TRUCK BED LIFT

[713WildBill]

My friend and I want to lift the bed of his truck but i am a little curious to the various ways it can be done. Tilt beds, z-racks, multi stage any one looks good but how much work goes into it. he has a 1990 mazda truck thats we already lifted and done some other stuff to. All opinions are welcomed ad i'll try to post some pics of the truck later

[HELLRAISER]

IT TAKES ALOT OF WORK...U ARE BETTER OFF JUST WITH ONE TILT.IF U WANT A Z RACK U NEED TO MAKE SURE IT FITS WITH IN THE FRAME RAILS,AND U KNOW HOW MANY PUMPS U ARE GOING TO USE,A PUMP IS A STAGE.SO 4 PUMPS 4 STAGES.U WILL NEED TO USE THICK FLATE PLATE TO BUILD THE FRAMING...OR THATS WHAT I USED

[ScratchBuilderV]

HELLRAISER is right, it's a Hell of allot of work to build and install a Z-rack.

My cousin finished my Z-rack this past April. He designed and installed it from scratch. It took over 50 hours of work to complete. This was the 3rd Z-rack that my cousin has ever built. He told me that the first rack he built back in 1993 was extremely hard to build because he had no experience and had made some mistakes with calculating pivit points which were corrected but added allot of hours to the build time. Now he is an expert. He is one of a dieing breed, there are very few people who have experience in designing and installing bed dancers.

Here are some photos of my Z-rack


some people have told me, I have a nice rack.

[socios b.c. prez]

Originally posted by ScratchBuilderV@Jun 25 2008, 07:38 PM~10951984
HELLRAISER is right, it's a Hell of allot of work to build and install a Z-rack.

My cousin finished my Z-rack this past April. He designed and installed it from scratch. It took over 45 hours of work to complete. This was the 3rd Z-rack that my cousin has ever built. He told me that the first rack he built back in 1993 was extremely hard to build because he had no experience and had made some mistakes with calculating pivit points which were corrected but added allot of hours to th build time. Now he is an expert. He is one of a dieing breed, there are very few people who have experience in designing and installing bed dancers.

Here are some photos of my Z-rack


some people have told me, I have a nice rack.

[BlackMagicHydraulics]

Originally posted by ScratchBuilderV@Jun 25 2008, 08:38 PM~10951984
HELLRAISER is right, it's a Hell of allot of work to build and install a Z-rack.

My cousin finished my Z-rack this past April. He designed and installed it from scratch. It took over 50 hours of work to complete. This was the 3rd Z-rack that my cousin has ever built. He told me that the first rack he built back in 1993 was extremely hard to build because he had no experience and had made some mistakes with calculating pivit points which were corrected but added allot of hours to the build time. Now he is an expert. He is one of a dieing breed, there are very few people who have experience in designing and installing bed dancers.

Here are some photos of my Z-rack


some people have told me, I have a nice rack.

Man that bring back memories...... I hope beds take back off...I had alot of fun doing them.

[MR.LAC]

[nittygritty]

Nice rack indeed.

[rag-4]

[CANNONBALL Z]

MY POPS HAD A Z RACK N THE 90S.. RICHARDS HYDRAULICS IN SALINAS CA DID IT.. LOT OF SHIT TO MAINTAIN

[damo]

anything bad ass takes some time, but if you realy want it its worth it. i searched the net for about a month and came up with about 20 photos before i designed and built mine. just takes some time. i used the 5 dump one pump thing that is explaned on this site. it gives 4 individual stages. heres some pics, i used i-beams and c-channel.

[AndrewH]

to me this is the ultimate reason for using dump manifold single pumps. u dont need the power of 4 pumps or to waste the room,so I'd do 1 pump with a dump manifold and a z-rack, would be awsome, considered it myself but support kinda fell thru the floor by the time i wouldve been ready. all i had was a few good diagrams and alot of thought to go by. anyone know where theres are some how to:? i dont even ever remember seeing them in lowrider magazine ever

[rare1]

I would also like to know more about designing one of these if anybody has any info or close up pics.

[damo]

i would just advise to look all over the net for pics. its a pretty simple lay-out, they just look real complicated once all the hoses and such are in place everywere. my faults in mine are that my stages are short in length, which gives you less height. make your stages long, (metal layers) i would have also made my forward stage last on the pile to give you a big twist and better dancing. my forward is second in the pile. from what i have researched (mostly after the build) the pros have a short back stage, then a long right swing stage that goes all the way to the front of the cab, then left swing, then forward, then a small back stage again (for a spinner) . im hoping to get to making a spinner when i get time.

[ScratchBuilderV]

Originally posted by rare1@Jul 8 2008, 10:32 AM~11036946
I would also like to know more about designing one of these if anybody has any info or close up pics.

I know how hard it is to find photos and info on the web for this subject so here are some more photos of my garden verity 3 Stage Double Diamond Z-Rack.

[Loco 61]

[Loco 61]

:0

[rd62rdstr]

Damn, these beds have come a long way. I built my 1st back in 84 or 85. It was not originally intended to be used on the streets. I was getting the truck painted a candy and wanted the area between the cab and bed painted. The paint shop wanted to charge me extra to remove the bed. I was young and like most young guys, broke. I loosened the rear bolts on the bed and removed all of the other bolts. I then tilted the bed up and supported it with a pair of stakes. This way the painter would have access to the area. I drove the truck around like that for a couple of weeks and even did a photo shoot like that before my turn in the paint booth. One of the bolts broke and I had a friend's dad weld a set of gate hinges to the frame. We went cruising in Phoenix and everyone freaked out on the truck. I was friends with a guy named DJ back in the day, many of you know him as Derrick Jahgroo. He saw it and our trucks look very alike (except his was a extra cab), he commented on how cool it looked and next thing I know he did it as well. I then added a second level so that I could tilt to the side or backwards. I soon discovered that if I did both it would sit up on a corner. This became known as a diamond tilt. Once out of the paint shop, we kind of like the way it looked so we added air shocks and a small air compressor that I could plug into the cigarette lighter. I had a relief valve to let the air out and lower the bed. A place called Hot Topics opened up in Phoenix and developed a convertible kit. They installed one for free on my truck and sponsored a few shows to build a name for themselves. I thought I was the shit until he broke out with a scissor rack. The following year he had a spinning snugtop and I quit trying to compete against him. hahaha. I used to get pulled over by cops all the time because they thought the bed was "falling off". It's weird that it caught on and took off like it did. I'm amazed at all the new innovations that have been added to the style. Below are pictures of my truck and the second one shows it before the paint in a picture frame as part of the display. This was the 86 World of Wheels where the truck took 1st place for full radical custom.

[Loco 61]

Dat Back In The Day.... :0

[caprice75classic]

what ever happened to Derrick Jahgroo? his truck was tight!

[rd62rdstr]

I heard he is in Texas now after moving around the country a bit. I also heard he still has the truck in his garage.