The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Making a Stovebolt Bed Has anyone made a tilt up bed like this?

Joker recently brought this truck that had been sold on a Chevy Page to my attention and I was immediately impressed with one unique feature of the truck I had never seen done before...

The bed tilts and has hidden storage!

Has anyone here ever done a bed like this, and if so can you offer me any hints or tips?

I am especially curious what the "below deck" hidden storage containers would have to be made of and how they'd have to be constructed in order to survive water coming from both under the truck while driving, and coming down through the boards of the bed (especially at the edges of the "tilt up" panel) when it rained if the truck ever saw any rainfall...

Any suggestions or ideas on any aspect of this design would be appreciated... thanks...

~Trev

Hmmm... looks like nobody has done one like this before???

Oh well I'll bump the topic and hope that somebody has some ideas...

~Trev

This would be cool to have on a bolt

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_419403_419403

Was that truck built south of the boarder? That would make sence....

the design is preety simple and fine details wouldnt be to hard to stamp out but there are easy and hard ways to do it and once you know what you want it would be perty simple to make a set up like that

couple of hinges , a pump , ram , some steel and a some simple design,

and from looking at the picture it seams to be a show truck or some thing for showing off so leaks , crud and other stuff wouldnt be a high priority as it would be cleaned offen and covered the rest of the time

Well my quest for nice hardwood paid off tonight...

I had advertised looking for a small quantity someone may have left over from a project since I only need around 40 square feet at a reasonable price and was contacted by someone who has 56 square feet of dark oak left over and is willing to part with it for $40...

In speaking with her I told her what I was using it for and sent her a couple pics of my truck... her reply was "I don't mind reducing my price to $40... I can see it's for a good cause!

Anyway looks like I'll head over and pick it up and catch a weekly show and shine in Coquitlam at A&W thursday night as well...

This should be a fun project!

~Trev

What would you recommend for this application Joe? Obviously it probably doesn't need hydraulics to raise a few pieces of hardwood joined together, but one to keep that panel in the up position when it is raised would be handy...

I wonder if one could be scavenged from the hood of a newer car since almost all those have hydraulic rams now...?

~Trev

Cheap actuators:

Surplus Center

Biggest one they have is 110 lbs.

Wow, thanks a lot robin and joe!

If I decide to use a ram I guess I know where to get one now, huh? Cool!

Thanks for the links and info guys!

~Trev

try minivan tailgate props, them dere things are heavy :p

Meh... how about we get it going first so it can go somwhere under it's own power and then I worry about this??? I have put it on the back burner now anyway while I try to locate a source for some good affordable 7 foot hardwood planks and try to get this thing to actually do something other than look pretty in the garage...

~Trev