I can't tell if I have one. The wall of the bed is so bent it touches the cab.

 

This may be what it's for. Does anyone else have a bend in the front of the bed? I know my dads does, but it's a dually. I think it's from the truck flexing too much, they can flex quite a bit. But that metal may be a prevention for it..

 

No, the gap is larger at the top of the bed so it isn't from frame flex. My bed wall is bashed from using the truck like a truck.

 

never mind, my f150 has it, but my 250 dont. there both the same trim levels, the only difference being is obviously my 250 is a 250 but the 150 is a short bed, and the 250 is a long bed.

 

Of the 4 f150s i got none have this

 

Maybe longbed vs short? Cab reinforcement last minute by ford?

 

91 short bed didn't have it, 94/96 Long bed had it

 

Here's a simple fix for the front of the bed when it's bent up against the cab. Get a piece of .25" x 3" angle iron. Cut to fit between the side bed rails. Place the angle between the bed rails resting on the front bed rail. Drill four holes, more if needed, through the angle iron large enough that a large self tapping screw will fit through the hole without threading it through. I started with 3" self tapping screws, drilled pilot holes through the front bed rail so that I could slowly thread the self tappers all the way through the bed rail without stripping them out.I used the 3" angle iron as my anchor point and cinched the self tapping screws down tight with a ratchet and socket. I cinched the screws down a little at a time going from one to the other until all four were tight and the front bed rail was pulled back into place. I then took each of the self tappers out one by one and replaced them with 2" self tappers of the same thread size so that I would not have the screws hanging out between the bed and cab. If it weren't 4am, I'd go take some pics, but that aint happening right now. Lol. Here's a small drawing kind of clarifying the process. I now have 3" angle iron bed rails on the front and sides of the beds and I never worry about beating the top of the bed up anymore. Love it!
[IMG][/IMG]

 

ok so i did a quick google search and the answer that kept popping up was that air moving in between the bed and cab would cause the back wall of the cab to flex and make noise. so if a customer complained ford would add the weight to stop the flex and noise. that would explain why some got it and some dont.

keep in mind this was gathered from reading other threads from sites that popped up on a google search and not from ford so it could be wrong, but it seems to me to be the most likely correct answer or at least the one that makes the most sense to me.

 

i found a thread where someone thought it was to keep vibration in the cab down, but that didn't make much sense to me lol.