Dump Truck snaped a pin!!

[EddieWalker]

I have a 1983 Ford F-600 Dump truck. I just put a new engine and clutch in it and have been running it quite a bit lately. Early this week I was on about my 8th or 9th load. The bed was about a quarter of the way up when I heard a very loud "BANG" from under the dump bed. It also stoped going up.

The first picture shows how the linkage works for the dump bed when it's fully lifted. You can see there is a triangular shaped braket at the end of the hydraulic cylinder. The cylinder it attached to the brackets with a large 2 inch pin welded to one inch plate.

The second picture shows this pin. You can see real clearly how the cylinder attaches to it and the pins on the end.

The third picture shows the busted off pin up close.

The fourth picture shows a worn out one inch pin. It wasn't giving me any problems that I knew of, but the zirk fitting wasn't taking greese. It was the only one, but I must admit to letting is slide. From the amount of wear and damage, I think it's been ignored for a very long time.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

I had to get the dirt out of the dump bed with the backhoe, then finish it off with a shovel. I drove it back to the shop with it in the position that it broke, and spent about an hour trying to decide to lower the bed to work on it, or leave it up. I kept thinking that it would be allot easier to get to everything with the bed in the upright position.

First picture shows the bed with boards to hold it up.

Then I pulled out the broken pieces you saw in the previous pictures. I had a welder do the repairs as I'm not skilled enough for something like this. $25 and it's better than I could ever get it.

Then the real problems started. It would not fit back in between the two brackets. That's 3/8 steel doubled up with more 3/8's steel welded between them. There is no way to fit it inbetween them.

The second picture shows the brackets that need the pin for the hydraulic cylinder.

My Dad is visiting and we figured that we had to take out one bracket to fit the pin back in. There is a 1 1/2 inch pin that the brackets pivot on. We pulled it out a bit to get the bracket off. It doesn't slide very easy. In fact, it's physically impossible to pull it by hand. We attached a chain to the end of it and pulled with the backho. This just pulled the dump truck sideways, which was kind of scary with all the boards holding up the bed. So Dad got the dozer and blocked the dump truck with it. hahaha

Who would have imagined all this??

Third picture shows the backhoe, dozer and dumptruck all connected and ready to pull the pin.

Once we got the pin out enough to pull the bracket, we realized that it woudn't work. It took a full day to figure this out. hahaha Sometimes pain just keeps coming. Both mentally and physically. hahaha

The next step was to pull the pin out all the way.

This got kind of complicated because the tires are too tall for the pin. Taking off a tire might make sense, but the bed might move when jacking up the truck and then fall and kill us. Not a good idea. hahaha So I got this idea to let the air out of the inner tire and press it down with a pile hooked under the end of the bed and held down with a come-along. It worked great!!!

Fourth pictures shows the pin and how the tire is held down. It also shows Dad's arm spraying penitrating spray on the pin.

This was a huge nightmare, the bracket that held the pin twisted and was binding on the pivot pin. It took hours and hours to get it out, and that was with the backhoe pulling on it!!!!!!!

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

Here's what three days of stuggle and headache have shown. The bracket is bent. hahaha

There is one place in Tyler that everyone recomends to do the toughest welding jobs. They also have a machine shop, which is a bonus.

I droped it off with them this afternoon and if I'm lucky, I'll get it back on Monday. Until then, I wait. hahaha

Eddie

 

[JESSE1]

It's good that you can keep a sense of humor about it! hahaha! I'm in the process of restoring a '59 White that my Dad drove when new. It's one thing after another!

 

[hockeypuck]

Oh boy!!!! Here we go again. This time lets do a streaming video cast live on the web!

I have a 1995 excavator and something small is always going on it. You have to love to work on equipment if you own old stuff and it is obvious to me that you do.



Puck

 

[Stimw]

I'm glad to see you thinking saftey first. I met a guy about 20 years ago with one leg. He told me he was working on the rearend of a large dump truck. He had the bed up with the hydraulics. It sat all weekend he came in on monday morning and was climbing over the frame to get to the rearend when it let go on it's own. I wasn't there but I have flashbacks everytime I see a dump bed up in the air!
I worked on semi's for almost 30 years and rule number 2 (saftey is 1) is be creative. We were always looking for an easier way to do it without the right tools or equipment. Why spend 4 hours doing something when a with shortcut you could do it in 15 minutes.

 

[kmdigital]

So did you twist that bracket removing the pin, or was it bent before? Just curious, but it would sure suck if you twisted it during all the work to get the pin out!

 

[EddieWalker]

When the pin snapped, either the bed droped or the hydraulic cylinder pushed the remainder of the pin into the bed of the truck. It held six yards of dirt up, but had to have twisted when the pin on the other side broke off. The side that is twisted is the side that didn't brake off, but held up the fully loaded bed.

Nothing I have can bend it back.

Eddie

 

[MODiesel]

We've got an '85 F800 dump that I've used to haul rock and move material around our property. It's an OK truck, but it's downright scary when you start to think about jacking parts up to do any kind of work. Every single piece of metal on that thing is heavy! Heck, I'm not sure I have enough CFM to get the lugnuts tight!

It's a whole different breed of work when it comes to wrenching on heavy trucks, even when compared to heavier ag equipment.

 

[EddieWalker]

When I bought the dump truck, one of the inner duel tires had a flat. I tried everything I had to get those lug nuts off without any success. I had to buy a 3/4 impact wrench to get them off!!!!

The bed is more scarry than heavy. It's just sitting up there above my head or arms like a guilitine. If it falls and I'm under it's main rails, than I'm also on top of the rails that it lays on. It's one of those senerios that runs through my mind every time I'm in that position!!! hahaha

Good news. The parts are ready to pick up today. I'm busy on a job, but should be able to pick them up this afternoon.

Eddie