Old iron earning its keep

Seemed to have fixed the Cat and dump truck so dug and hauled 8 loads of clay today. Would go a lot faster with a helper but they're hard to come by. Still a lot faster than a skid steer a bucket at a time.

Nice looking yellow truck, if you've got any more pics I'd love to see them. Cheers

The truck is a 1994 Ford L9000 with a Cummins M11 310HP engine. It's a former plow truck but the only thing functional now is the dump box. The box could be exchanged for a sand spreader and it originally had a Rexroth Compu-Spread system, front plow, snow wing and maybe a mid mount plow. I heard there was about 400 of these trucks in Alberta. I think there was a grounding issue with the electronic console beside the seat because the hoist would only work intermittently. I installed a new switch wired directly to the batteries with a fuse that solved the problem. It runs great but has a tiny air leak or something that causes it to lose prime if it sits for a few hours. Doesn't leak any fuel and is very good on fuel. A couple tires have a slow leak but nothing too bad. It has a big Rexroth pump on the front and lots of controls and switches in the cab. All the GPS and most of the electronics wires have been chopped off.

That's a really nice old truck

It's just what I could find at the time. I wanted a dump truck under $10K. It's got some rust and the hood has some cracks but it runs good and works for what I need.

If you got that for under 10k you’re laughing. We have an old international with a gas engine. It’s been nothing but a pain in my rear end with the hoist leaking. And it being a twin cylinder with the hydraulic reservoir being at the base. I found a used one that was supposedly rebuilt. But it was larger. Cut the mounts and reworked It to fit. It goes up, but not down. And leaked when I pushed it up. Was able to bleed the box back down. It haven’t had time to mess with it since. Seems the control lever doesn’t have enough throw to pull the valve to let the box down.

I looked at an old GM gas for $2500 at a neighboring farm but the hoist leaked. Checking into it, it was unlikely the cylinder could be fixed and would need a replacement. A new cylinder was over $1000 and I didn't want the hassle of changing it. I first saw the Ford at a used equipment dealer. After getting some more pics. and some back and forth e-mails, I offered $7500 without seeing it person. They wanted $12,000 and said they did a bunch of work to it. They put new front tires and decent retreads on the rear as well as painted it. They said they could only hold till Saturday because an out of town buyer was interested. This was a farce. They were getting it ready to put in the RB auction as I saw it listed on RB's website. I got it for $8000 plus the buyer premium of about $500 if I recall. Only 1 other person was bidding on it. They were sitting right in front of me. I wasn't going to go any higher. After I showed by bidder card the guy and his wife turned around to see who bought it. He said if knew I wanted it he would have stopped bidding. Maybe I could have got it cheaper. I had to do a little work to it fixing the hoist mount and thankfully the maker of the cylinder had a shop in the city and a used outer sleeve. I took the cylinder to them and they replaced the sleeve for about $250 complete. Fantastic customer service, they didn't charge me any labour and the sleeve wasn't listed in their inventory is why I got it so cheap. One of the lifting pins was about 1/2 worn through. I originally went to them to see if it could be welded up and they found a used sleeve within about a1/2" of length that would work fine. It was on a pallet at the top of their racking.
I've seen diesel dump trucks sell as low as $2500 but weren't the best set up for my use off road. Air ride, etc. The Ford has Hendricksen springs which most people say is best for a dump used truck off road. Better traction and more stable. No need to empty air bags everytime you dump. The Ford is a heavy spec. truck with a double frame (no rust jacking) and twin steering boxes. I figured being a former plow truck it probably had pretty good maintainance for at least 15 or 20 years of its life. Now that I fixed a corroded connector on the alternator it's been working great. The seller would have been better off selling it to me for the $7500 I offered. After they paid the auction commission they lost money. They also spent the money to put better tires on and painted it. Bonus for me!
Originally I considered a dump trailer but it would have cost more, have less capacity, slower hoist, not really designed for heavy duty use and a lot harder to maneuver. I'd also need a 3/4 ton truck to pull one. There's definately a lot more to go wrong on a dump truck though.

Nice looking L9000 WD!

I have a '95 L9000 L10 with Allison 4sp auto. Heavy Hendrickson rears and 20K front, it's a hell of a strong built truck just lacking on power.

Got a little chuckle on the "Turn off the master switch" label next to the key switch - we had to install a MS as well due to a ghost drain on the electrical system while she sat.

There's a few warning stickers to disconnect both battery cables if performing any welding because of the sensitive electronics from all the plow and spreader equipment. I was amazed at all the wires and electronics in the console beside the seat. I was hoping to wire the rear joystick for the hoist but it had an electronic board on it. Thankfully there was a spare hole for a standard toggle switch I could wire direct to the battery. I was able to use the plastic hoist up and hoist down tabs that pop in the panel. I put the blank ones back on the joystick. It is 100% reliable now except if I over load it a bit. The 3rd section of the hoist stalls sometimes but usually turning the switch on and off a few times creates a little extra pressure to get it to move. Once up about a foot it goes the rest of the way easy. Maybe I could turn up the relief valve but it's not that big of a problem. There's 2 MS's. I only turn off the one with 2 batteries. The other battery box can hold 2 batteries but only has 1. When I turn off that MS a light comes on on the dash. Very strange. The truck is turning over good and seems to charge much better since I fixed the alternator wire. I might have to look at replacing a fuel hose or 2. The truck seems to be losing prime faster than before. Doesn't leak fuel but I don't particularly want to have to pull the starter from all the extra cranking.