I recently had to park my 97 5.4 due to the cross member (if thats the correct term) for the bed-the support, rusting away which dropped the bed 2 inches lower than the cab. I got a 2003 fx4 edition now, I wanted any suggestions on replacing this support before it ends up the same as my 97. It's already rusting a little. Any help would be appreciated

 

Dorman makes a kit for the superduty. 924-256 short bed 924-257 long bed. I thought I saw them for the F-150 in the flier but I may be wrong. I've seen people use square channel welded in.

 

Yeah you don't want them to collapse. The bed cross member on my '99 F-350 did, and being a wood worker I just put a 2x2 in there and it sort of solved my issue but the bed was bent in the shape it was when that support collapsed so it never looked right.