[Osker]

I took the bed off which was loosely bolted on from the PO’s prior efforts. I built a jig out of 2x4’s, some eyebolts and chain to hook to the engine hoist. I found several variations of the same general idea here on the forum and from searching the net. I spent too much time getting fancy with the angled brackets for the cross members. I have no idea why I thought that was necessary. Simple upright brackets would have been fine in the first place to hold the 2x4 cross members.

Full disclosure – I started to lift the bed and I had about two feet of rear end of the truck still in the garage. I almost got it high enough before the lift arm started hitting the garage door. I had to lower it, align it and set it – used some blocking, then move the truck out farther and start all over. Great practice. Good learning point.

I was doing this by myself so it is possible but not optimum. 4 eyes and hands could help out a lot better in this type of situation so I put on my safety glasses and a pair of gloves.

The bed lifted almost level when raised, the jig was limited in how far deep into the bed towards the cab that it could go by the jack piston housing contacting the rear bumper. I was a bit skeptical this would work out but it did.