The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts Poll: to-hoist or not-to-hoist, what do you think

If you keep the hoist it is going to put the floor of the flatbed at the same heigth as the dump body, i.e., way too high to be practical. The old subframe hoists of the cam & roller design sit much higher than todays hoists and the body sills of your dumpbox are probably 6" as opposed to 3"-4" on the ranch hand body. So as it now stands you'd need to use taller longsills on your flatbed than 99% of them have. It wouldn't be worth the effort. You also mention something about "period correctness".
Well, cam & roller hoists were all but done by the mid sixties having been replaced by twin arm design which really did little if anything for the mounting heigth issue. They were first designed in the mid 30's. As I remember only Daybrook and Coverto were still making C & R designs by thje 60's. They were heavy as hell and very high cost to both manufacture and maintain. There were special low mount subframes made to use with platform bodies but were not very common. Occasionally still see one on an old Chevy or F*rd grain truck. They were unsteady and put a tremendous strain on the body at it's weakest area and far heavier than lightweight twin telescopics which took over the conversion hoist market by the mid fifties. They too are now history for the most part. So I believe your in for some major rebuilding of your platform body and would be very unhappy with it. Just simply isn't going to be satisfactory if used with your hoist. And then there is still the issue of the gooseneck hitch being waaaay too high if you intend to use it.

So no opinion or vote here, just sharing a lifetime of experience with you.