Tilt bed?

I'd like to make my bed tilt so I can show off the frame since I'm raising the floor above everything but I'm not sure how I'm doing it,as far as how much bracing is needed and the best way to make the hinges and advice or pictures you got would be helpful

Would like to help but what type of tilt bed are you lookin for? side,angle,dancing???

just a standard tilt bed toward the rear like yours no dancing action just tilt

I used a single Firestone 2500 bag in the center of my Datsun's bed, with a piece of angle iron running across the floor from side to side for bracing, and mounted about 10" behind the axle. It lifted the floor of the bed in line with the roof of the cab, which was fine for me. A larger bag could be mounted farther back, giving you even more lift.
DON'T do what I did for the hinges, though. We used heavy duty gate hinges from Home Depot, and they bent after a month! Make your own out of some round stock and grade 8 bolts and box the end of the frame to handle the stress, and you should be good.
One other thing: if you use a bag, mount a shock on there, too! I didn't and it swayed as you lifted and dropped it!
Good luck with your project!

-Phil at FBI

S10forum.com has a How to with a lot of pics. Should be on the front page of the site.

Phil pretty much has it covered....My truck bed I used 2x3 tubing as a cross member in the back and welded the hinges to it and bolted the assembly to my bed.Make sure the brace is as far back as possible so your bed will get maximum lift.Mine is manual for now till my hydros get plumbed in but its not as heavy as you might think.I lift by myself no problem. An idea I have seen on here is two airshocks mounted almost paralell (maybe 15 degrees) and the shock pushes towards the ass end.This way the shock is on the outside of the frame away from maybe a fuel cell or your air set up.All you would need are 8 shock tab mounts 2 airshocks and 15 dollars worth of misc materials.

Edited: 10/20/2006 9:55:15 AM by onehot69stepside

Is this what you are talking about? I raised the bed floor 6 inches and the bed bolts onto the tilt frame. I used a couple of 4 link bushings as hinges to make it quiet.

The only thing that I dont like about it is it takes about 100 psi to raise it but only about 15 psi to hold it up. So the shock is maxed out with 100 psi in it, which i dont think is very good for the shocks. And when you release the air to lower it, when it gets to a certain point it will just slam down hard. You have to release the air and then as soon as it gets low, hit the up switch and fill it back up to cushion the bed coming down.

thats a pretty sweet setup though! Well I planned on doing a manual setup for now anyway but I definately like the shock setup all framed out like that seems like a pretty stable setup

definately unique and i like the old school look with the shocks.Maybe at the front all you need is a spring loaded rubber bumper to help cushion the bed when it drops instead or airing up the shocks again.Great job on the frame work (Y)