Hydraulic bed lifts???

[Koa Man]

The LS rear on Dodges are just great. It will lock up by the time the other wheel makes one revolution. I have watched this while my wife was driving and I was standing outside the truck. I had a Ford F250 with LS rear and the free wheel had to be spinning pretty fast before the other wheel moved. I need the 4x4 feature mainly to back up steep driveways and when it rains. The places I dump at have a pretty solid base, won't really sink down, but easy to lose traction.

 

[xander9727]

Pierce equipment sales has do it yourself scissor lifts. I put a 3 ton unit on my dually that I built a box for. I would buy a 5 ton if I had it to do over again. I had to turn up the pressure on the 3 ton to get it to dump when it is really full.

Here is their site: http://www.piercewrecker.com/dump.htm

 

[topnotchtree]

http://loadhog.com/ I never tried these but I was seriously thinkin of doin the same thing you are about to do. Here is another link..http://www.piercewrecker.com/ The pierce site is who manufactures the set-up you can buy out of the northern tool catalogs. I wound up taking a chance on an old f350 that had a stakebed that dumps. So far the truck runs great and I am now in the process of rebuilding the bed. I kinda figured if those pick-up dump conversoin kits were all that great you would see more of them out in the field.

 

[Redbull]

Topnotch, I looked at that load hog site, but wasn't real impressed with the idea of using an airbag to lift my pickup bed.

 

[bottlefed89]

xander, how was the install?? What type of box did you build?? Got any pics?? I just built a box on one of my 350's a few nights a go, I like it, but want a dump...

 

[Pacific]

That scissor hoist sure puts alot of stress on the dump hinge I don't think I would want that under one of my truck decks.

As for the P/U dump box conversions no way the P/U box isn't designed to dump as for the load hog air bag what a joke that thing is. If you want something that will last a long time and dump a decent sized load get a proper box and hoist.

You definatly don't want to have the box up full of chips and it tears away from the truck because the cheap tin P/U box isn't strong enough. You also want a hoist strong and fast enough to dump a full load of chips you don't want to be out there goon spooning the chips out of the box because the hoist powered out.

If you spend abit more money now it will save lots of headaches down the road especially if you are going to be using the truck as a chip hauler daily.

 

[bottlefed89]

Well, I built my plywood box for my F350, now If I only had the $$ for a dump... Does this look unprofessional?? I'm only gonna use it until I can afford a chip truck, but once I get it painted and all do you all think it looks to goofy?? It sure as hell beats a trailer and loading/unloading brush. Plus, I already found a fellow who will take my chips, so no more dump fees...
Sorry for the large file, comp locks up everytime I open photosuite to try and shrink it, maybe from another computer...

 

[Koa Man]

I think it will look real good if it was painted black. Get a dump on it. The time it saves will pay for itself in no time.

 

[a_lopa]

paint it white.

 

[Koa Man]

Don't listen to aussie, paint it black.

 

[Pacific]

Paint it hot pink

Just joking I would paint it black also if you can paint the frame of the deck black use some black tremclad or some kind of rust paint on the deck and a good exterior grade paint (oil) on the box. It looks like pressure treated plywood is it ?

If so you may have to wait till you get some hot weather before you paint it to dry up the treatment on the plywoods surface. That way the paint will stick good I would also recomend a good primer to seal up the plywood and go over with the black. You might aswell give it a good paint job you want it to look decent it will make the plywood last longer also if the surface is smoother the dirt and crap can be washed off.

The expensive route if you really wanted to have the box last a long time is seal it with polyester resin then gel coat it black.

As for getting the chips out easier you could aways have a good heavy tarp with ropes that you can lay on the floor and up the front wall of the box so when you blow the chips in the chips lay on the tarp. When it comes to unloading the box you take the ropes on the tarp end that is up the front wall of the box and tie them to a tree and pull the truck ahead to roll the chips out. It works for leaves in a P/U truck you just have to find a heavy enough tarp something like a truck tarp (heavy canvas).

Anything is better than raking or shoveling the chips out by hand

 

[bottlefed89]

Yep, it's pressure treated, so I will want to take care of it and have it last as long as it can. It was not too cheap to build. With the ice storm I defenitely paid for it over the weekend, but not cheap anyways. I was thinking black too. I am painting the bed black, and even have the paint, just waiting until I can have the truck down a couple days. It's also my snow plow truck, and salt-spreading truck, so it doesn't get a lot of down time between that and tree work in the winter.

 

[Pacific]

I can beleive ya pressure treated plywood isn't cheap but it lasts a long time the other thing its heavy when its wet. When I worked at the local building supply trying to carry 3/4" treated ply was back busting. In this area its mainly used for buiding docks or marine applications.

It will take awhile for the plywood to dry out I think the only way you could paint it is have the truck in a dry heated shop for a week which doesn't sound feasable so it looks like you will have todo it over the summer.

 

[bottlefed89]

I acutally do have a dry heated shop, but it would probably take me more than a week to get enough space to put that sucker inside, will probably wait till summer, or I actually made it removable in about 4 sections, so when I know I'll be doing something else for a week or so I may just stow the box inside.
Yea, back-breaking is an understatement for 3/4 pressure treated plywood. I loaded all the supplies into my international box truck, so I was having to lift each sheet into the back of a 4' truck. I lived though...

 

[DDM]

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/...oductDisplay?storeId=6970&productId=552&R=552

 

[DDM]

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/...uctDisplay?storeId=6970&productId=9923&R=9923

Looks Decent

 

[DDM]

Maybe even this one

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/...tDisplay?storeId=6970&productId=21075&R=21075