Cutting / fabricating drop down sides on a dump bed?

[oifla]

Hello all,

Been trying to upgrade my truck to something that more closely matches my needs. Ideally, I'd get into something with fold down sides. I don't load much (most of my work is bring gravel to a site) but occasionally I have to haul stuff away (busted concrete, etc.) and my machines can't lift very high (smaller mini ex and loader). I've been looking for a contractor style dump bed but its tough to find a truck that has the right GVW.

Anyway, that's the background. The question is whether it is feasible to but into a conventional dump bed (with 2ft sides say) and create a side that folds down for occasional loading use. I'm a decent welder so fabbing and reinforcing up the drop down section would be doable, not sure the physics of what I'm thinking about will work. Any thoughts? Thanks

O.

 

[materthegreater]

Stiffening up the headboard and tailgate posts would be a critical part of the design. I have a 3-4 yard Rugby dump body on my F-550 with fold down sides. It was very poorly designed.

 

[CM1995]

That's very doable with a little thought put into design.

What size truck and length bed do you have now?

 

[cfherrman]

I would dig a little pit to drive into and build a little ramp for your loader than tear up a perfectly fine dump truck. When you find a suitable tilting flatbed truck buy that.

 

[Steve Frazier]

I had a contractor dump with folding sides. It was manufactured that way and was problematic, I'm not sure I'd buy another though there may be better designed units out there.

Difficulty to convert will depend on a number of variables, the size of the body you're working on, your skill level and how much effort you want to expend. As mentioned you'll have to fortify both the front and rear end of the existing body as the sides offer structure to the body as a unit. You'll need to cut the sides off and add end plates to them. The floor should be stiffened where the sides attached as this will be your hinge point. The welding supply shop I use has pre-made hinges that would work well for this and they are fitted with grease zerks. This was one of the downfalls of my purchased body, the hinges had no means to be lubricated and rusted badly. You'll need to fabricate a latch assembly too, a large barrel bolt on each end would probably be easiest. The size of the body will determine whether you're able to lower the sides by hand, if not weld a D ring to hook your loader to.

Decent fabrication skills and the ability to handle heavy pieces will be required along with a lot of caution!

 

[oifla]

Stiffening up the headboard and tailgate posts would be a critical part of the design. I have a 3-4 yard Rugby dump body on my F-550 with fold down sides. It was very poorly designed.

That's interesting. Rugby is one of the brands I'm seeing here and there but they are either too far away (Wisconsin and Minnesota) or are on trucks I can't afford.

O.

 

[oifla]

That's very doable with a little thought put into design.

What size truck and length bed do you have now?

I think so too but I'm not finding anyone else who's done it so I'm a little hesitant to launch into it.

The truck I have is a little short for what I want to do (10ft bed). If i was going to jump into it, I'd put my cash towards a tandem axle with GVW in the ~50K range with a 15-16ft dump bed. Ultimately, I'd like to be able to haul ~15 tons of rock. Not a massive truck but also not a one ton.

O.

 

[materthegreater]

That's interesting. Rugby is one of the brands I'm seeing here and there but they are either too far away (Wisconsin and Minnesota) or are on trucks I can't afford.

I think their regular dump bodies are probably ok, but the fold down sides appear to be an afterthought. The headboard shakes forward and back when I drive down the road because it doesn't have enough reinforcement to make it stiff enough.

 

[oifla]

I would dig a little pit to drive into and build a little ramp for your loader than tear up a perfectly fine dump truck. When you find a suitable tilting flatbed truck buy that.

I can do this while working at home, not always feasible while working on a job site (most of my jobs are on existing houses, can't always do this kind of thing).

O.

 

[CM1995]

I think so too but I'm not finding anyone else who's done it so I'm a little hesitant to launch into it.

The truck I have is a little short for what I want to do (10ft bed). If i was going to jump into it, I'd put my cash towards a tandem axle with GVW in the ~50K range with a 15-16ft dump bed. Ultimately, I'd like to be able to haul ~15 tons of rock. Not a massive truck but also not a one ton.

O.

I was thinking converting a 1 ton dump or putting folding sides on a 2 ton flatbed dump. Don't think I would do it on a tandem dump.

