Dumptrucks - Buying v/s Converting a Flatbed

[herdfan]

theboman
Ya should come on over for the auction next Saturday at the fairgrounds.
I spied a little JD dozer there at Stratton's (the Kubota dealer) this AM (think a 410?). My wife has been great in regards to my tractor and dump truck purchases, so I probably won't push it with a dozer, although it would come in handy. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Stratton's is on the high side as far as pricing, so he probably wants a premium for it anyway - I'm trying to justify not looking further into it /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
I need to check into welders a little more and will likely do some repair work to the ole dump truck and throw on a couple of coats of paint on her once I'm done with the major work. Should make a huge difference in it's appearance.

 

[herdfan]

MarkV

That sounds like a sweet deal you got there!
With 36,000 diesel miles, the truck probably just gotten its legs stretched.
How does the aftermarket hoist work on the dump bed? Any trouble lifting the loads or with twisting of the bed's frame?
What sort of modifications did you do to the bed's frame?

eric

 

[MarkV]

Eric,
No problem lifting whatever I have put into the bed. The fabricator installed a 5 ton hoist even though the truck is rated for a 2.5 ton load. I believe the next size down was a 3 ton and he felt that was cutting it to close if you ended up with an unbalanced load near max truck capacity.

I was cautioned that the bed rails were the weak part of the system. They did add some reinforcement to the rails and I don't believe they will ever be a problem for my uses. Now if I over loaded the truck with stone often it could be an issue.

The major modifications that were made were cutting the frame and creating a pivot point behind the axle, reinforcing the bed rails, mounting brackets for the lift, mounting the electric motor, the hydraulic pump and wiring.

If any one were considering a similar set up the only down side I see is the speed of the electric/hydraulic hoist system. Not a big deal for me on a farm truck but for commercial use a PTO system would be much faster at dumping. Also more money from what I was told.

MarkV

 

[LoganWildman]

I picked up a 76 Chevy C30 2 years ago, that was a farm truck. It had a 12ft by 8 ft grain bed with 4 ft sides and an additional 3ft of swing up livestock racks and a PTO pump. I cut the sides down and fabricated a spreader gate. The out fit worked well, but I haul a little of everything with it, and felt the need to have a steel contractors dump. After watching auctions, etc for a year, I started cold calling truck body dealers and found a 6-1/2 x 10 steel dump for $300. I sandblasted the sides down (that took about 500 lbs of sand) repainted it, and put a new floor in it, and have less than $800 in the new bed.
I have been fixing it up as it was neglected, put new tires on it, exhaust and replaced some brake lines, but it is sweet and the nice thing is that I'll get my money back when I sell it.

Thats the one nice thing I discovered when looking for a truck, the 1 tons w/ contractors dump will hold their value better than the 1 1/2-2 tons trucks.