maybe looking a sled deck for next year. what brand does everyonehave how do you like it. looking for some input on them. have a 12 dodge with the 6.5 bed. was thinking about a beaver tail style.
thanks
thanks
which sled deck?
- Thread starter f7firecatkid
- Start date
bullbog sled decks are very nice quality and well thought out from what i have seen. a friend has one and it is awesome. he bought it at the puyullup snow show 2012.
Rod
Rod
I have a Silver Lake - http://sledecks.com/ - zero (real) complaints. Light, works great, price was right. IMHO, it seems like the best combination of light/functional/collapsing sides without spending $$$$$$$$ - and I've not seen a deck that strikes me as "better," regardless of cost.
Do a search - I know I've blabbed about mine in the past. The closest thing I have to a "complaint" is that the ramp is too narrow for a 24" wide track - I had to screw chunks of wood on the end of the deck to lift the widetrack up high enough to make getting the ramp unhooked easy.
Normal sleds (15/16), no problem. 24" wide track, probably a 20", too, unless you get it PERFECTLY CENTERED, that's kinda a hassle.
Not sure how many people that applies to, though. I love it.
backcountryislife on here helped me get mine - great guy, easy to work with. I'm sure others are good, but the SLM deck really covered all the bases I wanted - collapsible sides (was not originally all that hung up on collapsible/expandable, but now that I've had it for a season, I'm REALLY GLAD I LISTENED to those who said "you want an expandable deck"), light, easy to use, superclamps, etc.
RH
Do a search - I know I've blabbed about mine in the past. The closest thing I have to a "complaint" is that the ramp is too narrow for a 24" wide track - I had to screw chunks of wood on the end of the deck to lift the widetrack up high enough to make getting the ramp unhooked easy.
Normal sleds (15/16), no problem. 24" wide track, probably a 20", too, unless you get it PERFECTLY CENTERED, that's kinda a hassle.
Not sure how many people that applies to, though. I love it.
backcountryislife on here helped me get mine - great guy, easy to work with. I'm sure others are good, but the SLM deck really covered all the bases I wanted - collapsible sides (was not originally all that hung up on collapsible/expandable, but now that I've had it for a season, I'm REALLY GLAD I LISTENED to those who said "you want an expandable deck"), light, easy to use, superclamps, etc.
RH
silver lake all the way
G
gorilla
Well-known member
Depending on where you are located, I'd suggest you look at Full Lotus sled decks. I drove up to Vernon BC just to pick one up directly from them. Very nice with the composite decking.
BTW, running a 2006 Mega Cab with the 8ft deck. Works great, lots of compliments on it when we take the sleds out for a spin.
BTW, running a 2006 Mega Cab with the 8ft deck. Works great, lots of compliments on it when we take the sleds out for a spin.
Silver Lake on my 12 Dodge and I love it.
I had a Full Lotus and really liked it. Regret selling it now. The only think I didn't like about it was that the ramp was a two piece that wasn't telescopic. The two pieces connected on the end. When it was cold it would tighten up and was difficult when by yourself. I really recommend an expanding deck. Unless you park your truck and drive another car daily, the extended deck can be a burden for daily use. I about took my own head off slipping on ice next to mine when it was expanded.
G
gorilla
Well-known member
The Full Lotus version that I have, this years model, has a telescopic ramp. VERY NICE. The 11' length also helps the angle of the ramp. I have a 2006 4x4 Mega Cab on 35" tires with 3" lift and it is has about the same ramp angle as my open trailer.
Yep, those came after my model of deck. Definitely the way to go.
I've been thinking about going back to a sled deck. I have been looking at ToyUp decks. I believe what they say about the steel vs aluminum and the pricing is good. The problem I have is a deck that is too wide for my daily truck. I liked that my Full Lotus had slide in sides. If my truck wasn't my daily vehicle, I wouldn't have any issues with it.
