What thickness material should I use? Planning to just go over top of existing. AR isn't in the budget, it's over $1500 a sheet for .25"
Is it all waffled out, or just thin at the end?
Both
I did a plastic liner floor in mine. It was thin and beat. Just happened to have a bed that had one I had bought.
They are more expensive then steel with the shipping.
I have 500 dollars in this one after I sold the bed it was in. Just got lucky, was going to put a new floor in till I remembered it. You could do a wood overlay to get by depending on what you haul.
Gravel
years back friend off my dad's used 1/4 T-1, seemed to work out ok
Yes, but I'm not going to spend $5k on steel
i know you don't want to spend 5k on t-1, i saw your post on irate. my point was 1/4 inch. anything thicker starts costing more, pretty soon you are at the higher price of t-1 or ar
1/4" cold roll is about $1500, 3/8" about 2000
Salvage yard? Know anyone cutting up a large tank? When I refloored my truck I used 3/16 scrap I had acquired many years previous from a 50,000 bbl tank that was local that was being scrapped. Even steel from a 8' tank would work, easy enough to flatten with a hoe.
This whole situation is a catch-22. If you are only hauling sand, gravel, or 1.5" and smaller rock, 1/4" cold will be just fine. BUT, so will plywood and a liner, and will be much happier with the results. If you ever need to haul rip-rap or concrete, you better put at least 1/4" T1, or you're just asking for the same result you have currently. JMHO, it's one of the reasons I have a side dump and not a dump truck.
Not sure if the factory floor is AR, but I don't think it's even .25". It lasted 35 years
Factory floor stitched to every crossmember is a whole lot more able to resist waffling than a new sheet laid over the top of a ****** floor....
It'll be welded.
Looked into it more, it's already got an added floor that has work through toward the tailgate. Looks to be 1/8", maybe 3/16" Probably will cut the thin area and weld in new. Not sure if ill get it bent to match or just cut at the flat and weld there
Got prices from another place and took measurements. Current floor overlay is 1/8" so actually held up ok. No idea how many loads on it though. The guy said most of the ones they have done were mild steel, hardly anyone is doing it in AR as it's getting into buy new box range. For 1/4" mild steel, 2100 for floor, 960 for side walls 4x12 sheets and 4x8 About $360 to bend 2 bends in 2 sheets and 4 in 1 sheet All 4x8 sheets would be about same price just 3 horizontal seems vs 1 vertical and 1 horizontal near doghouse. AR400 $5800 for floor, 1920 for walls Can't bend AR500 $6100 floor $2020 walls Can't bend
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Thinking of cutting it along the first bend, have a couple dry cut circ saws. Weld that seam. The bent part doesn't seem very worn and would save me a few hundred $$, and fuss of getting bent pieces to fit. Do the floor now and maybe next year the walls, or this winter, after the truck hopefully earned some $$. Insurance is running me about $3k for the year. Plus another $600 for registration. And $1500 for 2 steer tires. So need to do ~100 hrs of hauling just to be even. I'd guess I got the truck fairly cheap due to the bed. Slightly older, more miles CH Mack is for sale for almost 3x what I paid.
I found a deal on enough 3/8" plate to do the floor nearly twice for $500. 3/8 would be about 500lbs heavier than 1/4" though. And harder to weld. And position. Usually dump truck load is figured at "10 yards" which is based off 30,000lbs for gravel or 20k for topsoil. Truck is good to 16k steer, 38k rear with DOT rules, so 54,000 gross. Would mean truck could be 24k empty.
Most good tandems are around 24k empty in my experience.
My International with 18ft box, Big Cam, dual steering box,, double frame (was a concrete truck before) was 22k if I remember right. Been a few suppers since I sold it though
That would be a nice heavy duty floor, especially for rockery hauling. When I bought my truck the box was beat. But I knew I was going to beat it even more. Someone had thrown in a new floor but not tacked it down well to the under support, so I had to take care of that. If you're not going to beat it, I would think you might just consider patching it or even going less than a 1/4" on top, just so the load slides out well.
They had done 1/8", not sure how long it lasted but it's tearing apart. If the floor under was in okish shape 1/8" would be ok, but it's dented pretty bad.
The truck I bought was a used Asphalt truck. The Asphalt Company would buy cheap dump boxes and just beat them to death and replace. They sold the truck to a dealer who then threw in a steal floor. Underneath you could see all the ribbing bent and some rust. The floor was barely welded in place. I had the box re-welded, and had them add a pintle hitch plate, shovel holders, side ladders and do a full sandblast and paint. Later I added the highlift gate. I didn't want to buy a used truck with a nice dump box, as I knew I was going to customize it. I even added some D-rings inside the box.
A few years ago on my other little dump truck which has a double floor in it too, I was getting some material loaded in at a supplier and the forklift driver hit the forks between the floors pushing up the top one. They paid to have it fixed. I would make sure that the two plates are completely welded together and perhaps even add some sort of protection edging.
A buddy that does excavating at his Dad's company said they just replace boxes when worn. Oh, they're that cheap??? Truck is ok shape, box is fine other than the floor. Me thinking it's like $5-7k area with the way he was talking. He checked for me, last one was $18,000. Yeahhhhhhhhh.