bed removal and shock questions

[429CJ-3X2]

Those of you who have completely removed a Sport Trac bed, do you have any suggestions on how to lift it besides good ol' muscle power?

I'll be swapping the bed on my '01 soon. I don't have readily available help on hand, and I'm halfway considering changing shocks while the bed is off. If I do that, I don't want to make someone hang around while I change shocks, or ask them to come back later. I've lifted the bed (with factory cover on it) that will be going on the truck, so I know it isn't all that heavy even with the cover on. The truck currently has a 1 pc fiberglass cover that I'll swap to the new bed, so both covers will come off before the swap. The covers probably weigh about as much as the bed itself, so without the cover the bed will be easy to lift. I have a set of camper jacks used to lift a slide-in camper that I might make work. Any other suggestions?

Anybody know the real-life life span of the Monroe Sensatrac/OEM Spectra shocks? The ones on the truck have only been on it a couple of years, but sometimes I feel like I'd like to firm up the rear with some air shocks. Changing shocks while the bed is off is appealing. I had an especially difficult time even getting a wrench on the top front bolt on the driver's side on this truck - far more difficult than the other truck. It seemed like there wasn't as much clearance, or maybe room around the nut/bolt head on this one. I ended up grinding it off. Getting a grinder up in there wasn't easy, or something I'd recommend.

 

[swshawaii]

I've never removed the bed, but have removed the four T55 bolts. Seems the factory uses an excessive amount of blue thread lock compound on certain bolts. Body mounts and torsion bolts also come to mind. IIRC, I needed a cheater pipe to turn them, especially the front two with confined bed clearance. Could not heat the bolt heads due to the composite bed.
http://www.mysporttrac.com/shared/msgboard9e.asp?BOARDNAME=MSG&VIEW=1337850

Regarding SensaTrac shocks, my original rears are holding up very well after 30,000 miles with the expected paint flaking and light surface corrosion. Fronts have been replaced due to wear, but I'm sure my 2.5" front drop contributed to that. Keep in mind Monroe has a limited lifetime warranty for "worn out" out or defects with original receipt from a Monroe dealer.
http://www.monroe.com/en-US/resource-center/limited-lifetime-warranty/

 

[429CJ-3X2]

The guy who removed the bed said it came off without any trouble, which is rather surprising since he said the floorpan of the cab was badly rusted and part of the reason they're parting the truck. But he also has about a 30" breaker bar that seems to be a favorite tool. I don't expect mine to come off easily.

 

[koda2000]

I occasionally have reason to remove the bed from my '54 F100. I have eye-bolts in all four corners of the bed floor. I use rope tied to the eye-bolts and my engine hoist to r&r the bed. Works quite well. On the ST I'd try the four tie-downs found inside the bed to lift it with the tailgate installed and closed to add rigidity. Of course, if you don't have an engine hoist laying around this approach doesn't do you any good.

 

[429CJ-3X2]

I had exactly the same idea - using an engine hoist and hooking onto the tie downs in the bed - but I don't have one. Given my nature of wanting to do things without help and my decreasing ability to do so, having a hoist around wouldn't be a bad idea. Or maybe it would be.

 

[koda2000]

I had exactly the same idea - using an engine hoist and hooking onto the tie downs in the bed - but I don't have one. Given my nature of wanting to do things without help and my decreasing ability to do so, having a hoist around wouldn't be a bad idea. Or maybe it would be.

I don't use my hoist very often these days, but I find I use it for all kind of things that it was not initially designed for. I even used it to take the hard-top roof on/off my '68 Mercedes 280SL. IIRC I got my hoist from Harbor Freight and it wasn't that expensive 25-30 years ago. In the near future I'll need to pull some t-posts out of the ground and I plan to use the hoist for that too. Right now I'm trying to justify buying a port-a-power. I may only get to use it a couple of times, but it's a nice tool to have when you need to move/straighten something.

 

[429CJ-3X2]

I've never removed the bed, but have removed the four T55 bolts. Seems the factory uses an excessive amount of blue thread lock compound on certain bolts. Body mounts and torsion bolts also come to mind. IIRC, I needed a cheater pipe to turn them, especially the front two with confined bed clearance. Could not heat the bolt heads due to the composite bed.
http://www.mysporttrac.com/shared/msgboard9e.asp?BOARDNAME=MSG&VIEW=1337850

Thanks for mentioning the bolts are T55. I went to Harbor Freight yesterday and bought a Torx socket set since a T50 was the largest I had. Also got a 25" 1/2" drive breaker bar. Total after coupon was $23 and change I think. I tried the 2 rear bolts today and they broke loose easily. BTW, I got the bolts with the "new" bed, and all 4 bolts are identical. In the link you said you'd been told they're different sizes. .

It looks like prepping the parts is going to be the most time consuming part of this project. The guy I bought the bed from left the fuel lines connected to the bed and cut at least one of the lines, so those have to come off. I don't know what that will entail. The gas filler door is missing the spring that holds the door shut, so I'll have to take the cover off the front corner of the bed to access that. I'd hoped to swap the bed this weekend, but decided to maybe swap the clockspring from the column I bought into the truck to restore cruise and the horn. Didn't make much progress there either. My "helper" was more of a distraction than help. My granddaughter knows how to use a screwdriver even if she can't pronounce it. She's only 2.

 

[koda2000]

Wen I dropped my tank to replace the fuel pump I was able to remove the entire fuel door and the part it attaches to. IIRC I was able to get it off by removing the plastic inner fender first. It was a little bit of a wrestling match, but not too bad. I don't know why I removed it, it probably wasn't really necessary. It could have been that I just wanted to clean it. It was pretty gross.