The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Tons 'o Fun Dump hoist won't come down (Chelsea dump hoist)

I have a 1951 Chevy 3800 pickup truck....that also has a Chelsea dump hoist. I just bought the the truck.. When I first tried it, the bed went straight up as intended. Now I can't figure how to get the bed to drop back down! I have 2 knobs, (left one is the lift? the right one the PTO) I have done every possible combination to get the bed to go down and nothing... it doesn't even try.. I pull the left knob out, push the right in. Pull the Right out, push the left one in, I try to put the truck into gear and drive a little and do the same thing and nothing?? Are these beds typically a gravity return (the weight of the bed brings itself back down)? I've heard of hoists which have froze up pivot points that can get stuck up. The hydraulic pump is strong enough to overcome the binding/rust of the pivot points I would think, but there isn't enough weight in the bed to make it come back down? I even loosened the nuts holding the left lift? knob thinking that I didn't press it in far enough.. nothing... Any help would be great! I am trying to attach pictures of the setup. Thank you in advance.

Be very careful to never get any body part in the way of a falling bed! Always block it up when working in it.

Ed

Whatever you do, do not get under it. Block it in position whenever you're not making an attempt to get it down. Determine which knob does what. One engages the PTO, the other moves the raise and lower valve. Next, determine if it's a genuine dump, single acting cylinder. Single acting cylinders have only one hose connected to them. Dual acting cylinders have a hose at each end. IF someone were to have fabricated their own dump hoist with a dual acting cylinder, then you must have the PTO engaged to lower the bed. A really dumb thing to do, but when that's what you have for parts, then that's what you use! If it's a standard dump hoist with single acting cylinder, locate the valve control lever. It has 3 positions. Raise, hold, and lower. Cable pulled is raise, center is hold, push is lower. Remove the cable end from the lever. Using the largest pair of channel locks you can get your hands on, or a pipe that will slide over the lever, move the lever from the center to raise position, so you have an idea how much travel to expect from the center position. Go back to center and then try pushing the lever beyond center to the lower position. Often times the lever will bind enough that the force of pushing on the cable is not enough to overcome the resistance of the lever. All it does is flex the cable housing, or just bends the cable between the housing and the lever. Cables are pull tools and not push tools, though most generally sturdy enough to move the lever to the lower position, IF it gets used fairly frequently. Once your bed is down, give that lever a good number of reciprocations until if feels relatively freed, then try it with the cable connected.

I wonder if we ever got this bed down?

Looks like the OP was a "one and done" visitor! Would have been great to know the outcome.

Hopefully not trapped under it!

We use our 20k pound capacity forklift to raise and lower dump beds. Very handy as you can locate a leak easily or operate the bed with no oil in it. A near by lumber yard will usually help out.