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What is the difference between a dump bed that lifts with a PTO driven hoist and a hydraulic hoist? or is there no difference, just a terminology thing, or do bigger trucks use one and lighter trucks with lighter loads to dump use another?
I have driven dump trucks, years ago in in summer jobs while in college, that had the 2 levers on the floor. One was to engage the dump and the other was to raise or lower the bed. Some trucks had a red **** mounted on or under the dash to engage the PTO and another lever somewhere to lift the bed. Are all dump beds raised by the PTO? I remember that with the truck in nuetral and the clutch out the bed raised faster if you accelerated?
I just need a refresher as a truck I looked at has a "dump bed that works but it is not hooked up to the PTO" or so says the owner.
There are late model dumps which come with there own hydraulics package. You supply power to an electric motor which runs a small hyd pump. Usually these are just light duty type things. TRUCKS did a show on making a 1/2 ton box into a dump.
PTO is a Power Take-Off unit - it bolts to the side of the transmission and, when engaged, spins a shaft. Most of the time the other end of the shaft is a hydraulic pump, but it does not have to be. Sometimes it is an AC generator, and, (in older trucks) it often was a mechanical winch unit - either for a hoist mounted on the bed or to the front bumper.
I have never known a dump bed that wasn't hydraulic - and now that hydraulic motors have become so efficent and cheap, can't think of any equipment that still uses the old style mechanical power.
Some trucks - the big diesels and the FT series of Ford gas motors, used a hydraulic pump mounted on the front of the engine. These trucks did not need a pto on the transmission, although there was a clutch on the front of the pump that needed to be engaged before you could lift the box.