Adding a Bed Slide to Your F-150

Don’t crawl into the bed to retrieve cargo, bring the cargo to you with a bed slide.

If you haul cargo in the bed of your Ford F-150 pickup with any regularity, the odds are good that at least once, you have climbed into the bed to get something from the front the cargo box. This is more of a problem if you have a tonneau cover, preventing you from easily reaching over the bedside to grab something that has slid to the front.

Fortunately, you can prevent yourself from ever climbing into the bed, under the tonneau cover ever again by adding a bed slide to your F-150, and one of our members put together a quick DIY detailing the installation of his handy cargo tray.

The Introduction

This bed slide install thread was initially shared to the forum by “sharper4” after he installed the system in his Ford F-150. While the installation is very straightforward, with the assembly bolting to the floor of the bed, the OP detailed some of the issues that he had during the process.

“I recently had a slide made for the bed of my truck. It’s overkill for my needs – which include holding a stroller, outdoor chairs and volleyball equipment. I went with a company called “Slide-Master” but in hindsight I probably should have just tried to make something myself. It’s a tough unit but they sent it to me with a couple defects and I expected a lot more for them since they’re a fabrication company. I even had to send it back and it came back with the same problem – hopefully just an oversight but I ultimately had to fix it myself which defeated the purpose of using an aftermarket company.”

While the OP had some issues with the locking mechanism, one of the advantages of this particular bed slide company is that they custom make the product to the buyer’s dimensions. This means that if you can measure your truck bed, this company can make you a bed slide.

The Bed Slide in Action

The OP didn’t detail the actual install, as it is as simple as bolting the frame into the bed and installing the slide assembly, the lock and the handles. This F-150 owner purchased a branded rubber bed mat and trimmed it to fit the tray of the slide system rather than leaving the metal exposed.

As you can see, he uses the bed slide to access a stroller, some chairs and some bagged volleyballs. These are all items that are likely to slide around the bed, so when he gets where he is going, he has to either climb into the bed or fold up the tonneau cover. Instead, he just pulls out the bed slide and everything is easily grabbed.

More importantly, this $900 bed slide will hold up to 1,600 pounds while still operating normally, so if the OP wanted, he could haul much heavier items with the same ease-of-access. In other words, this bed slide would just as easily accommodate an engine block, a transmission or most other items within the F-150’s payload capacity.

Patrick Rall

"Before I was old enough to walk, my dad was taking me to various types of racing events, from local drag racing to the Daytona 500," says Patrick Rall, a lifetime automotive expert, diehard Dodge fan, and respected auto journalist for over 10 years. "He owned a repair shop and had a variety of performance cars when I was young, but by the time I was 16, he was ready to build me my first drag car – a 1983 Dodge Mirada that ran low 12s. I spent 10 years traveling around the country, racing with my dad by my side. While we live in different areas of the country, my dad still drag races at 80 years old in the car that he built when I was 16 while I race other vehicles, including my 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and my 1972 Dodge Demon 340.

"Although I went to college for accounting, my time in my dad’s shop growing up allowed me the knowledge to spend time working as a mechanic before getting my accounting degree, at which point I worked in the office of a dealership group. While I was working in the accounting world, I continued racing and taking pictures of cars at the track. Over time, I began showing off those pictures online and that led to my writing.

"Ten years ago, I left the accounting world to become a full-time automotive writer and I am living proof that if you love what you do, you will never “work” a day in your life," adds Rall, who has clocked in time as an auto mechanic, longtime drag racer and now automotive journalist who contributes to nearly a dozen popular auto websites dedicated to fellow enthusiasts.

"I love covering the automotive industry and everything involved with the job. I was fortunate to turn my love of the automotive world into a hobby that led to an exciting career, with my past of working as a mechanic and as an accountant in the automotive world provides me with a unique perspective of the industry.

"My experience drag racing for more than 20 years coupled with a newfound interest in road racing over the past decade allows me to push performance cars to their limit, while my role as a horse stable manager gives me vast experience towing and hauling with all of the newest trucks on the market today.

"Being based on Detroit," says Rall, "I never miss the North American International Auto Show, the Woodward Dream Cruise and Roadkill Nights, along with spending plenty of time raising hell on Detroit's Woodward Avenue with the best muscle car crowd in the world.

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