jon f mn
Well-known Member
My son runs a lawn care business and wants trucks set up so he can stop using trailers and his employees can quit lifting ramps. So he bought 3 retired Schwans trucks and I built the first bed, finally finished late last night. It's a fairly complex build with a side dump box for clippings and leaves, a bed with beaver tail, and hydraulic lift ramp. This is what it looked like to start. Lol
That is over $9000 in aluminum, a slight miss calculation meant another trip for over $3,000 more later to total over $13,000.00 just in aluminum. The front is a side dump box, 8' wide and 6' deep. The sub frame was pretty complex because it had to be flexible to twist with the truck frame, but rigid enough to keep the box from flopping around. I think I got it done, we will see if it holds up.
The box was next. He wanted it with short sides so it doesn't catch so much wind when driving when they are not using it, and with fold up sides for more space when in use.
The bed was also a bit more complex than average as he needed it low for loading and 11' long so he can haul his big tractor for leaf cleanup and 2 zero turn mowers for mowing. That meant dropping the main rails down between the truck frame to get the slope we needed.
Figuring out the ramp lift took some serious pondering. I basically copied some designs from farm machinery I've seen over the years, but even then it took some trial and error.
Here are a couple videos of the ramp. I have since put a restrictor in the line so it moves slower.
Thats all I can post at one time, I'll add more later.
That is over $9000 in aluminum, a slight miss calculation meant another trip for over $3,000 more later to total over $13,000.00 just in aluminum. The front is a side dump box, 8' wide and 6' deep. The sub frame was pretty complex because it had to be flexible to twist with the truck frame, but rigid enough to keep the box from flopping around. I think I got it done, we will see if it holds up.
The box was next. He wanted it with short sides so it doesn't catch so much wind when driving when they are not using it, and with fold up sides for more space when in use.
The bed was also a bit more complex than average as he needed it low for loading and 11' long so he can haul his big tractor for leaf cleanup and 2 zero turn mowers for mowing. That meant dropping the main rails down between the truck frame to get the slope we needed.
Figuring out the ramp lift took some serious pondering. I basically copied some designs from farm machinery I've seen over the years, but even then it took some trial and error.
Here are a couple videos of the ramp. I have since put a restrictor in the line so it moves slower.
Thats all I can post at one time, I'll add more later.
