Finally had some time off work yesterday during the week when I was at home and I was able to make three trips to the quarry in the F600 dump truck that I bought last spring. I had been just using it to haul fire wood and brush around our farm and hadn't been on the public roads since then or hauled anything heavy so I really didn't know what to expect. Overall the truck did great, it was a hot, humid day and I made three trips to the quarry and hauled between 4 and 4 1/2 tons of gravel each time without any problems at all. Not bad for $1,500 and the only things I had to do to get it ready was to rig a hold down for the battery and check the fluids and tire pressure. Even though it was a hot day, the truck always started immediately every time I shut it off. Even the axle seemed to shift fine, I just ran it in hi when empty and low when loaded. The gauges are a little flaky so I need to do some work there, the temp gauge got up pretty high in the normal range, but it didn't get any hotter when loaded and the oil pressure gauge was pegged on high. The speedometer isn't working but I just downloaded a digital speedometer app on my android phone and stuck the phone holed suction cup on to the speedometer glass - it worked great. I just need to work on my gravel spreading technique since I am still getting it too thick.

 

 

Yea, hauling the wood and brush was useful, but until you load it down and try it you don't know how it will perform with a load. It really drove and stopped fine with the load, since I was running in low range then it didn't really feel a whole lot different than driving empty except that I was running slower. The funny thing was that everybody that I met while driving it, waived at me - even the guy on a motorcycle who was about to become completely covered by my dust!

 

Do you have chains on your tailgate? If so I always set mine where it would let out about 4" or so. But would pop the gate with the bed up some. And at speed. Have spread 26 tons less then 2" Thick many days when we were blue topping on road builds.
Most hoist will come up faster than you need and you have to kick it in and out of gear. But not sure if yours is air operated?

One caution if your getting gravel dug and not screened be careful a big rock or unbroken piece can and will set you on your tail. Not fun when your looking up into the sky.

 

Thanks. The last load I did spread pretty evenly, just a bit too thick. I will take my chains in another link and try that. I took them in two links after trying to spread the first load. I am spreading 2-inch clean (we have a steep hill on the driveway and the finer stuff eventially washes even if it gets packed down good) so it takes raising the bed a bit more to start it flowing, plus it was a bit wet, so I would have to start raising the bed before I started moving. I wanted to start the tailgate chains on the long side becuase I figured if I started them too short and the gravel all got stuck in the tailgate I would have trouble closing the tailgate enough to lengthen the chains. I hope to get a chance to haul some more tomorrow. I am just pleased that the truck did well!

 

Sounds like you were getting it closer to being dialed in. Its easy when you get it all figured out.
Pete

 

Got it down now, I shortened up the chains two more links and hauled 4 more loads this afternoon and laid every one down nice and smooth even though I was dumping on a fairly steep up hill. I just engaged the pump early, when I unlatched the tailgate, and then pulled the dump control **** out about 10 feet early while holding 3 mph in 1st - worked like a charm, a few inches thick and couldn't have been any smoother!

 

Sounds great - practice makes perfect!

D~

 

Glad you found the right speed and chain setting. Now just watch out for over head power lines and tree limbs. They can hurt and the lines can get you without touching them. See a dump get fried in the pit one day. He was a couple feet away, but the power jumped to his bed. But it was a high power line and he was dumping a 34ft dump trailer.

 

The distance that you need to be from the lines depends on the voltage in the lines. Luckily I don't have any lines or limbs in that area (though I managed to fold back my driver side outside mirror yesterday hitting it on a hedge apple branch while driving back to the garage after filling up with gas.