Trouble removing my troop seats sideboards and headache rack

[Rifleman]

Okay, i have to pick up a big item in about a week, so i need to remove my troop seats. I went to the TM's, and per the manual it states to remove the seats to just slide the lock pins out, and then using soldier "A" and soldier "B" to just slide the seats out of the bed.

The troop seats on the side of the bed came out without to much trouble, but man o man i am having one devil of a time trying to get those small side boards out that attach to the headache rack at the front of the bed.

Now i don't want to pry on those fiberglass slats because i am afraid that will crack or break them. Now After spending over an hour tonight looking them over it looks like there is at least one coat of paint on them.

Along with this paint, there is who knows how many years of rusts holding them in place. So i have to ask you guys in the know, how in the devil do i get them out without breaking the fiberglass slats, because mine just won't slip out.

So is there a special tool or trick i am missing to remove them, or should i just remove the slats and work on removing each post by itself and once out just put them back together.

 

[Karl kostman]

I have removed a lot of troop seats from trucks and once in while you can run into a problematic one. What I do is to find a piece of wood to set along the underside of the fiberglass slat to help distribute the load on it start at one end and just keep working it till you get some good wiggle out of it then do the same on the other end, of course use good judgement with the prybar your using, but with the wood to distribute the force you would hard pressed to break the fiberglass, be patient and it will come!
KK

 

[Amer-team]

You can also loosen the nuts and bolts that hold the slats to the verticals. Let it flex a little bit and with the above tip of getting a little wood under them, they should come right out. When you go to reinstall, leave them loose, and find a good neutral position on them, where they slide in and out relatively well, and tighten the bolts. Sometimes you will get a vertical post the is deformed a bit and dragging on the edges of the pocket, you can try to straighten those out, or find a better one and replace.

 

[wreckerman893]

If you get them the slightest bit canted and put them in a bind you will rip them to pieces before they come out.
My guess is that they are rusted in or as you suspect may have some paint holding them.
Worst case scenario is that you have to remove the slats and take out each stake at a time. We had to do that once in Korea when we were putting shelters in the beds of new 5 tons we had just picked up.

 

[Jeepsinker]

Acetylene torch would make quick work of it. Try heating the area where it is painted to the bed on top and down the side pockets a bit, then take some penetrating oil and spray into the seam that is rusted together. The oil will smoke as it cools the steel, but the heat will suck it into places that it wouldn't go normally. The heating and cooling will also help break the rust up all by itself if that is what's going on here.

 

[Amer-team]

You can also bridge the bottom slat with a piece of wood to distribute the load, so you don't damage the slat, stick a high lift jack in there and jack it out. If the stake pocket is fairly clean, take some candle wax and lube up the posts and put them in and take them out a few times and you shouldn't have a problem in the future. My truck had a wooden headboard and fiberglass sides, so I got a fiberglass headboard and the vertical posts were an inch and quarter off going in the hole. I was ready to drill the bolt holes oversize to make it work and after loosening and finding a good point, it works like a champ.

 

[RodUSMC1962]

I have used a bottle jack to jack them out ,using 2x4`s to get even stress points not to damage anything. Using two people sure works better.

 

[5tonman1971]

Try tapping with a hard rubber mallet and shake them to relieve pinched stresses and switch from left side to right side everytime you shake them. On my 813 I have to wiggle the passenger side while a friend pulls up on the headache rack to get everything to come free

 

[Rifleman]

Well, i wanted to say thanks to everyone for their ideas, i was finely able to get the side boards out tonight without breaking a thing.

I used Karl Kostman idea, but instead of using wood i used an Aluminum bar to bridge the gap between the two stakes. I then used two "C" clamps to clamp the Aluminum bar to each stake, i then used the pry bar to lift each side up a little bit.

Now as each side came up, i would then loosened the "C" clamps and moved the bar down close to the bed again, i kept doing this until i got each side board out. Thanks again to everyone for their help.

 

[Amer-team]

Way to go team? Definitely look at why it was stuck, when you have them out. If it was a tight fit issue, a little candle wax on the verticles where they go in the stake pocket can make a big difference.