I thought about this a bit more and really am in a far place away from the original design and vastly more ignorant than the original designers but
I'd say that floors and beds really suffered when the switch was made to the thinner 18 gauge. If you look at it a bit and think about how the
hauling area gets abuse.....and the dings and bangs that occur...that thinner gauge just doesn't hold. I'm going to have to flip my 79 tub over
and go over the underside with a planishing hammer to get all the dings out of the bed. I'm sure it was just general hauling of items in the
bed that did it....no extreme abuse.
@topnault I'm wondering also why your designers put that extra rib in the floor plans...as I mentioned before.
Perhaps they thought the metal needed strengthening there also? Ignore the question if thats proprietary.
I'm sure others have better input.
As an aside....I'm also a mudder that appreciates designs with better integrity. I have an additional stainless steel body tub from teseven (French) that is yet another
way to address longevity against rust. A few mudders have been chasing this "integrity against rust" holy grail for awhile with aluminum...stainless...thicker gauges...etc.