The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Making a Stovebolt Bed installed my bed by myself

I thought that somebody on here might be interested in how I installed my bed by myself. If you have plenty of friends and neighbors around, you may not need this. I used a good heavy cherry picker engine lift. I ran good strong rope from corner to corner on the bed, plus from side to side at the center. The cherry picker hook was connected at the center of the bed, where the ropes crossed. I lifted the bed off of the saw horses, and backed the truck under it. When I lowered the bed down to within 4 or 5 inches of the frame, I dropped pieces of steel rod through the mounting holes in the bed wood, and down into the corresponding holes in the frame. On the front 2 holes, you have to put a nut or something on the top of the rods to keep them from falling through the frame. Then as I slowly lowered the bed on down, it self aligned itself to the frame holes using the rods in the holes. My bed was very close to dead on. If I had used 3/8 rod, it would have been even closer. I used 5/16 rod because I had it laying around, and I'm a tight wad. I knotted the ropes at the point of the hook. I think that this helped to keep the bed from slipping or shifting, which was the only think I feared a little bit in this process.