Steel vs Aluminum Truck Beds

I can't imagine having an aluminum bed for what I do. I know without thinking I threw a scrap cylinder head into the bed of my shop truck and put a big deep dent in it. Really pissed me off that I did that, but if that was aluminum it would have knocked a huge ass hole in it.

I do think a composite bed floor would be really handy, especially if it can be cheaply and easily replaced if it gets heavily damaged.
 
For decades truck beds have had dents in them. It's what happens to a truck bed and if you are dumb enough to dump like that into a truck bed you deserve dents and maybe holes on the bed.

sgtbriangreen said:
I have a stall mat in the bed of my Tundra to try to avoid big dents.
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Me too but I use it to keep misc crap from falling out where the gooseneck used to be.
 
Tim C said:
Supposedly, Ford built a fleet of aluminum trucks a few years back and sent them to oilfields, and Kentucky and wv coal mines for endurance testing. If they were satisfied with the results of that I'm sure there's nothing to worry about, I'm reasonably sure those guys are way harder on equipment than a standard construction worker, LOL.
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I have a friend in WV that ended up with one. They were sent out as factory lease but they never told anyone about it. They figured it out pretty quick that something was up because out of 10-15 new trucks that were brought in it was the only truck the magnetic signs wouldn't stick to.
 
I wonder how it would have held up to the test with a good spray in bed liner?

The tool box was surprising. That was a pretty real scenario.


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77GreenMachine said:
I wonder how it would have held up to the test with a good spray in bed liner?

The tool box was surprising. That was a pretty real scenario.


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Intuitively, the bed liner isn't going to absorb enough energy to prevent damage, and doesn't have anywhere close to the tensile or shear strength of aluminum, so I don't think it will have much effect on the major areas of damage. There is a lot of energy when a block falls like that, and the point of application is very small if it lands on an edge, corner, etc. It's all about load distribution, and the tool box is another example of that. Relatively light object, but damaging if the force is concentrated in one small area.
 
Fabrik8 said:
Intuitively, the bed liner isn't going to absorb enough energy to prevent damage, and doesn't have anywhere close to the tensile or shear strength of aluminum, so I don't think it will have much effect on the major areas of damage. There is a lot of energy when a block falls like that, and the point of application is very small if it lands on an edge, corner, etc. It's all about load distribution, and the tool box is another example of that. Relatively light object, but damaging if the force is concentrated in one small area.
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I'm not a Line-X fanboy, but it is a good product. I think Furd designers are counting on it to help add durability to the bed. Properly applied, it absorbs and distributes the impact. It also doesn't stretch much, so it will help with shear damage. A roll-on job from Advance probably isn't going to provide much more than traction, but a properly sprayed in Line-X liner would probably have changed the results of that test dramatically.

LINE-X Sprayon Bedliners, Protective Coatings, Truck Bed Coating, Floor Coating, Industrial Flooring
 
catfishblues said:
I'm not a Line-X fanboy, but it is a good product. I think Furd designers are counting on it to help add durability to the bed. Properly applied, it absorbs and distributes the impact. It also doesn't stretch much, so it will help with shear damage. A roll-on job from Advance probably isn't going to provide much more than traction, but a properly sprayed in Line-X liner would probably have changed the results of that test dramatically.

LINE-X Sprayon Bedliners, Protective Coatings, Truck Bed Coating, Floor Coating, Industrial Flooring
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I think it will help with everyday bangs and dents and stuff, yeah. A block dropped from that height on an edge or a corner is a different story though.
 
Fabrik8 said:
I think it will help with everyday bangs and dents and stuff, yeah. A block dropped from that height on an edge or a corner is a different story though.
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I don't know that there's much that will help that. I'd also kick the bobcat operator's ass that did that to my truck. Marketing! Those stupid "ton of rock from 12' up" commercials always make me cringe.
 
This is my thoughts...if you are moving enough block to need that size loader to load them, you will 999/1000 be loading it into a dump truck or at least a container much larger than a half ton bed.

If you are loading a half ton bed you are most likely loading by hand.

I dont even have to go into control groups and dump speed, block weight, dump height, etc do I?


Good marketing.
Doesnt prove much though.
 
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Ron said:
This is my thoughts...if you are moving enough block to need that size loader to load them, you will 999/1000 be loading it into a dump truck or at least a container much larger than a half ton bed.
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And it will most likely be on a pallet.
 
Fabrik8 said:
Intuitively, the bed liner isn't going to absorb enough energy to prevent damage, and doesn't have anywhere close to the tensile or shear strength of aluminum, so I don't think it will have much effect on the major areas of damage. There is a lot of energy when a block falls like that, and the point of application is very small if it lands on an edge, corner, etc. It's all about load distribution, and the tool box is another example of that. Relatively light object, but damaging if the force is concentrated in one small area.
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I think you are too focused on material properties and are neglecting geometric boundary conditions. Draw a free body diagram and reanalyze.
 
Falko said:
Except for (I assume) the piece of paper that says they can't without license.
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Underbed storage isn't a novel idea, and multi-direction tailgates are on other vehicles, so the patent would have to be so specific that it would be easy to tweak a little here and there and come up with something that does basically the same thing.
 
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