Getting a new truck, compare RAM EcoDiesel vs F150 Platnum??

Its all about the prep.
I used to own a business installing sprayed bedliners on the side...it would take me 8 hrs to do one, 6 hrs prep and 2 hrs to shoot it and clean up. Some liner systems are better than others for sure, but just like with paint, proper prep makes a HUGE difference in how well it stays in place...

 

My fathers old truck from a long time ago, when we were kids, was a 1955 GMC. The bottom of the bed was made from a sheet of steel. It was about 5/8-3/4" thick! You didn't need a bed liner to protect it!

 

Yeah they sure don't make them like that anymore. Sad really.

 

When I first saw those commercials I had to laugh knowing that GM is planning on going aluminum themselves! Kind of a slippery slope to walk...I'd get a real kick out of it if Ford used those same commercials against them later on

 

That would be pretty funny. With a bearded lumbersexual of their very own too!

 

I'm waiting for Machria to post a picture of his new truck!Cmon Machria!

 

Machria! That was new yesterday! You shouldn't be carrying that much!

 

Your exactly right... Deals already cut with the aluminum producers.

 

Wouldn't that be most of the trucks load capacity in just that sheet of steel or was this like a 65 or 6500 or something

 

3/4" 4X8 steel plate would weigh about 1000 lbs...

 

Chevy's commercial is a bit of a low blow. Although I'm pretty sure that if I end up with a newer F150 and it's doesn't already have a spray in bedliner, that I'll get a plastic one. My Frontier came with a factory spray in liner, and I've dented it up quite a bit over the years and the liner's even split in a few places. I have no intention on going easy on a new truck either, so knowing that aluminum doesn't hold up as well to repeated stress I'd rather give it the best impact resistance I can. I don't really mind that Ford used aluminum for the body, but they should have either kept a steel bed bottom, or used aluminum that was thicker than 1.4 mm.

 

The bed sheet metal is only 1.4 mm!

 

According to this, yes:

Ford F-150 engineer says some ideas were too much to execute


This could just be poor understand on the part of the reporters as I've seen it reported as 1.4 mil here, which is .0014"!!!!

2015 F-150: The Story Behind The Bed


It's possible that it's actually 1.4 gauge aluminum, which puts it around 1/4" thick.

 

The latter 1.4 gauge sounds better but still on the third ck side??? I dunno.

1.4mm aluminum would bend something trimble with just a full load of green oak wouldn't it? Even though its corrogated.

 

That sheet of steel was no where near load capacity of that truck. We use to load that truck up with lumber, firewood, dirt, Etc. it was a working beast! Motor was not that powerful, but did not need to be. Geared low and could pull/haul like crazy.

 

Yup.

5/8" would be 816 lbs.
3/4" would be 980 lbs.

 

Clearly we are not talking a half ton?

 

I really don't know. I was just a young kid then. It may have been a 54. When I look at pictures of them it looked like this one, which is a 54. Best I can remember.



It was what I learned to drive manual on, on my parents camp property. Which is what I now own. Many good memories hauling Christmas Trees in this truck too. Stakes used to pile them over roof height.

 

Gas are you like 40 years old where this really was an old truck or are you closer to 60 where it wouldn't been that old?