1999 - Tweaked truck bed! What can I do to bend it back?

Hello all. Its been a while now since Ive had my 1999 prerunner. My rear truck is tweaked in which it is about an inch lower on the rear passenger side. I took my truck to Ricky the offroad guru in Azusa CA. Upon his examination. He said my frame is straight and that my bed is tweaked.

Now my questions is....is there anything I can do to make up for the tweak sag on my truck bed? My suspension checks out fine; only about 1/8 of a difference in height between the wheel well and tire for both rear sides. Is there anything I can do to compensate for this tweaking? I was thinking of putting washers - 1/4 inch washers in between the bed and the adjustment bolt that holds the rear passenger side of the bed to the frame in order to give that side of the bed a half inch lift. This dam bed tweak is driving me nuts!!! When ever I look out my rear view mirror I stomach starts to hurt because the I can see that the rear passenger side of the bed is lower than the driver side. HECK!

 

ha damn. My Nissan hardbody was exactly like this for the whole 3 years I had it. I never got it officially checked out, but i felt the only logical explanation was that the frame got bent a bit in the rear from being hit at maybe 5mph.
It bugged me forever, especially the rear view mirror thing. I just rotated my rearview mirror a couple of degrees so I couldn't tell the bed was tweaked LMAO.


I never even thought of putting a few washers in, but looking back, that might have fixed (cosmetically) the issue. Since the bed is bolted directly to the frame, I just don't see how the bed itself can be tweaked without the frame being tweaked reciprocally. The only other idea I can come up with is unequally sagging leaf springs. Which might have been my problem, since they were pretty much flat around a load anyway, but the truck sure did do work real good.

 

Dam! LOL your bed was reallllly tweaked. I would say that my bed is not as bad as that but pretty dam near close. When I look at it from the rear, it almost looks just like yours! I'd say with my tweak, it sagged just like yours but 30% less but still very noticeable. I have the same exact tweak sag on my bed and it looks just like yours! I just changed out my leafs and shocks but it didnt help at all.... damnit. It made me feel even worse cuz I spend over 350 bucks

 

Actually this is a lie. I remember now why I discarded the suspension (leafs) being responsible for the tweak/sag.
I had it up on a lift (a lift that lifted from the frame, not wheels) and saw that the bed was still tweaked while in the air. While my truck was in the air, the suspension was not influencing the body at all. That's when I knew for sure it was the frame or something else really expensive/unfixable. So I gave up worrying about it.

but yeah..the bed was pretty damn tweaked. Not that I ever like..REALLY wanted one of those camper shells, but I was worried it wouldn't sit right if the bed was crooked. I contemplated taking my bed off a couple of times, for various reasons, but I was kinda scared I wouldn't have been able to get it back on properly!

A [semi] friend of mine owns a large shop with all types of presses, frame pullers, machinery, etc. He's kind of a dick, so I use the word 'friend' very sparingly. I asked him if it would be possible to straighten my frame out. He wouldn't touch my truck on account of "them jap trucks having frames like swiss cheese wrapped in tissue paper" (he specializes in restoring Chryslers from the 1930s, mind you) and on account that he usually charges something like $600-1200 to pull frame damage out.
Several times I thought it might, just might work if I bought like..10 (80lb) bags of concrete mix from Home Depot and concentrated them all on the offending corner, but I thought it probably wouldn't end well.


Oh, and just worth mentioning, I'm not sure if our situations are different. I never really determined if one side was sagging, or one side had been raised.

 

thanks again for the reply. I think our issues are similar. I also saw my tweaked bed on a frame lift when getting an oil change; bed was still tweaked even with all wheels off the ground. I suppose I could try a body shop and see if they could do anything to help my rear passenger sag. I was thinking of trying washers which would fix it cosmetically like you said. Damit! I get sick when ever I look out the rear view mirror....cant stand the sag. People tell me im crazy and that its not a big deal but as you know....its hard to ignore LOL !

 

I know what you mean by things not lining up. I don't see why you couldn't do the washer trick. Just give the sagging side a little"body lift".

 

Thanks for the replies. Do you know where the bolt is located and if there is a nut on the other side of it? Do I need to jack-up the truck or can I just crawl under and do it. Do you know what size washers I could use? I dont know how big the bolt is. Thanks.

 

I've got the same problem on my 99 prerunner! My girlfriends dad works at a collusion repair shop and he said the frame looked to be bent but we really haven't investigated it to much. My bed may be crooked too! Some pics of the fix and a write up would be greatly appreciated

 

Take bolt out. Slip washers between bed and frame. Re-install bolt.
Crooked bed/bent frame fix complete.