Service body or flatbed: which one for the work you do
Both replace the factory pickup bed. They suit completely different work, and the wrong choice is an expensive thing to live with for ten years.
Service body
A service body has enclosed compartments down both sides with a cargo area in the middle. It is the classic utility body.
It suits you if you carry tools and parts and need them locked, sorted and dry. Plumbers, electricians, service engineers, anybody whose van-load of kit currently lives loose in a pickup bed under a tarpaulin.
The trade-off is the compartments eat width. Usable floor between the boxes is narrower than a pickup bed, so you are not putting a pallet in the middle of most of them. They are also heavier, which costs payload and fuel.
Flatbed
A flat deck, usually with stake pockets and often with a headache rack.
It suits you if you carry long, wide or awkward loads. Lumber, pipe, equipment, anything that needs to overhang or be loaded from the side by forklift.
The trade-off is no secure storage at all. Everything is exposed. Many people add an underbody toolbox, which gets you part of the way back.
Skirted flatbed
A flatbed with enclosed boxes built into the skirt below deck level. You keep the full flat deck on top and gain lockable storage underneath.
It suits you if you want flatbed loading with somewhere for tools. It is the middle option and it is popular for good reason. It costs more than a plain flatbed and gives up some ground clearance.
Gooseneck bodies
Any of the above with a gooseneck ball set into the deck for towing a gooseneck trailer. If you tow gooseneck, specify it up front, because retrofitting is not a small job.
Aluminium or steel
Aluminium is lighter, which goes straight onto your payload, and it does not rust. It costs more and it is harder to repair well if damaged.
Steel is cheaper and easy for any welder to fix. It is heavier and it will rust eventually where the coating is broken.
For a truck that lives where roads are salted, aluminium usually wins over ten years. For a truck that takes knocks and gets repaired locally, steel often makes more sense.
The measurement that actually matters
Cab to axle. Not bed length, not wheelbase. CA is the distance from the back of the cab to the centre of the rear axle, and it determines which body will sit correctly on your chassis. Get it wrong and the body overhangs badly or the weight sits in the wrong place.
Dual rear wheel chassis also need a wider body than single rear wheel. Tell us which you have.
What to send us
Year, make, model, cab to axle, and single or dual rear wheel. With those five we can tell you exactly which bodies fit your chassis.
Measuring your chassis properly
Getting this right is most of the job. Four measurements.
Cab to axle (CA). Back of the cab to the centre of the rear axle. The number that decides which body fits. Common values are 56, 60 and 84 inches. Measure it rather than assuming from the year.
Single or dual rear wheel. Dual rear wheel chassis need a wider body. Not interchangeable.
Frame width. Usually standard within a manufacturer, worth confirming.
Existing bed length. Useful cross-check but not a substitute for CA.
If you are unsure, photograph the chassis from the side with a tape measure in shot and send it. We would rather measure it with you than have a body arrive that does not sit right.
Payload, and the thing people forget
A body weighs something, and every pound of body is a pound you cannot carry. A steel service body can weigh several hundred pounds more than the aluminium equivalent, and that difference comes straight off payload for the life of the truck.
If you routinely run near your GVWR, aluminium repays its premium. If you run light, steel is fine and cheaper to repair.
What gets added afterwards
Most bodies get fitted out after they go on. Worth planning before you buy rather than after.
Headache rack. Protects the back window and gives you somewhere for ladders and pipe.
Underbody boxes. The usual answer to a flatbed's lack of storage.
Crane or hoist. Needs a body rated for it. Say so up front, because it changes which body you should buy.
Lighting and beacons. Straightforward, but plan the wiring route while the body is off.
Fitting
Bodies mount to the frame with brackets and U-bolts. It is a workshop job, not a driveway job: the factory bed has to come off, wiring and lighting have to be transferred, and the new body has to be squared and torqued properly.
Most people have an upfitter do it. Budget for it when you price the body.
Buying new against used
We list both. A new body arrives as the manufacturer built it, with their warranty. A used body is cheaper and, if it is aluminium, often has plenty of life left because aluminium does not rot.
On a used body, check compartment floors, door alignment and seals. On a used steel body, check the bottom of every compartment, because that is where water sits and that is where it goes first.