Toyup is hands down the strongest and is the easiest to use for a single person. Strong as hell, light weight, comes with super glides, super clamps, powder coated, etc. for the price and easy of use, it's a no brainer.
If you have access to X decks, look at those. I've had marathon decks in the past and I always had to get them welded every year. I use a deck every day for work in the oil patch in northern Alberta. I beat the heck out of them and the X deck has stood up very well.
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Sent from my LG-E973 using Tapatalk 2
We have been fortunate enough to use just about every deck out there, and they all have their respective place in the market. There has to be a cheap one, a super expensive one, import's and locally made. From our industry perspective there has been an overwhelmingly large amount of SilverLake Manufacturing decks come into the market the last few years.
From what we can see here at our office, this is for a few reasons, most of which have all been outlined above, but we will go over them again.
1. The deck is complete aluminum and can remain in it's natural state if you choose to keep it bare. It may tarnish with salts from the road, but it will not rust and fall apart.
2. The deck is relatively light and we see guys unloading and loading the deck by themselves several times a year. No they are not just picking the deck up but it is light enough to slide around and shimmy out of the bed.
3. In either of the three models you can fit it in either a long bed or a short bed. Even the Mega Cab beds.
4. There are three designs available. 8' Expandable Side, Fixed Beavertail Design, and Fixed 8' Design. This allows you to choose which price range works best for your application, and what deck you need to have to continue to use your truck during the entire winter without having to remove the deck and re-install a ton of times.
5. Price: Even the top of the line SLM deck is still only $2600.00. And this comes with tie-downs, super glides, and expandable ramp as a standard option, not upgrades.
6. The ramp that comes with either of the three decks is a one piece expandable ramp, that expands to just short of 11' long. The ramp is light enough for one person to operate, and now comes with the track knock-out that makes taking the ramp off the hinge point even easier when loading longer tracked sleds.
7. The headache rack is kept low enough on the decks that it does not stick up above the cab of the truck, so if you know you can get your pickup under something without the deck installed, you will be fine getting it under that same obstacle with the deck. (obviously without sleds on it)
8. One of the most important features that we see and like is the fully boxed sub frame that the deck is sitting on inside of the bed. It is not four individual legs, or four individual mounting points. It is a 100% braced box for both lateral and vertical movement. Even some of the decks that we see with bolted on legs or remotely triangulated legs seem to still sway and stress when going around corners with a loaded deck. Yes they mat not break or show wear right away, but even if the deck is swaying on its four legs an 1/8" over time it will wear and become a very weak point.
9. Some other little things that we like to see and that are standard on SLM decks but not on others are things like retention fasteners on the expandable sides and ramps that keep you from pulling the sides right out of the deck, or from pulling the ramp into two pieces. Yes these are super minimal things, but the amount of decks out there that do not factor these little items is astounding.
10. Standard LED Lighting is another plus.
11. Marine Grade Treated Plywood is a Standard - Yes there are others out there that use a plastic decking material, but in our experiences that plastic decking is A. unbearably slippery when wet or icy, and while the carbides don't eat into it, they do leave marks, and having super glides on a marine grade plywood is still the nicest looking and working product out there.
12. The SLM decks come with adjustable tie down points so that you can taylor it to the bed design that you put it in.
13. SLM Decks can stay with you from truck to truck to truck because they fit in any full-size pickup on the market.
The above points are some of the key factors in the reasons that we chose to sell and distribute SLM. Like we said before, yes there are nicer decks out there, but generally to the tune of twice the cost, and yes there are less expensive decks, but you give up quality and standards. With everything above said you can still customize SLM decks too. You can get custom laser cut sides, powder coated colors, superclamps on front and rears, longer ramp extensions, tav ramps and many other cool items.
At the end of the day the best thing you can do is talk to people who own them, and look at decks that are a couple years old that have been used. Generally if they have gripes or complaints they will not be silent and will let you know, and after a season of use you will start to see wear and tear and weak points if there are any. Don't buy into gimmick talk about being the lightest, strongest, etc. deck on the market. If you buy from reputable companies that have been around for a bit, their reputation speaks for themselves. Feel free to give us a call at anytime to chat about your options, we would be happy to elaborate on any of the above points for you, or explain what we sell as the "BLOWN MOTOR Edition"
Have a Great Day!!
