Dump floor repair

[tobyS]

My M817 dump has a few dents in the floor of the bed that hold water. At some point, the bed held a lot of water but has not rusted out completely anywhere. I want to do a repair but see no way of coming at the bottom to bring them up. There are ribs that prevent direct contact. So what are my alternatives?

I'm thinking to put metal patches over them with a solid weld. I would put a drain hole in the depression but a continuous weld would prevent water getting in. Patches would be fitted and ground reasonably flat.

Any suggestions on repair of the dump floor to eliminate water holding depressions and be durable? Plastic sheets?

 

[jbayer]

Make some lifting ears out of plate steel, weld them in the low areas, attach a winching device, like a comelong, or similar, apply tension, heat depressed area with torch, more tension as required.
Cut off eyes, grind smooth and refinish.

Did this on my Deuce bed,, worked great.

Of course safety would be of concern, and some thought would have to be put into it.

This is the rough outline of steps I did/would use.

Just a suggestion.

 

[porkysplace]

It depends on what your hauling in it . Sand , dirt and pea gravel you can probably keep dents out . Any kind of larger stones , rocks , broken concrete ect. your fighting a losing battle with dents in the bottom or sides . We haul mostly broken concrete and line the boxes with 2" oak , it also works good for keeping asphalt hot.

 

[m16ty]

Porky is right. Big rocks, concrete, and large wood is hard on bed floors. It does help to pad with some dirt or small gravel before you dump in the big stuff.

I've fixed several commercial beds like this and we always just re-skinned the floor. The cheapest way is to just put a new layer over the old one, this isn't the best though because you can have rust issues between the two layers. The next best is to remove all the old skin and put new down, this will work fine but will dent again with big stuff. The best is to remove the old skin, put down oak floor, put a metal skin over the top of that, and never worry about dents again (unless you're hauling some really big stuff).

 

[tobyS]

I've done some similar work jbayer with sheet metal. This seems harder than just a flat plate dent because there is a corrugated steel subframe that would not be easy to make come up with the plate.

Yea PP, wood is being considered. I work with sawmills and would look for reasonably clear white oak. I'm building side extensions from oak right now. Would you suggest putting a drain hole in these depressions and re-painting first? Sure would be nice to have a RR tie wood treatment (preservative) to make them last longer. I know of one vac tie treater to check out. Do you put carriage bolts or recessed bolts all the way through?

 

[porkysplace]

We use carriage bolts .

 

[tobyS]

Yea M16ty, my boomtruck has diamond plate over wood. It takes a beating and hardly dents. Unfortunately some of the wood is now rotting out. But it has served well since 73. I know that is the optimum fix but is surely a lot of work to install properly so it does not leak water in.

 

[m16ty]

I have found that putting wood in the floor without a skin makes material stick in the bed much worse.

We always used 3/4" plywood on the bed sides and seemed to work pretty well. It would eventually wear out and need to be replaced but it would last a pretty good while in trucks hauling big rock daily.

 

[rosco]

Lots of Folks, with dump beds, leave them blocked up a little ways, so they will drain.