The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts 1954 GMC 470 advice

Looking for advice on a few things:

The first thing is my truck is a retired pump and the bed was removed and a flat bed grain box was added at some point. I would like to add a hoist to make it a dump. The transmission has a pto on it as well as the controls. Should I try to locate an old hoist or should I just bite the bullet and buy a new setup? I'm trying to have a reliable truck that can be used in the summer to haul anything without breaking the bank.

Second debacle is the old wiring on the truck. All of the lights and sirens are still all hooked up through a control box. The truck has a 7 volt alternator and has a huge voltage regulator box with all the wires leading to it. I was hoping to eliminate the miles of wire and put a regular truck harness in it and get rid of the dual 6 volt battery setup and control box. Part of me wants to start fresh with new wiring and then the other part of me says keep it and deal with the erratic starting. Will a 1/2ton wiring harness work? Thanks for reading my rambles.

Matthew

Since your making this a work horse, I'd replace the entire wiring harness and convert it to 12 volt. My past three projects have all been converted using an American Auto Wire fuse box/harness kit with a GM one wire alternator. A 1/2 ton kit will work, but you may need to extend the tail light wires...easy to do.

Mike B

New would be good, but quite expensive. I would contact someone like Henderson and get some figures.

http://hendersonproducts.com/dump-hoists.html

If you can find a used one including the subframe, pump, reservoir. ram etc. it would probably be much cheaper. I removed farm beds from several old trucks and made truck tractors out of them. I think I sold the dump equipment for scrap iron. It is one of those things that when you have it, it is scrap iron. When you are looking for one it is hard to find. Several years ago old farm trucks sold in the Midwest for about $1,000 and they had everything already installed. You might watch farm auctions like this one.

https://www.auctiontime.com/listing...mc?sortorder=63&SCF=False&page=4

Scroll down to the 1952 GMC

Depending on how much you want to delete or add to the electrical system, I would gut the wiring from the fire truck stuff and see what you have. Mine is so simple that it's easy to make your own wiring/harness.

Some fire trucks I have gotten have the lights and accessories, always hot, so probably best to replace everything.

Ed

Thanks for all the advice. I found some reasonable priced wiring harness' on the Jim Carter website. Not going to go with the cloth type since this won't be a show truck but a work truck. I can't justify the extra $400 dollars. I figure we will strip out all the fire accessories out first then replace existing harness with the new one. I will go with a alternator and 12volt conversion at this time for "reliability".

I started to look for a donor truck with a hydraulic lift. The prices are crazy high right now and hoping to find one reasonable. Or hope to find an old bed and hoist that was pulled off. Plenty of old grain trucks in southeast Michigan. If not There are some reasonable price electric lift kits. They are $2-$3k for a complete setup. Pricey but I won't have to deal with leaking cylinders or lines. So, the search begin.

Thanks
MFW

An electric lift system might work on a pickup sized bed, or even up to a 1 ton or so, but using one on a big rig bed would be sending a boy to do a man's job. Hydraulic is probably the only way to go on a truck the size you're working with.
Jerry

As I look at the electric options its looks like most stop at 2 tons. So, Hotrod you are on to something. Looks like I'm back to looking for an old lift system off a truck to swap.

It might be cheaper to buy a whole truck if the lift is OK!

Ed

If you can find a farm truck that has spent most of its life in a shed you might well be able to sell the cab for what you paid for the whole truck and have a lot of parts left over. 100 series GMC through 500 series used the same cab. A solid cab to begin with is the best way to restore. There have been lots of guys that put patch panels ever where on a rust bucket and never completed the project. They either ran out of money or lost interest.

The search is on.

MFW A friend had an electric hoist on a heavy pickup,it worked just fine. He had like a stomp starter button with 2 cylinders,would just raise right up.

That's good to know. The draw back about finding one of an old truck is that it will probably need to be rebuilt. Electric seemed like a good option. Just don't know how it would hold up. Do you know the size of your friends truck?

crenwelge You've got it right about good cabs,it's worth a lot to start with a clean rust -free cab that the doors fit and close into the holes !!!

A member messaged me about a setup in Missouri. That might be the route I go since I haven't been able to find a donor truck. Thanks

MFW It was about a ton pickup,I thought with 2 cylinders it might want to get out of synch but it worked fine for him .