Landscape truck build

[fordf150]

didnt get pictures of the driveshaft but it worked out almost perfect. needed 103" shaft and spent a couple hours searching the junkyard for one that was just slightly longer so i could cut it down to fit instead of having to retube it but didnt have any luck with that plan. however I ran across a shaft that was 80" with the almost 50" of that being from the trans yoke to the u joint behind the carrier with the slip yoke being on the carrier side of the shaft, the idea hit me to use my original shaft and cut this down to fit between it and the trans. a couple conversion joints and cutting about 10" out of the junkyard shaft i ended up with my shaft. what was even better is that the carrier bearing ended up being only a couple inches past an existing cross member so it was easy enough to fab up a mount out of angle iron and weld it to the exist cross member. The downfall to all this......I have no idea what this shaft came out of originally so when it needs a carrier bearing it will get interesting

 

[Locust Cutter]

The only thing I would be scared of was running different sized tires with a 4x4 truck. It might try to bind the t-case by having front tires spinning more slowly than the rears (under power). Just a thought.

 

[fordf150]

The only thing I would be scared of was running different sized tires with a 4x4 truck. It might try to bind the t-case by having front tires spinning more slowly than the rears (under power). Just a thought.

its a 2 wheeler. body lift fools ya into thinking its 4wd

 

[Locust Cutter]

I stand corrected! Carry on!!!

 

[Jimmy in NC]

Any updates?

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[fordf150]

no updates, spring rush started before i got it finished. I am planning on ordering the rest of the steel for the bed this week, I am down to just a handful of mowers/trimmers so its now or never.

 

[fordf150]

steel is ordered and will be delivered wednesday....wish i would have bought the steel back when i started this project, got my new quote today and prices jumped $150 from what i was quoted in early january

 

[fordf150]

started working on the bed this evening.

 

[fordf150]

not sure how much i will get done this weekend since it is easter and i have other pressing jobs that need finished. guy are starting to hang drywall at my new shop so i have to go finish up the insulation and framing in a couple doors so they can do their job.

 

[fordf150]

Two walls almost done when I left earlier today. The guys were going to finish it up and a third wall before calling it a day.

 

[fordf150]

worked on the bed today and made pretty good progress. matched the angle of the dove tail on my trailer and for some reason this is different....on the trailer i have to have the deck all the way up and the deck still drags hard enough at times that it will stop the mower and force me to go up on at an angle but with the truck the deck will clear by 1 1/2" with it all the way up....this is with the deck at mowing height of 2" and it still clears. If i would have known that i would have made the dove tail jsut a tad steeper and went with a 5' gate instead of 6'. I may still shorten the gate because 6' just looks goofy and is HEAVY

 

[Dub11]

worked on the bed today and made pretty good progress. matched the angle of the dove tail on my trailer and for some reason this is different....on the trailer i have to have the deck all the way up and the deck still drags hard enough at times that it will stop the mower and force me to go up on at an angle but with the truck the deck will clear by 1 1/2" with it all the way up....this is with the deck at mowing height of 2" and it still clears. If i would have known that i would have made the dove tail jsut a tad steeper and went with a 5' gate instead of 6'. I may still shorten the gate because 6' just looks goofy and is HEAVY


View attachment 120798 View attachment 120799

Do you have helper spring on the ramp yet?
Can you make it a bifold?

 

[fordf150]

This is where i need some help. Ive tried 3 different locations for the eyelet mount and none of them provide the assist i need. the big ugly spot you can easily see was the best but it still only made the gate manageable. I need to figure a way to drastically increase spring rate from half way to full up position while just maintaining the current rate for half way to down position....I cant figure out how to do that or if its even going to be possible. no pictures of it actaully mounted in teh original position that worked the best but you can see the big ugly welds from where it was at...i tried just mild spot welds to hold it for testing and ripped it off twice so i committed to fully weld it then it didnt work as intended so it got cut it off to experiment.

 

[Dub11]

So you just have one spring on the driver side?

Could one be put on the passenger side that kicks in when the other one is giving up?

 

[fordf150]

O and i finally figured out what was wrong with my welder..... apparently QC for Hobart is nonexistent. it didnt work straight out of the box and i had to tear it apart and rewire the circuit board. I've been assuming it was just a POS ever since but today i had to change out the wire and noticed the cable lugs had some arcing on them where they are bolted on inside the machine by the feed roller so i tightened them up and in the process noticed the polarity was reversed so pulled them completely off, cleaned up the terminals, reversed the polarity and it's now welding like a dream. I guess when i get bored i need to tear it all the way down and just go thru it top to bottom and check all the connections, wonder when i will have time for that?

i put the the boy to work today, gave him a quick lesson on mig welding and had him weld the whole tailgate and all the grating on the bed. for 14 he didnt do to bad. a few of the welds are pretty ugly but not any worse than mine when the welder was on the fritz

 

[hseII]

This is where i need some help. Ive tried 3 different locations for the eyelet mount and none of them provide the assist i need. the big ugly spot you can easily see was the best but it still only made the gate manageable. I need to figure a way to drastically increase spring rate from half way to full up position while just maintaining the current rate for half way to down position....I cant figure out how to do that or if its even going to be possible. no pictures of it actaully mounted in teh original position that worked the best but you can see the big ugly welds from where it was at...i tried just mild spot welds to hold it for testing and ripped it off twice so i committed to fully weld it then it didnt work as intended so it got cut it off to experiment.

View attachment 120800 View attachment 120801 View attachment 120802

D ring in the center of the ramp at the bottom, electric cable winch on the headache rack.

Like the fold up Log trailers of
Texas & Louisiana.

 

[fordf150]

So you just have one spring on the driver side?

Could one be put on the passenger side that kicks in when the other one is giving up?

not sure how to accomplish what i need.....when lifting the tailgate it has ok assist from the ground up to about chest height, from there to the straight up position it has almost none. adding another spring will increase assist across the board which may leave it where the gate wont lower all the way to the ground.

 

[fordf150]

D ring in the center of the ramp at the bottom, electric cable winch on the headache rack.

Like the fold up Log trailers of
Texas & Louisiana.

be kinda difficult when mowers are loaded on it

it is going to have a small winch on it so its possible to use that for the gate but that just seems like a hassle to do every time you load or unload a mower. the winch serving double duty was one of my first thoughts on this thing but it got ruled out pretty quickly. also thought about an air cylinder since i will have a compressor and tank for the air ride but again i ruled that out as i think the cylinder diameter would have to be awfully big with only 100psi to work with

 

[Dub11]

IS where the spring is mounted to the frame a set position? Can you side it closer or futher away from the axle to increase spring rate?

 

[Dub11]

be kinda difficult when mowers are loaded on it

it is going to have a small winch on it so its possible to use that for the gate but that just seems like a hassle to do every time you load or unload a mower. the winch serving double duty was one of my first thoughts on this thing but it got ruled out pretty quickly. also thought about an air cylinder since i will have a compressor and tank for the air ride but again i ruled that out as i think the cylinder diameter would have to be awfully big with only 100psi to work with

Are you gonna have side rails on it?