I'll start this by saying I'm on the app and trying to search is beyond ridiculous. If there's a thread about this already, sorry. I have a '95 RCLB I'm going to make a flatbed for. Not going to be anything fancy but it'll serve its purpose. I'm debating on turning it into a dump bed as well. Has anyone ever done this? I'll take some pics in a little bit and try to convey my plans a little better.

 

Plan is to use a 1/4" steel plate going across the frame rails that will be the mount for a jack. Thoughts?

 

I think you need more than a flat plate. Ithink you'll at least need something withsides like the frame rails or maybe a box. Remember. all the weight will be coming straight doen. A flat 1/4 " piece won't hold much weight. Try looking at a couple dump trucks and see how they're made.

 

Maybe some angle iron on the sides and a piece running through the middle?

 

You will probably want to get some air bags in the back or f250 leaf springs. I put f250 front coils on my mine and Firestone air bags in the back with a compressor with a valves for each bag in the cab. It works good for heavy loads.

 

I googled dump bed images.

Looks like most people use the cross bracket which already exists, then have a folding arm that lifts the bed.

There is also a trick to getting the angles right. Local firewood guy build his own dump bed, something is off with the angle and it won't lift with the bed flat, they need to manually get it started.

 

I'm going to be using my 3 ton floor jack mounted on the plate. Not looking for a whole hydraulic setup, just enough to make it easier to dump trash out of. I'll only have a max of 1,000# of debris, and that's only if there's appliances.

 

1/4" flat plate will bend, but if you locate it between the box crossers you'll have room to use some wide u-channel.