The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts remounting my dump bed. need advice

ok folks you have been really great. i hate to be a bother. i need some advice. since the big blue bolt is down for a little repair i of course decided to go ahead and do all of those little "round-to-its" i have been putting off untill the truck wasn't busy working and impressing the neighbors. My dump bed was mounted over some 1x6 planks between the bed and frame and they are in desperate need of replacing. my pa-in-law, a 50yr veteran mechanic advised using 1/2" steel plates and some welding to alleviate the wood and frame bolts altogether. This is something he had done on quite a few "full size" dumpers in the past. my question is, is this a good idea or not and is the wood better as a buffer between frame and bed. i do almost all of my hauling out of rough country and over rougher roads. Am i asking for some serious frame torque if i replace the wood with steel?

zebcotia,

I am looking at our Loadstar 1700 dumper as I type. It too has 1" hardwood strips between the dumper and the frame. This dump assembly was installed by a shop that does it all the time...and they used wood.

As you drive down the road, you can see movement between the frame and the box. I think the wood prevents the metal to metal scuffing that would occur if it weren't there.

Stuart

My 1 ton with dump grain bed had 1"x2" between the truck frame and the bed frame. I'm sure it serves as a buffer and as an anti squeek. I would not replace it with metal... unless you use a soft one like aluminum, brass, bronze, copper, etc...

The wood will be cheaper and easier to do. What type of wood? Mine was pine (old yellow pine, not the new soft white pine). You want a dense wood that does not shatter. NOT Oak or hickery. Walnut would be good, but expensive. Popler, birch, and maple would probably be OK.

I can think of a couple of reasons to just replace the wood.Its easier,you probably have to drill a few holes to make room for the rivets in the top of the truck frame.I bet its better between the frame and dumpframe if there's wood for when the chassis flexes.

thanks gang. these were pretty much my thoughts as well. My brother in laws tri-axle has steel in between as well as a few of the local haulers i looked at. So, the argument from "dad" seemed to have some merit. The wood that needs to be replaced was old pine. i was considering using some 5/4 x 6" pressure treated boards and ripping them to the proper width. my thinking is that the pressure treated pine would last alot longer and hold up well to the weight. what do you think?

use any hardwood...oak is great, costs a little more... pine would be my least favorite for it... good oak in there or even some old red elm will last 50 yrs...... afterall...look how long its been there now..????

The standard practice has always been to use wood strips between the body longsill and the frame. The are sometimes supplied by the body manufacturer and sometimes furnished by the body installer, which has become the norm in the last several years. I've used yellow pine that was only painted and oak that had no paint and various other species. It was used originally to make clearance for the rivets on top of the frame rails. Just place the wood strip on the frame, bang with a hammer, remove and drill 1" shallow holes where the indentations were made on the wood and then screw down to the frame in the case of a conversion hoist installation or simply place under the body to be secured by the body U-bolts.

The steel strips can only be secured by welding to the bottom of the longsills on a dump body or platform. NEVER weld them to the truck frame. That is begging for trouble. The big problem with steel riser blocks on a dump body is that the bodies tend to move around (side to side) and the blocks wear into the frame flange. That is why the very best method for installing a dump body is to use hard industrial rubber that is bonded to 1/8"x 3" steel strips which can be welded to the rear hinge top and the hoist mounting cradle. The middle is then secured bu steel strapping in a couple of places. This lasts and lasts and has the added benefit of eliminating a lot of the noise associated with empty dumps running down the road and banging around. The fact that dump bodies are so regional in design and manufacturer accounts for the great many variations one see's. Platform bodies are pretty much mounted onto wood (oak) 1x3's around the country. Your idea of using pressure treated pine Zeb is OK except that the copper used in the treatment of pine plays hell with steel so it is definately a NO-NO unless you have some old Penta treated boards. Thats why one must use double coated galvanized nails or screws with the new "treated" lumber. It will eat up a regular screw/nail in a year or two. Paint is still your best bet on pine or oak too for that matter.

Hope this info clarifys how a body is to be properly installed. NO welding...NO copper treated lumber.

moneypit. thanks for weighing in. that was some great info. you saved me some real headaches later on.
along these same lines. There are four "flanges" welded on the dump body longsills and matching ones on the frame for the bolts. What is your ideas on the bolts to use. Hardened or no? The ones on there now are not hardened and are not "snugged up" either. In fact, they are rather loose. is there a reason for this as far as allowing movement? or have they just come loose? If they are supposed to be snug, is there a reccomended torque? Just want to get it right. thanks zeb

You may consider bolting the flanges together tight at the rear. And bolting them together with a good stiff compression springs under the nuts on the front end. You sometimes see this done on longer wheelbase trucks when mounting the body. This allows the truck frame to flex indepentely of the body frame.