Bed sides

Looking for ideas as well. Gonna gut my bed on the shorty in preparation for the back half. I was thinking a frame of 3/4 square tube and some dzus fastners
 
In that case I like to use 1" round or square aluminum tubing. 0.125" wall. Create a simple four legged "table" to hang the sides and front on. I tack the sides and front to keep some rigidity. If you use a tailgate tack that too. If not leave it open or use a sheet of aluminum for the back.

On the sides I run an extra brace or two per side from the bed side down to the frame just to keep the sides from flopping from side to side.

Attach the bed to the aluminum frame with bolts or pins for removal if you ever want to pull the bed off without removing the frame. You can cut out a lot of weight out of the bed sides and with the aluminum frame you can save a few hundred pounds pretty easy.
 
I used Aluminum 1" square box tubing bolted to steel brackets welded to the frame. Welded 3/4" OD x 2" long steel box tubing to the bed sides that slides into the 1" aluminum box tubing. 6 places per bed side, 3 at the top and 3 at the bottom. I use 1/4" bolts to hold it all together. Hope this gives you some insight as to how to do it. It is an old junker FORD that I did this to, but the same method will work on your Dodge.

RK
 

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prostockpuller said:
see page 3 item #3. It is a little vague about the bed floor. But it does not say that you have to have one like it said in 2017 rules. I know for a fact it is not required this year.

http://propulling.com/images/pdf/2018/2018-Rule-Changes.pdf
Click to expand...

Yea it is vague but at the fall meetings i asked Jon mears and said can cut floors out but had to have a cover of some sort. I will get pictures of mine when i get it down off the lift how i did mine
 
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