I'll be going to pick up in a couple of weeks. Swap over Christmas holidays, weather permitting. While I'm in there I'll be replacing the senders so the fuel gauges don't lie (bothers the wife more than it bothers me).

I haven't looked under the plastic bedliner but my understanding is that the OEM bolts are specialty carriage bolts and that I'll have to spend time under the truck cutting them off. No problem.

I'm on the hook for new special new bolts no matter what I do, so I figure that in case I have to take the bed off again I might as well buy the later flavor Torx Plus bolt and clip set so that with some anti-seize and some luck I have a prayer of getting the bolts out again without lying on my back and cussing.

Here's the big question: Dorman makes several kits. I'm assuming since this is an 8' bed I want the 8 bolt kit not the 6. That leaves me between the Dorman 924-311 and 924-312. Look to be about the same thing, but a $15 price difference, hmmm...

Any thoughts which I should get? Cutting bolts shorter is not an issue if I have to... but making them longer is impossible.

Thanks for any insights...

 

[laserjock]

There’s only actually 6 bolts in the bed. I used one of the dorman kits and it worked okay. Can’t remember which one now but o was surprised when I had bolts left over.

 

[mblaney]

Slightly off topic but I replaced my front two with good quality eye bolts. These trucks were designed and built back in the day when nobody needed to tie stuff down

 

[snicklas]

Honestly, I’d just go get regular hex head bolts. The floor isn’t flat....

My 92 was this way when we got it. I thought it was it was the P.O. being lazy, but, when we had to get in the rear tank, send the oldest under the truck with a wrench(don’t worry it’s his truck, he’s 22), I crawl in the bed with the cordless ugga-dugga wrench and the bed is loose in less than 5 minutes........

If you want to see what it looks like, I can take a picture this weekend, (it’s dark when I get home from work)........

 

[franklin2]

I use regular bolts also. Regular bolts, no matter what style head, and those Dorman kits are not really correct. The Ford bolts I have had to cut off are special shoulder bolts with a long shoulder. The threaded portion is around 1/2" or 12mm.

If you look where the bolt goes through the bed, it goes through a thin piece of tubing welded to the bottom of the bed. The shoulder of the factory bolt fits through this tubing. When you tighten the factory bolt down, the shoulder butts against bottom of the tubing and the frame when it's tightened. This prevents the tubing from being crushed when the bolt is tightened.

I have used regular bolts on several trucks I have had. As long as you do not over tighten them, they seem to work ok. I just did my little ranger the same way, but found I did have to reuse one of the clip nuts and original bolts on it. The gas tank completely hides the bolt up front behind the driver, no way to get to a regular nut on that one underneath on the ranger.

 

[IDIBRONCO]

No, Laserjock. There is usually 8 bolts on every long bed that I've ever seen except for the '86 F150 bed on my '85 F250. Now if I found one, there's bound to be more, like yours. My boss has been doing body work since the 70's and he had never seen one with only 6 bolts until I showed him mine.

 

[laserjock]

Now your making me want to go climb under the truck and look. I’m just sure there’s only 6. I was surprised. Mine is a 91.

 

[gandalf]

I had the bed off my truck not too long ago--'92 CCLB Dually. If memory serves me correctly, it has 8 bolts, IF you count the 4 which hold the big and heavy plate for the gooseneck hitch. There is every possibility that some one made that plate to utilize the bed bolts. I don't know. I don't recall any tubelike spacers between the bed and the frame, but they may have been removed when the gooseneck went in. That plate is big enough, and thick enough, that it won't bend, and it will distribute the load.

Pictures if anyone wants, when I get home.

 

[franklin2]

I had the bed off my truck not too long ago--'92 CCLB Dually. If memory serves me correctly, it has 8 bolts, IF you count the 4 which hold the big and heavy plate for the gooseneck hitch. There is every possibility that some one made that plate to utilize the bed bolts. I don't know. I don't recall any tubelike spacers between the bed and the frame, but they may have been removed when the gooseneck went in. That plate is big enough, and thick enough, that it won't bend, and it will distribute the load.

Pictures if anyone wants, when I get home.

Not tube spacers. The tubing I am talking about goes from the driver's side to the pass side of the bed. It's more like a U that is spot welded all the way across the bed. There are several all the way to the rear.

About the number of bolts controversy; I seem to remember some discussion before about that, and it seems the earlier trucks had more bolts in the bed than the later trucks.

 

[frankenwrench]

No, Laserjock. There is usually 8 bolts on every long bed that I've ever seen except for the '86 F150 bed on my '85 F250. Now if I found one, there's bound to be more, like yours. My boss has been doing body work since the 70's and he had never seen one with only 6 bolts until I showed him mine.

Just had bed off my 91 srw lwb and only 6 bolts. My 85 drw lwb also only has 6 bolts.

 

[Macrobb]

Yeah, always replace your bolts with hex-head ones.
I used two nuts and a lock washer between them, so that it won't rattle loose even if there isn't and torque from the bed pushing against it.

edit:
My trucks have 6 as well, IIRC.

 

[snicklas]

My 92 had 6....... but I know I'm not the first one to have the bolts out......

 

[david85]

Six in mine too, but the design seems to lend itself to 8 bolts, if desired.

 

[junk]

Both my trucks only use 6. Both are long boxes.

Lots of guys use the bolt kits for the newer trucks. They put a U-nut on the frame and a torx head bolt from the top. Seems way better than the old bolts and nuts that always seem to get rusted up and take 2 guys and a torch to take off.

 

[laserjock]

Both my trucks only use 6. Both are long boxes.

Lots of guys use the bolt kits for the newer trucks. They put a U-nut on the frame and a torx head bolt from the top. Seems way better than the old bolts and nuts that always seem to get rusted up and take 2 guys and a torch to take off.

The dorman kits are Allen head. But same u-clip. Nice to be able to put the bolts in by yourself.