Introduction
I had to replace the bed on a 2001 F250 that the wife and I bought. Here's what I was looking at when I lifted the liner:
I located a takeoff through a friend from a local truck equipment company. The one I picked was a 2014 with a sprayed-in liner that also came with the tailgate, tail lights, mounting hardware, and the rear bumper. If you find yourself in the same situation and you still have your old bed, you can transport your new one like so:
Before I picked it up I cut some 2x4s to fit in the corner posts of the bed leaving about six to eight inches sticking up to engage the new one. The place I picked the bed up from was able to use a fork lift to put the new one upside-down on the old one; I was then able to connect them on the inside corner-to-corner with ratchet straps.
Back at the house, I used a 1/2-ton hoist attached to my carport along with a free-standing engine hoist to do each bed move. You can get away with moving them around with a boat-load of good neighbors, but if you're like me you'll want to take your time at each stage of the process. In my case I'd have to assemble the crew to lift the new bed off, send them home while I worked on unhooking the old one, bring them back to lift the old off, send them home while I prepare the frame, bring them back to lift the new one on, and then maybe bring them all back one last time when I finished up to throw the old one back on so I can take it to the scrap yard. I figured with a few hoists I could save a lot of hassle.
I had to replace the bed on a 2001 F250 that the wife and I bought. Here's what I was looking at when I lifted the liner:
I located a takeoff through a friend from a local truck equipment company. The one I picked was a 2014 with a sprayed-in liner that also came with the tailgate, tail lights, mounting hardware, and the rear bumper. If you find yourself in the same situation and you still have your old bed, you can transport your new one like so:
Before I picked it up I cut some 2x4s to fit in the corner posts of the bed leaving about six to eight inches sticking up to engage the new one. The place I picked the bed up from was able to use a fork lift to put the new one upside-down on the old one; I was then able to connect them on the inside corner-to-corner with ratchet straps.
Back at the house, I used a 1/2-ton hoist attached to my carport along with a free-standing engine hoist to do each bed move. You can get away with moving them around with a boat-load of good neighbors, but if you're like me you'll want to take your time at each stage of the process. In my case I'd have to assemble the crew to lift the new bed off, send them home while I worked on unhooking the old one, bring them back to lift the old off, send them home while I prepare the frame, bring them back to lift the new one on, and then maybe bring them all back one last time when I finished up to throw the old one back on so I can take it to the scrap yard. I figured with a few hoists I could save a lot of hassle.