However several months ago saw a tandem dump that had a regular OX bed with a "notch" in the center 1-1.5' lower than the top of the bed and the width of a skid bucket that appeared to be factory built. They were loosing payload but could load their tandem with smaller equipment. Thought it was strange and intriguing at the same time.

 

[Willie B]

Mine is flat bed with stake pockets (see the picture).


Mine is 5" channel with 4" square tube stake pockets. At present I have 14' long racks as sides. I once had 3 shorter racks. You could lift out as many as you need to for loading by hand or small loader. Body on the newer truck is taller, about 5' from ground to floor.

 

[skyking1]

I think the low notch and have a couple of big boards to drop in would be a great compromise. It is easy to engineer a good notch and board that does not leak. That keeps the bed stiff, does not require tilting up a heavy steel side, and does not have that leak at the bottom edge.
I like a bed edge that is knife edged to dump stuff inside, not sharp but 30 degree angle. the board would have an angle to match and hold any material.
You could leave a foot of solid at each end and have an 8' long notch. Would that do?
Maybe down to 16" high?

 

[Zewnten]

I think the low notch and have a couple of big boards to drop in would be a great compromise. It is easy to engineer a good notch and board that does not leak. That keeps the bed stiff, does not require tilting up a heavy steel side, and does not have that leak at the bottom edge.
I like a bed edge that is knife edged to dump stuff inside, not sharp but 30 degree angle. the board would have an angle to match and hold any material.
You could leave a foot of solid at each end and have an 8' long notch. Would that do?
Maybe down to 16" high?

My 73 F600 had this same bed design. The side board was replaced with a 12" piece of C channel, kinda heavy but also didn't break. I replaced it with lumber.

 

[oifla]

Mine is flat bed with stake pockets (see the picture).
Mine is 5" channel with 4" square tube stake pockets. At present I have 14' long racks as sides. I once had 3 shorter racks. You could lift out as many as you need to for loading by hand or small loader. Body on the newer truck is taller, about 5' from ground to floor.

How much stone can you carry with that setup? (unrelated: I've always liked those Chevys. Not sure I can find one with the engine/transmission setup that I would like but they have a good look. what's under the hood?).

O.

 

[terex herder]

You don't say if your loader has a quick tach bucket. There are high lift buckets available where the dump pin is close to the cutting edge.

 

[digger doug]

I was thinking converting a 1 ton dump or putting folding sides on a 2 ton flatbed dump. Don't think I would do it on a tandem dump.

However several months ago saw a tandem dump that had a regular OX bed with a "notch" in the center 1-1.5' lower than the top of the bed and the width of a skid bucket that appeared to be factory built. They were loosing payload but could load their tandem with smaller equipment. Thought it was strange and intriguing at the same time.

Reminded me of the Corvair pick up truck with the curbside tailgate:
https://www.motortrend.com/features/1963-chevy-corvair-95-rampside-pickup-mecum-auctions-monterey/

 

[Steve Frazier]

I had a 550 with the Rugby body too, unless you exercised the body sides regularly they and the latches would freeze up from rust. Seemed like a good idea but didn't work out so well in reality.

On larger trucks I've seen two fold down panels between the front and rear with a good sized center post.

 

[Spud_Monkey]

Here, this will get the job done and then some, you can always add removable top boards too.
They come packing a 6CTA 8.3 Cummins in the newer ones
M930A2

 

[Willie B]

How much stone can you carry with that setup? (unrelated: I've always liked those Chevys. Not sure I can find one with the engine/transmission setup that I would like but they have a good look. what's under the hood?).

O.

7 tons legally. It doesn't begin to squat with legal payload. Powered by 3208 Caterpillar 10.4 liter V8 It has turbo, but boost is not impressive 250 HP. The transmission is Allison, which is not my top choice, but it does afford better hill climbing ability.
It was a fire truck. 36000 on the odometer, but odometer piles up miles while sitting still pumping. I forget what the pump hours total but I estimate 26000 of those odometer miles are idling with the pump circulating water to prevent freeze up.
I looked at a dozen or more single axle town trucks. All are rusted pretty bad. I did not want rust. The fire trucks usually get a better life & gentler miles. Usually they are pretty cheap. I paid $6000. to buy this one.

 

[Old Doug]

I was thinking about fold down sides on my truck because of oversize stuff and i thought i would need the sides off alot but i have 2 foot sides and have never need to take them off. I have a smaller skid steer and i can load it ok.