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One of the drivers at the mill I worked at layed their 82 L-8000 dump truck on it's side a few weeks ago
Sorry but on pics of it before we pulled the cab and dog house off.
Welder friend is repairing the bed and we are having a new head board made
I'm swapping out the air plumbing and necessary wiring from the diesel cab into a gas cab from a decommissioned rescue truck.
Strap over the top is holding the roof down
Had to pull the dash sections out to plumb in the axle power divider switch and it's warning light along with the warning lights for temp and low oil pressure as well as stripping out the extra wiring and controls for the rescue body.
Taking pics with my phone to reference makes the job easier.
Been busy in the hay fields this week but with todays rain I'll finish up the air tank plumbing tomorrow so we can set the cab back on, then we'll get back to the wiring.
In case no one noticed in the photo, apparently the warning light switch went bad at some time and they plunged the fitting with a grease fitting, it's a little crusty in the photo but that's what it is.
That's a first for me, never thought about using a grease fitting for a plug, not going to either.
Got the air tanks swapped and all of the under the cab air plumbing reworked
The bed is repaired and painted and we mounted the cab back on the frame, took a bit to get it properly aligned but it's within 1/8" of being centered on the frame, sorry no photos but I'll get some next time I'm there to start wiring everything back up.
We've been really busy putting up hay the past couple of weeks, we've had some real good haying weather with a couple of spotty rain showers thrown in. Out of 173 acres of hay we got 158 cut, raked and baled without it getting wet, the last 15 acres than was less than 1/2 mile from where I was baling got 1/10" of rain late yesterday afternoon.
Fixing to go run the tedder over it so it'll be dry enough to bale this afternoon, then we'll have time to get back on the cab swap.
Things have been slow on fixing the truck but it's finally done.
Between haying, poultry house operations and multiple breakdowns it took a while to find time to finish the truck but here it is.
The bed we repainted but the cab and hood only needed the lettering removed and given a good cleaning.
They are going to paint the back wheels and fuel tanks themselves plus install some new top boards on the bed sides.
I think it turned out pretty good for a 83 model that's been turned over twice in it's lifetime.
Looks real good! Have been on the hunt for a tandem L series. Partially because I could use a 10 wheeler sometimes, mostly cuz I’ve always wanted one! All the ones that I’ve looked that appear to have some life left in them have rust jacking between the double frame and that seems like a deal breaker for me. You ever change frame rails or split and clean between rails on one of these? To me the rest of the truck would have to be near perfect and super cheap. There was a pretty nice looking low mileage LTL dump near me recently but I could tell from the pics the frame was spreading 3/4”-1” in some spots. Had a crack in the frame near the dump hinge too. They wanted $15k for it and I thought that was steep for a 35 year old truck that essentially is going to need the frame replaced. I feel like a fixed up, or clean ready to work LTL is 20-22k.
OP -- nice job and (I know you're aware of this) be careful with "wet" hay in storage -- tends to "go up (instantaneous combustion) " faster than dry.............
This one has a little spread at the top but not real bad, personally I don't like double frames because of the rusting issue but I doesn't find many of the single deep belly frames anymore and any converted semi is going to have the standard 10" rail, that what I'm using on my 93 F-800 but it's just a single axle that won't see the weight of a tandem.
Yea being on the fire dept I've helped fight a few hay barn fires, rarely do I ever put hay straight in the barn after baling, I like to leave it set out for a few days first even if it gets wet.
This year during first cutting was some of the best haying weather we've had in years, low humidity and temps in the 70's-mid 80's, hay cured up dry with good color.
Couple of the break downs we had were a new tire blew out after we had baled around 5 acres
Threw on a worn out spare tire and wheel to finish the other 58 acres we had on the ground, turns out they couldn't get me a replacement tire for a month so the worn out tire stayed on for the entire 165 acre first cutting.
Second break down was the front idler bearings when out on the skid steer that I use to stack and stage round bales with, I still have hay staged up in fields to be hauled in.
Cut this track a few years ago and it's been slowing tearing itself apart so we replaced it while it was off the machine
Well there went any play money I had so back to work, no vacation this year!
Went digging to find this thread, contemplating buying a l9000. Truck looks to have good big cam Cummins, and what appears to be a reconditioned 8ll, nice tires and the dump bed must have been replaced as well because it looks solid. Most importantly it’s a single frame. The bottoms of the doors have significant rust and there is a piece of flat stock that looks to be welded across the pinch weld on the back of the cab. So more then likely when I go look in person the floor pan and cab corner etc will no doubt have rust too. I don’t have much experience with the L series but it looks like ln and ls-la models must have a different firewall then The long nose L models. The short ones look to have a doghouse in the cab and the long ones don’t. You were able to use the steering column and dash etc with a little wiring and air plumbing changes in the new cab? What other things did you run into on the swap that I ought to look out for?
thanks Matt
We were fortunate that the only difference was one was gas and the other had the small 3208 Cat diesel, both were L model cabs, the trans shifter set back farther on the diesel but swapping the bolt in floor plate was all that was needed
Gas and small diesel models don't have the removable doghouse that's used on trucks with the larger engines.
Even the LTL has a small removable doghouse, the L and LS models use a doghouse that sets back father and the LN model as a large doghouse sticking half way back in the cab. Because of the different size doghouse and opening in the floor boards it's best to find a cab from the same model as your replacing, other wise I hope your good at removing and welding in sections of firewall and floor boards.
I'm not.
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