Looking for opinions on how others may approach this issue. Let me spill my thoughts, and maybe opinions can be chimed in.
I'm looking to put a dumping flatbed onto an F350 4x4 regular cab long bed.
The order of operations:
1. Buy a SRW model flatbed. Something like this will do, flatbed
2. Decide hoist type. Scissor hoist, dual cylinders outside frame, or a huge single cylnder. I prefer the scissor hoist myself, seems like it would add much more stability. However, there will have to be fabrication to make the 34" hoist frame to fit the 37.5" pickup frame. Sounds like the welder gets a work out.
3. Decide on hydraulic or electric over hydraulc. I prefer PTO hydraulics, to have hydraulcs available for other applications. Mount the hydraulic pump on its own bracket. Run the driveshaft off the PTO to the hydraulic pump. Mount the hydraulic oil tank. Run hydraulic hoses all over the place. I was also thinking of an RVC type valve. Fabricate a console in the truck cab and mount the RVC levers, run the cables to the underbody box which contains the valves.
4. Fabricate some type of hinges on the back. I was thinking of 1" pipe welded to the frame rails on the flatbed. Drill, tap, and install a grease zerk in the pipe. Fabricate a U-shaped bracket on the truck frame rails from 1/2" steel. Obvoiously not C-shaped, flat sides and bottom. Run a long 1" diameter Grade 8 bolt thrrough the bracket and pipe, and there's a greaseable hinge.

Anyone who wants the electric dump hoist setup, nevermind the hydraulic info. Worry about wiring up the hoist correctly and mounting the toggle switch in the dash.

Seems that this job could be done at home, and have any parts welded by a friend with a welder...like the scissor hoist, dump hinges, PTO hydraulic pump brackets, etc.

What am I missing?

 

would not trust a grade"8" bolt for the hinge, would buy hardened shaft and use pillar block bearings, as will be lots of weight on the hinge as you dump. i would just run the hyd. lines into the cab and mount valves there to make for a simpler system and fewer connections.

 

im poocher pup on not using a grade 8 it would have to be one thick a$$ bolt!, id see if you can find an old dump trailer and cut the hinges of that and weld them on plus they already have the zerk fitting in them

 

Wow are you guys over engineering, this is a dump bed, not a high speed gearbox with side loading! Mild steel is sufficient if sized right. I had 7,980 lbs one load today on my dually, and no sign of a hinge letting go, and I think I greased them last year......

If you have a welder, change the order of things. See what you can find for hydraulics, and design a bed around that. With a scissor hoist, it bumps the bed height up, as it has to be high enough to clear crossmembers, fuel tanks etc. Post hoist you can keep things a bit lower. In my case, I found a used bed, with an Edbro hoist, and did some mods to both. The mounting 'pins' in the hoist were 1.375" diameter, so, guess what size my hinge pins are?

Gotta head into Toronto tomorrow, but will try to take some detail pics of my flatbed dump for you to give you some ideas.

 

Not hard to mount a 34" subframe on a 37.5" truck frame.

I personally am not a fan of high pressure hydraulic hoses inside the cab.
So I would mount the valve outside under the cab and use a lever to operate it.

As for a PTO pump to use hydraulic power for other things, your engine RPM with the PTO engaged will probably be rather limited.
The PTO shaft will shake it's self to pieces in a short time at higher RPM's.

Most vehicles that used hydraulics while driving that I have been around had the pump mounted on the engine and belt driven with something like an AC clutch to engage/disengage the pump.

 

would rather over build it and not need it than under build it and break it.

 

Dave, did you rest the sub-frame onto that c-channel that is sticking out sideways, using it as a crossmember? I see a bracket with 2 bolts just to the right of the c-channel, toward the front of the truck...which I assume is holding the hoist down to the truck frame?
I can't tell you how many times I've looked at this picture in your gallery, saying how practical a SRW 4x4 pickup with a flabed dump is versus a monster dually. I ended up with a dually truck because it was just $500, and man I wish I started with a SRW pickup from the beginning!
I would like to keep the valve in an underbody toolbox, and use a RVC (Remote Valve Control) cable. I'm not positve on which style, but a push/pull type is simple enough. Something like this would work; Power Take Off - PTO Cables
I never realized the PTO driveshaft would do that! Since I was just a little guy, I've always watched dump trucks back up to a pile, untarp their load, engage the PTO, start dumping, and then rev the motor to dump faster. I never thought anything of it, and thought it was regular. I now know otherwise, the bodies come down by themselves without power. I learned from watching a rookie driver rev his truck to the RPM redline thinking the body would come down faster! hahaha!
The other thing I was intending to run off the truck hydraulics would be a wood/log spltter. Cut the wood out in the woods and split it, leaving the mess in the woods so I don't have to clean up all the junk when I'm done splitting. Mount a used splitter to some type of angle iron framework, make it pin onto the snow plow frame, then use the plow lift arm to lift the splitter up and travel into the woods. Toss all the split firewood into the dump bed and haul it all home. The woods we get our firewood from has old logging roads, so the clearance isn't too bad for the snow plow frame. Thinking and typing out loud here...maybe I make the splitter framework with a boom on the end for latching on and pulling logs from where I can't get the truck into...
Maybe I should plan on an engine belt-driven hydraulic pump, then I can use straight hydraulics for my snow plow as well and get rid of all electric stuff.
Dave, what kind of power are you using for your dump bed? Electric or hydraulic?

 

Running the PTO at higher RPM's for 30 seconds at a time is not much, also remember those truck engines are redline at 2100 RPM.

You could run a log splitter even at or very close to idle, so that would not be a problem.

Something like a salt spreader, or even your blade while driving, the PTO shaft would let you down before to many miles.

I am around a lot of Highway Department trucks.

They actually run a pump off the front of the crankshaft that has an electric clutch.
Need hydraulic power, flip a switch to run the plow or salt spreader.
And the drive shaft from the front of the crankshaft, looks like a drive shaft from a car, just cut down for length.
As smooth as it runs, I am also sure it has been balanced, something they do not do to PTO shafts.

My bed is electric over hydraulic.
Rated to dump 7 tons in 40 seconds.

As for mounting, those channels have flat plates welded in the bottom where they rest on the frame.
In fact the one at the rear of the subframe under the bed pivot point is almost solid from top to bottom over the truck frame.

That bracket supports the lower hoist pivot and ties the subframe and truck frame together at that point.

 

Find HR540 in this .pdf

Close to the bottom.

http://www.rugbymfg.com/rugby-pdf/Truck%20Hoists.pdf

 

Is that a bolt up for a truck like yours or was there allot of fabrication involved in getting it to fit the f250 frame. Your truck plus a stake body is what i want for my tree care business. Im not to good at fabrication but i can drill a few holes in the frame and turn some bolts. It would be sweet if i could mount a hoist frame directly to the truck frame and then hook up a few lines and so on.

 

I have a 110 volt mig welder and plenty of drilling and cutting tools.

If I can't find something I want, I make it.
So I guess I have rather good fabrication skills.

Took me one day to pull the stock bed, buy that hoist and bed, install it and have it wired for lights and controls, working in my driveway.

Also came up with the 2" x 4" channel that I custom cut for the frame to subframe spacers, two of which I used to hang under bed tool boxes from.

Here is after the box install.