I know this could go in the heavy duty truck forum, but this thing is a dentside too.

A VFD not too far from me was looking to thin their fleet of trucks, and knowing my love of old ford trucks, offered me this monstrosity for near scrap price.




The interior is in very good shape with the only real issue being that weird lump in the seat. Truck is equipped with factory tach and vacuum gauge in addition to everything else.




The engine is a 330 HD which runs quite well for the short periods of time I have run it. Some individuals stole the radiator a little while back. As large as that thing was, I sure hope they got plenty of meth for it... @#$% tweakers...




As a bonus, the pump was powered by a slant six of all things. If i can get it to run I might be able to have some fun with that.



I really have no idea what to do with this thing. My plan so far is to fix the brakes, and put a radiator back in it so I can see how it runs/drives. The speedo goes up to 100mph. Even with the 2 speed rear end, I have my doubts it will attain even half of that.
I'll remove all the fire equipment and probably just put a flat bed on it, or maybe I'll stick a few of the regular truck beds together to make a 12 foot long bed with 3 or 4 fuel filler doors going down the side....

 

Ramp-back car hauler

 

That would be a cool parade vehicle!

 

Well, that is one neat truck! I love the big grill and hood! Yeah, flat bed car hauler with removable sides/tailgate would be real neat - would make a great farmtruck! Or just an eye-catching Daily Driver

 

Ad to the list:

Custom 5th wheel hauler

 

Drop that suction hose in a storm drain, and you can water your lawn in +/- 3.5 seconds If nothing else, it's worth it to somebody for the dash.

 

" or maybe I'll stick a few of the regular truck beds together to make a 12 foot long bed with 3 or 4 fuel filler doors going down the side.... "



Sure would like to see that. Cool find btw

Jeff

 

Zombie apocalypse mobile!

 

Making the sides removable is an interesting idea... I'll have to think on how to do that if I go that direction.
A car/equipment hauler is what makes the most sense to me. I have a skidsteer that I often have to trailer places, and it seems like there is always someone willing to sell me an old ford truck for $200...

I'm gonna take a trip to one of the larger salvage yards in my area tomorrow and attempt to get a radiator.
I'm having difficulty locating a new one that doesn't cost $500 with shipping.
For that price I can get a used one and have it fixed. The rad shop in my town still actually fixes radiators.
Then I need to sort out the brakes.
It looks to me like both master cylinders are bad at least.

 

FWIW, we had a 71 F600 with a 4 speed and 2 speed rear end that governed out at 60 mph. It had a 361 in it at the time, but came with a 330 when Dad bought it...

I think a car/equipment hauler is a great idea! The slant 6 and pump may be useful to someone to make their own fire fighting rig...

 

I know the part #'s don't line up, but late '60's to late 70's radiators in those things all mounted about the same - I know I've jumped many model years with junkyard radiators in that truck style (I live in farm country, and every single farm yard has either a couple of old F's or a couple C60 Chevies). They're pretty common. As far as beds go, depending on your fabbing desires, there's always a few 12-16' truck flatbeds on Craigslist, and you could build a nice beavertail off the back - limited for cars, but trucks and equipment would work nice. It's also got the good wheels - 6-bolt pattern wheels are fairly easy to come by, you could switch to 22.5's and go low-profile if you wanted a lower deck. Switching to 22.5's isn't all bad anyhow, they're more common. On farm trucks, I like them because I can get takeoff school bus tires from the local district for dirt cheap, since they don't run recaps and have to change them fairly often. They supposedly have restrictions on treadwear and age that are beyond DOT requirements, so their takeoffs have a lot of life left in them for something like this, where they'll rot out before they wear out.

 

Thanks for the tips on the tires. Fortunately the set that is on it is pretty decent, but when they go I was thinking about getting rid of the split locking ring wheels as well.

My current plan is to find a old 16' or so car hauler trailer with a decent winch and dovetail, pull the axles/suspension out from under it, cut the tongue off and use that as the truck bed.

 

Start using it to pick up the used fry oil from local restaurants and brew bio-gas.

 

I have lots of f600s.. and you will find alot of info and suggestions on the LARGE truck sub forum.. where there are lots of f600 owners

I have had several f600 fire engines.. and while many are low mileage the truth is the pumps get used hard and are a PITA to maintain when they get older.. repacking seals and a hundred other things that leak or break...
Soooo.... my advice.. unless you really need a fire engine sell the pump body to a collector for what you can get for it and make the truck more usable..
Flatbed
Service body
Car hauler
All good options that shouldnt cost too much and most likely can be done for what you sell the pumper bed for

Parade trucks are ok... but unless you are thinking of restoring yours there are better uses than having a large piece of equipment sit unused most of the time... and then used for free

You will find the 330 (as I have) a gas hog dog.... built when gas was cheap... 5-6 mpg and 55 will be the norm... the lower end can be used to build a 390/391... and those bad boys run

500 is a really fair price.. over 1000... you would need to think about it... hopefully its rust free

Here is mine.. $3500.00 ... 4 x 4 .. 19k original miles..out of a midwest volunteer department.. stored inside its whole life



And a motor shot in my current resto 390/391... replaced the 330
1974 F600 (got it free on a trade... it was worth 500)... and its been a year and a half resto


And an extra cab project sitting in the back of the shop waiting for resto



They're cool... and usually no one wants them because of the gas mileage penalty and because everything is big and heavy and harder to work on because of size

Have fun