The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Making a Stovebolt Bed Bed wood question

Something just occured to me and now its driving me nuts. My 57 3100 has always had a plywood bed in it since I bought it in 1989. I replaced it about ten years ago with a new piece of CCA 3/4 inch plywood because I have never had the $ to put in the bed kit. So here is my question. If the plywood doesn't bolt up to the angle strips on each side (and they don't), what holds the bed to the frame? In other words, does the bed hold the bedsides on the frame? I would think that my bed would have fallen off by now if the angle strips had to be connected. I have looked in the assembly manual but I cant find a clear picture of this. So of course, here I am cause I know that one of you will know the anwer. I need to do something about my bed wood again and I want to be safe. Thank you.

i took my bed apart not to long ago on my 55 and the the sides are only held on by the angle strips, the bed is bolted to the wood and cross sills, so if you dont have any bolts in the angle stirps the only thing i can think of that is holding the bed down is the sides huging the wood so tightly it wont come off

Your bed-to-frame bolts should go through your wood, through your cross sills and bolt the bed to the frame. You can see a good diagram at
http://www.mar-k.com/bed_mounting_information.pdf
Your wood floor is held to the bed sides by the angle strips. However, they are also held to the bed by bolting through the bed strips to the front bed panel (which is bolted to the bed sides) and in the back, the bed-to-frame bolts go through the rear cross sill brackets which also bolt to the bed sides. Hope this helps.

That PDF file is not there.

Houston54:
I just checked the PDF and can view it from my computer. Some of the files need a fairly recent Acrobat reader version to view. Check that yours is current and let me know if you still cannot read the file. The web page where the instructions are located is http://www.mar-k.com/installation_hints.html If you still have problems with it, I will check if there is something wrong on this end.

Mar-Ktech

works for me, acrobat ver 7.05

Bill

I am running 5.0 and can see all but three of the pdfs on your site. Maybe our network support peopel will bless us with an upgrade soon.

Thank you Mar-Ktech. My concern was that if my bed wood was not attached at the angle strips, the bedsides and tailgate would free float-that is not be held down to the truck at all. Are you saying that the bed sides are also attached to the front sill independent of the bed wood?

the front sill is actually part of the bed front panel Kev, and the front panel is bolted to the sides

Bill

Kevs57:
Your bed has been modified so only you looking at the bed can decide if it is still secure and safe. Why not install angle strip bolts to connect bedsides to cross sills and verify the 8 bed-to-frame bolts still attach the sills to the frame. Then you know it will be right. The plywood is not quite as wide as the bed, but you can place a 7/8 wide wood spacer under each angle strip to center the plywood under the angle strip edges. Bolt the plywood down to the cross sills and front panel using the holes that originally attached the bed strips and you should be safe.

Mar-Ktech

Thanks to both of you red58 and Mar-Ktech. I understand now. I will install as you suggested. I just wanted to be safe and NOT see my bed pass me by after a hard stop!