"Ernie Leimkuhler" wrote in message
...
In article , Grant Erwin
wrote:

I have this buddy with a dump truck (handy thing to have). It's actually
a one-ton pickup with a dump bed, which means when I borrow it I'm
covered
on my insurance - barely, but covered. The bed raises and lowers with a
Knapheide hydraulic unit, hinged all the way at the back. The main
channels
of the bed line up with the main channels of the truck frame. He wants
two
(or maybe four) pieces of heavy flat bar to be attached to the truck
frame
rails so that they stick up on either side and guide the bed rails down
dead
onto the truck frame rails.

So I'm looking at attaching probably 3"x5/8" steel flat bar to the main
rails of a truck frame. I've heard you should never weld to such a frame,
that the heat would wreck the temper of the steel. I've always heard you
have to bolt to the frame. The hydraulic unit is indeed bolted to the
frame. Yet, I wonder -- is this really true? Welding is faster & thus
would be cheaper, and Navy ships weld on HY-80 armor plating routinely,
which is surely at least as high carbon as the truck frame.

Comments? I have to bid this job and don't want to screw it up but don't
want to lose the bid or waste his money either.

GWE

The question of whether you can weld to it or not is more to do with
age of the truck.
The newer the truck the less advisable it is.

It also depends where you are welding it.

If it can be bolted then bolt.
Maybe you could weld up some saddles that wrap around the frame and
clamp to it.
That way, no holes and no welds.

But if the frame were just HR/CR mild steel (no tempered alloys), it
shouldn't really matter, should it?
--
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Mr. P.V.'d
formerly Droll Troll