Are floppy bedsides a problem?

[90PioSport99]

Hey guys,

I just cut about 90% of the rust my MJ has today by trimming the rear fender areas. I got rid of the entire flared out part (where the holes for the flares reside) on each side of the bed. I knew what the result was going into this since I cut away the spot welds holding the inner "support" of the bed to the bedsides. Anyway, my question is, having it this floppy, is it an actual structural problem? I want to think it's not much of one since the bedsides don't really start out as a structural support in the first place. They are floppy and I am going to reinforce them, but I'm going to be doing a little wheeling this weekend, and just want to make sure driving it 40 miles highway each way won't be a problem. I can see no reason why the bedsides would affect anything plus I know a lot of you guys completely fold or cut off the rear area up to almost the tailights. Anyway, if any of you have an opinion on this let me know. I will say it looks a lot better than having the rust and I lined it with Trim-Lok so it looks pretty sharp. I'll try to get pictures up tomorrow so you guys can see for sure what I did. Thanks in advance for any help too.

-Collin

[DirtyComanche]

To the rest of the truck, no, not structeral. However, it's not good for the bed in the long term to leave them flopping around.

[90PioSport99]

To the rest of the truck, no, not structeral. However, it's not good for the bed in the long term to leave them flopping around.

Does it put strain on the spotwelds at the front or what?

[bpm4x4]

Hey guys,

I just cut about 90% of the rust my MJ has today by trimming the rear fender areas. I got rid of the entire flared out part (where the holes for the flares reside) on each side of the bed. I knew what the result was going into this since I cut away the spot welds holding the inner "support" of the bed to the bedsides. Anyway, my question is, having it this floppy, is it an actual structural problem? I want to think it's not much of one since the bedsides don't really start out as a structural support in the first place. They are floppy and I am going to reinforce them, but I'm going to be doing a little wheeling this weekend, and just want to make sure driving it 40 miles highway each way won't be a problem. I can see no reason why the bedsides would affect anything plus I know a lot of you guys completely fold or cut off the rear area up to almost the tailights. Anyway, if any of you have an opinion on this let me know. I will say it looks a lot better than having the rust and I lined it with Trim-Lok so it looks pretty sharp. I'll try to get pictures up tomorrow so you guys can see for sure what I did. Thanks in advance for any help too.

-Collin

 

Hey---I did that too!!! I have floppy bedsides too!!!! :cheers:

[90PioSport99]

Hey guys,

I just cut about 90% of the rust my MJ has today by trimming the rear fender areas. I got rid of the entire flared out part (where the holes for the flares reside) on each side of the bed. I knew what the result was going into this since I cut away the spot welds holding the inner "support" of the bed to the bedsides. Anyway, my question is, having it this floppy, is it an actual structural problem? I want to think it's not much of one since the bedsides don't really start out as a structural support in the first place. They are floppy and I am going to reinforce them, but I'm going to be doing a little wheeling this weekend, and just want to make sure driving it 40 miles highway each way won't be a problem. I can see no reason why the bedsides would affect anything plus I know a lot of you guys completely fold or cut off the rear area up to almost the tailights. Anyway, if any of you have an opinion on this let me know. I will say it looks a lot better than having the rust and I lined it with Trim-Lok so it looks pretty sharp. I'll try to get pictures up tomorrow so you guys can see for sure what I did. Thanks in advance for any help too.

-Collin

 

Hey---I did that too!!! I have floppy bedsides too!!!! :cheers:

Shoot man, if mine was still red we'd have twins.

[DirtyComanche]

To the rest of the truck, no, not structeral. However, it's not good for the bed in the long term to leave them flopping around.

Does it put strain on the spotwelds at the front or what?

 

 

It's like anything else that flaps. Something will crack because of the cyclic stresses.

 

It might not ever present itself as a problem, but I'm just saying...

[87manche]

mine were flopy for a long while, since I broke both of the pinch seams on the wheelwells wheeling.

 

It didn't seem to be a major issue, but my bed was trashed from trees, so I can't say what will happen to nice bedsides.

[90PioSport99]

Well I didn't even make it wheeling this weekend so I didn't put any stress on the bedsides. I will brace them somehow before I drive it too much though. Thanks for the input guys.