The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts bed type for a rollback

at first i was just going to use a plate steel bed, but i got to thinking, how cool would it be to have a wood bed on it like the light duty trucks had, give it a old school look but still have a functioning rollback

I don't see a problem with that. It aota look good.

Texas;
That sounds like the way to go,IMHO. That way,you don't lose the "Cool old truck" looks.
Be sure to take lotsa pics,document the hell outta the build. There's several of us who would be going the home-built rollback deal if we could,and I,for one,plan to try to do one in a couple of years,once I get my home/shop built and get a few more vehicle projects done and out of the way.
Are you thinking of using an already made flatbed and making it into a rollback? That's how I'd considered doing it,since I'd already have a flatbed to work with.
Speed

No, I have a dump bed on my C60 now, I am going to convert as much as I can and fab the rest. I have had a bit of trouble finding any sort of reference to building one. But luckily I was born with half a brain and should be able to figure it out on my own, hopefully. I did find a pretty good video today of one operating with the bed portion off, just the subframe going through its range of motion.

Does anyone sell 2x6 or 2x8 in 20' lengths? I seem to see 16' and the occasional 18'

I buy a lot of steel and most of it comes in 20' lenths. look around some more I am sure you will find it.

No i mean lumber, not steel. But I came up with a solution anyway. I will just buy 18' or 16' peices and make the first few feet at the front of the rollback steel plate to mount my winch on.

See if you can find where the semi trailer builders and repair shops get there flooring I saw some laminated 40 foot tounge and groove boards being installed in a trailer years ago.

Thinkin about the same deal for my dump. wanna convert to a tilting flatbed, & if I can get some help froma couple crazy freinds with proper skills, I'd like to make it a rollback. If it turns out to be too much of a pain I'll just make it with ramps I can slide between the frame rails.
All about that wood deck, looks much better & I can make it into a stake side for that classic truck look.

Hey Badtexasz28,A good reference for wooden deck roll back bodies is Danco Products in Pa. @ www.dancoproducts.com or Trail King @ www.trailking.com After all, a picture is worth one thousand words.Good luck on your project!!

Thanks gtow9, i have been on danco's website, but the trail king site had a little info. I have a video of complete operation with no bed on it, so that will aid me in designing it. Now it is all about getting the parts i need.

I have the twin cylinders to push the bed up, but I cant seem to find the long ram i will need for the slide back function. Any sources people?

could you use something off of a forktruck mast. some of them have 2 or 3 stage cylinders and some just use a single stage that is pretty long.

good thinking dougm, see two minds are better than one.

Forklift cyl's are single acting and you will need a double acting cyl . to move the bed both way's, I havent had to much time to get back with you but I havent found to any pictures of my rollback. But I remember that I got my cyl from a Airforce Auction, and it was only a 3" by 8' cyl. Never had any trouble sucking the bed up. As soon as I get time I will draw something up and scan it. My truck, 71 Ford with a 361 V8 and a 5 speed 2 Speed axle and only 10.000 lbs.

thanks Spareparts2, what would be the ideal length of cylinder for a 20ft bed?

My 21 foot Chevron steel bed has a 12 foot single stage cylinder.You will need one longer than one half your bed length.Go to the Miller Industries website and chek out Chevron,Holmes,Vulcan,Chalenger and some others.You will need a clutch pump or PTO pump that can keep up with the volume and pressure.

Mine had a 19' bed and with the 8" cyl it would go back far enough to lift the rear wheels off the ground. I made a drawing of the side of the truck cab and chassis out of poster board using a 1" to 1' scale, then added the bed frame with a stick pin at the hinge on the rear of the frame, then added the lift arms adjusting the length at 6" intervals until I got the bed frame angle at 18 degrees. Then cut a strip of poster board to simulate the bed floor and would slide it back and fourth to simulate the the bed movement and measured it to get the cylinder length, got lucky and found one a little longer at the auction. Good luck and if I can be of any help let me know. Wish I could remember the cab to axle length that would help setting it up.

Thanks yet again Spareparts2. I have a "know-it all" book I keep to record anything interesting or hard to figure out so that I may revisit if necessary, looks like this project will definately be added to it.

My local junk horder guy landed an old rollback bed from a scrap yard not too long ago that originally had wood planks for a floor.

The planks rotted out, and they welded sheets of steel over top of them.. it looks like absolute dog crap now, but the guy plans on pulling the steel sheets off and replacing the original wood floor and sticking it on one of his old 1 ton tow trucks.

I've been trying to talk him out of it.. he just paid scrap price for it, and the hydrolics are all supposed to work.. but he just doesn't want to part with it.

It sure would be cool to have one on an old truck.. maybe a 50 2 ton with a full pressure 261.

That'd be sweet.

What about a telescoping cylinder?

A telescoping cyl is a single acting type, remember most telescoping cyl's are in a vertical application where the weight brings it back down, Forklifts, Man lifts, Dump Trucks. Also on a telescoping cyl. the farther it extends the faster it travels. Remember that a telescoping cyl. is a series of progressively smaller tubes, as the tube extends the area the oil goes get's smaller in diameter with each stage requiring less oil to travel the same distance, problem is the pump don't know that and just keeps on putting out the same amount of oil and the cyl. just progressively moves faster.

A telescoping cyl. would lift the bed but would not work for bed travel, remember my first post on this I said that mine only had 1 cyl it made the bed travel. When the bed traveled it had lift arms on each side that attached to a bracket just in front on the spring shackle and to the bed cross members leaning forward, as the bed traveled back these arms move to a vertical position lifting the bed. It was a simple system and it only had a 2 spool valve, one to operate tbe bed cyl. and the other to operated the winch, pushing the levers toward the truck frame the winch and bed traveled out,of course pulling them everything moved in. I have been of the opinion that we sometimes over engineer everything, it might save us a step or two, but usually cost us triple in dollars, I like my little bit of money to much. God gave us some "Gray Matter" between our ears, sometimes we have to use it instead of our checkbook.

badz...What Spareparts is describing is exactly the design I e-mailed you about 3-4 weeks ago. It is excruciatingly simply.

I am trying to picture what Spareparts2 and Dave are saying...I think I kinda get what yall are trying to beat into my head, but a picture is worth 1000 words.

As far as the telescoping cylinder, I found a company that makes dual action telescoping cylinders up to a stroke of I believe 182".

Can either of you guys draw what you are trying to tell me and help this rollback illiterate youngin' understand?

Ok, after slowing down, I realized what you were trying to tell me. The problem I see with this approach is that I already have twin cylinders to dump the bed on it now. I would have to re-engineer the truck to get the bed to work like described. Thats why I was going to just add a dual action telescoping cylinder and only have to possibly upgrade the pump for more flow.

I doubt you have any idea how much a telescopic cylinder costs let alone a double acting one. Also they hold a huge amount of oil. Telescopic is a very poor choice. How do I know? Well after 40+ years of doing this I have some darn good guesses. It's you money, your truck but still a bad idea.

I am not doubting your experience Dave, but if I were to build it like you and Spareparts2 are talking about, I would have to buy 1 or 2 more cylinders with more stroke to be able to achieve enough travel to make the bed hit the ground. Or re-engineer my current setup to maximize the stroke I have now.

Maybe a telescoping cylinder isnt the best answer, but a dual action cylinder in my opinion is. Just for reference, this link is what I am going to be trying to mimic.
http://schwartzbodyco.com/videos/rollerframe-2.wmv

This is all still a thought gathering process, I still have yet to sit down and actually draw something out. It may turn out to be easy/cheaper to do it the above stated way. All a learning process and I appreciate the input