PwrWgnDrvr wrote: ↑Sun Oct 01, 2023 10:16 am
Takes HOURS to disassemble an old bed with rust welded fasteners! Not a simple task out in the field.
Quoted for truth. I've taken apart three Utiline beds now, and they do not come apart gracefully. The metal trim that runs along the left-and-right floor of the bed is terrible, but the worst are the frisbee flanged screws and non-nuts that hold on the fenders on. I've had such a hard time with rusted frisbee screws that if I start to strip one I get a box of cheap Harbor Freight Phillips screw-tips and tack weld that screw-tip onto the bolt. For me that's simpler, and less damaging, than trying to drill and chisel the bolt head off.
I don't know what Dodge made their fasteners out of, but when they're rusted no amount of PB Blaster is going to make those nuts see reason.
Moving a bed in one piece is fine, but all of my beds have either needed new wood in the floor, the tail gate straightened, or new body strips put on the fenders, so I have to take them apart anyway.