BLOWN MOTOR 800.615.5249
From what we can see here at our office, this is for a few reasons, most of which have all been outlined above, but we will go over them again.
1. The deck is complete aluminum and can remain in it's natural state if you choose to keep it bare. It may tarnish with salts from the road, but it will not rust and fall apart.
2. The deck is relatively light and we see guys unloading and loading the deck by themselves several times a year. No they are not just picking the deck up but it is light enough to slide around and shimmy out of the bed.
3. In either of the three models you can fit it in either a long bed or a short bed. Even the Mega Cab beds.
4. There are three designs available. 8' Expandable Side, Fixed Beavertail Design, and Fixed 8' Design. This allows you to choose which price range works best for your application, and what deck you need to have to continue to use your truck during the entire winter without having to remove the deck and re-install a ton of times.
5. Price: Even the top of the line SLM deck is still only $2600.00. And this comes with tie-downs, super glides, and expandable ramp as a standard option, not upgrades.
6. The ramp that comes with either of the three decks is a one piece expandable ramp, that expands to just short of 11' long. The ramp is light enough for one person to operate, and now comes with the track knock-out that makes taking the ramp off the hinge point even easier when loading longer tracked sleds.
7. The headache rack is kept low enough on the decks that it does not stick up above the cab of the truck, so if you know you can get your pickup under something without the deck installed, you will be fine getting it under that same obstacle with the deck. (obviously without sleds on it)
8. One of the most important features that we see and like is the fully boxed sub frame that the deck is sitting on inside of the bed. It is not four individual legs, or four individual mounting points. It is a 100% braced box for both lateral and vertical movement. Even some of the decks that we see with bolted on legs or remotely triangulated legs seem to still sway and stress when going around corners with a loaded deck. Yes they mat not break or show wear right away, but even if the deck is swaying on its four legs an 1/8" over time it will wear and become a very weak point.
9. Some other little things that we like to see and that are standard on SLM decks but not on others are things like retention fasteners on the expandable sides and ramps that keep you from pulling the sides right out of the deck, or from pulling the ramp into two pieces. Yes these are super minimal things, but the amount of decks out there that do not factor these little items is astounding.
10. Standard LED Lighting is another plus.
11. Marine Grade Treated Plywood is a Standard - Yes there are others out there that use a plastic decking material, but in our experiences that plastic decking is A. unbearably slippery when wet or icy, and while the carbides don't eat into it, they do leave marks, and having super glides on a marine grade plywood is still the nicest looking and working product out there.
12. The SLM decks come with adjustable tie down points so that you can taylor it to the bed design that you put it in.
13. SLM Decks can stay with you from truck to truck to truck because they fit in any full-size pickup on the market.
The above points are some of the key factors in the reasons that we chose to sell and distribute SLM. Like we said before, yes there are nicer decks out there, but generally to the tune of twice the cost, and yes there are less expensive decks, but you give up quality and standards. With everything above said you can still customize SLM decks too. You can get custom laser cut sides, powder coated colors, superclamps on front and rears, longer ramp extensions, tav ramps and many other cool items.
At the end of the day the best thing you can do is talk to people who own them, and look at decks that are a couple years old that have been used. Generally if they have gripes or complaints they will not be silent and will let you know, and after a season of use you will start to see wear and tear and weak points if there are any. Don't buy into gimmick talk about being the lightest, strongest, etc. deck on the market. If you buy from reputable companies that have been around for a bit, their reputation speaks for themselves. Feel free to give us a call at anytime to chat about your options, we would be happy to elaborate on any of the above points for you, or explain what we sell as the "BLOWN MOTOR Edition"
Have a Great Day!!
BLOWN MOTOR 800.615.5249
