The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts rollback bed

Does anyone have any information for the construction of a rollback type of bed? My '65 C60 it dump bed equipped, but I want to make a rollback car hauler out of it. I had the idea of just using the heavy duty aluminum vehicle ramps and just raising the bed at an angle and loading it that way, but a rollback would be so much cleaner (and would ease me a little too) Thanks.

Pete

My partner has one & I maintain it for him. It,s quite a complexity of pivets, levers, & hydraulics. I don,t think a guy could build one himself. You might find an old one somewhere & adapt it to your truck.

Roll back carriers utilize a long stroke horizontal cylinder between the longsills that allow the body to push/pull from the truck. They also use a very long body length for the CA of the chassis. For example a 120" CA would normally have a 16' platform or van body but as carrier the body length is approx. 19-20' in length. This allows for short piston type lift cylinders to raise the body and keep the approach angle low. Winches are generally drum type and attach to the front of the body. So if your thinking of adapting your dump hoist to this you can forget it. Whole different animal with completely different characteristics, heigths, torque, etc.

I'm not going to say you can't build one because I know I can but I've been in the business for 40 years which is about twice as long as I see you've been around. All that means is I'm a really old fart without your energy or enthusiasm for these things. But at least I can still answer some questions.

Dave: while i am a youngin...i know my way around the welding/fab shop. lol.

i actually own my own shop here in NC doing custom body and paint with some chassis fabrication. my downfall is the fact i havent really been around rollback trucks too much and am unfamiliar with how they operate. which is why i figured this would be a good place to start. if i could get just a few good pictures of how the bed worked, i feel i could build my own.

Great. Let me scrounge around thru some of my old material and see if I can come up with something that might help you. If I do I will private e-mail it to you.

Do you feel comfortable stretching the chassis?

Well what I would do is look into what it cost to get all the parts and steel together to build a roll back, look at a few and take pictures so you get an idea of how it works and a plan as to how to make it.
Then I would look into buying an old roll back, the idea is pull the roll back off the truck you buy and mount it on your 65 c60. I think it would be cheaper and better to find an old roll back and mount it on your truck, than build one from scratch. and fix up the cab and chassis amd sell that to cover expences.
jbennett
40 burb

I like parts of that idea. How about you buy an old roll back to copy, then sell it when you're done.... That is going your route, with a working model beside you, and you wouldn't be out much if anything when you were done other than time. You might also find you could use some parts from it if you wanted...

Yeah I am comfortable....and I would appreciate anything you can give me Dave.

Found anything yet Dave?

Been snowed in so haven't had anytime to look yet. I will soon.

Well i wish i had your problem....all i get here is freaking rain.

You have it easy-out here it's too cold to rain. It won't even snow-it's just cold...
Speed

What about those trucks that carry junk bins. My neighbor has a little Hino that can put a bin or a flatdeck on the back. He uses the flatdeck for his mini excavator. There's a big vertical arm with a hook on the top. It tilts back and grabs the loop at the top of the bin or front of the flatdeck and lifts the front onto a couple of rollers on the back of the fram and then pulls the whole works to the cab.
Just another idea...maybe.
BTW- We've had over 2 inches of rain in the past 18 hours and now the wind is picking up again. Jeez!!

I built one on a F-500 several years ago, used heavy 6" channel on the outside, hinged on the back of the frame. The inside was 2"X6" box tubing (thick wall) and turned about 14 rollers(more the better) that would just fit inside the channel. Drilled the tubing for the rollers off center about 1/2" so the tubing was above the channel a little. Cross members for the bed floor were welded to the tubing, the bed would slide back and forth in the channel using 1 cylinder attached to the channel frame at the front cross member and then to the bed cross member, this cylinder was about 7' long and 4" dia with a 2" rod(freebe). Mounted brackets to the truck frame in front of the rear spring hangers, mounted my lift arms there and to the bed cross members. When the bed was rolled back the arms lifted it, you have to play with the arm length to get it just right. Mounted a winch to the bed and went to hauling. Truck weighed 10,000 and hauled many 10-12,000 lb loads. Can't tell you any measurements because I built it on the fly and I copied some of it from another truck. It was light and simple, only had a 2 spool valve to operate.

My problem so far is locating the long ram i would need to push the bed back. I have a basic design in my head, nothing really down on paper yet.

Spareparts2- do you have any pictures of your truck bed? I dont have anyone around me that i know with a rollback to get designs from. also any parts suppliers for any of the more rare hydraulic components.

Most of them use hydrulic motors and chain drive to move the bed back and forth. Freedo a drop box truck would be nice for sure. With a veriety of beds and boxes. The only draw back to these trucks is the wieght eats up payload.