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Bought a Dump Truck Today!

glitch

glitch

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 1, 2010
Messages
5,051
Location
Central VA
We're working on renovating a house, and came to the conclusion that purchasing an old farm truck is cheaper than renting dumpsters. We found this guy on CraigsList:

f600truck-scaled.jpg


1971 Ford F-600 8-ton with dump bed...looks like another vintage tool will be added to my everyday renovating toolkit! It runs like a top, but is in need of a master brake cylinder (which I can repair, and apparently still can order from NAPA). It's really nice getting to keep old equipment going, especially since it's so easy to get in there and wrench, what with all the space they left!
 
Nope, it's under 26,000 pounds GVWR and it uses hydraulic brakes...so a regular Class D driver's license is fine (at least in NY state, it varies).
 
as long as the thing is empty i think you could probably drive it with a normal drivers licence or at least that is the way i think it is in Ontario. in Ontario you only need a D license if "Any truck or motor vehicle combination exceeding 11,000 kg" which is 24200 pounds.
looks like a cool truck. i am a big fan of older trucks. they are so simple compared to the new vehicle. i think the next truck i will be looking for will be a 71 but it will be a dodge.
 
In the US, a Class D is the standard once-you're-18 driver's license -- what Canada calls a Class D we call a Class C. And you're right, as long as you reigster and haul under that limit, you're fine. If you get pulled over or weigh in and exceed the limit, you're in trouble!

We're going to just slap an orange tractor triangle on the back and drive it home on the back roads until I can fix a few things and get it antique-vehicle-inspectable, at which point NY state will apparently let me drive it anywhere for any distance, as long as it's not used for "general daily transportation," which it won't be (a weekend dump run once or twice a month maybe).

I purposely looked for an older truck...you can get used 80's-90's trucks and even some of the cab-over Diesel city trucks for around what I paid, but I purposely went for something with minimal things to break -- manual transmission, no air conditioning, no fuel injection/throttle body injection, and good ole PTO dump bed. And it pays off, it took me maybe 30 minutes to diagnose the no-brakes problem, and the part to fix it is $64 and can be bought locally!
 
So where are you planning on heading for your first vintage computer haul? ;-) the other alternative for storage (for those with land) are train carts. They're surprisingly roomy enough to have shelves on both sides of the unit and I think are something like 8'x22' which is a pretty sweet vintage computer museum from what I've seen.
 
barythrin said:
So where are you planning on heading for your first vintage computer haul? ;-) the other alternative for storage (for those with land) are train carts. They're surprisingly roomy enough to have shelves on both sides of the unit and I think are something like 8'x22' which is a pretty sweet vintage computer museum from what I've seen.
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It's mostly for house renovation work -- cheaper than renting a series of dumpsters, as we're completely gutting a house from 1860...just 3/4 of the upper floor put 4.1 tons of plaster into a dumpster, and cost around $500!

Yes, train boxcars make great storage if you have a rail spur nearby...and a caboose makes a great heated shop! One of the lines back home has an old caboose from the 1920's that they keep railworthy and use as a mobile repair shop. It still has a coal stove inside, which keeps it nice and toasty on cold West Virginia winter days. You can also get sea crates (those metal shipping containers you see piled high on cargo ships), which can be delivered on semi trailers, and apparently make pretty good auxiliary storage, or even living space if properly insulated and weatherproofed.
 
Yes the shipping containers are what I was referring to, to my limited knowledge they're the same to me as a train carts (though I was probably distracted when I called them that). Exactly on the interesting designs and homes built from them. I've seen (from a distance) a few around Texas and they're pretty interesting when you realize what they are and how much they cost. I'm pretty sure they're from $4000-8000 for a full size one which as one person pointed out, put together a few and it's 10 times cheaper than building your own out of sheet metal or buying a small storage barn.

Neat project though, is this the future Glitch estate?
 
glitch said:
It's mostly for house renovation work -- cheaper than renting a series of dumpsters, as we're completely gutting a house from 1860...just 3/4 of the upper floor put 4.1 tons of plaster into a dumpster, and cost around $500!
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I'm trying to renovate a couple of rooms in my house. Walls I've repaired are cracking again and have other defects. Drywall is definitely the better way to go. It's amazing how heavy that old plaster is. Tearing it out is a filthy, nasty job too. The dust goes everywhere. Gets all in your eyes, up your nose and in your lungs if you don't wear a respirator.

Good luck!

EDIT:I tried patching the old plaster and it really "ISN'T" worth the time.
 
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Yeah, definitely wear a respirator and drink lots of water! It's disgusting, hot work, and you're constantly uncomfortable because it gets in any gap in your clothing (ruined a bunch of magstripe cards from it getting in my wallet). In some places, there are up to four layers of "stuff" on the walls...poorly hung drywall, cheap fake wood panel, plaster and of course lath underneath. Our house was really neglected, so there was also a lot of water damage to the plaster, and even some fire damage, neatly concealed behind new drywall before the sale! In the places where the plaster was "OK," someone else had "repaired" it by gluing Kraft paper to the wall like wallpaper...but really lumpy and with lousy seams, so there's no way at all to straighten that out. Anyhow, we've found it most convenient to knock the plaster off the lath with a large mallet or crowbar, then shovel it into plastic grocery bags, and throw those out of the window into the dumpster. The bags are plentiful, and using them provides both handles and a means of keeping dust down (somewhat...it's still a mess).

Gutting the place also makes wiring/plumbing a lot easier, and means I can put more insulation in the walls. With upstate NY winters, where it can stay at -20 F for a week, moderate to heavy insulation is important!

It's not so much the "Glitch estate" as just another project...we don't plan on staying in the city forever...people are a little too close for our taste (we live on 0.03 acre, which is basically the outline of the house). We're also not really fans of the city government...corrupt as anything, and you need a permit to even change a leaking water heater -- which is fun, because technically you're not supposed to live in a house in NY state that doesn't have hot and cold running water!
 
glitch said:
Gutting the place also makes wiring/plumbing a lot easier, and means I can put more insulation in the walls. With upstate NY winters, where it can stay at -20 F for a week, moderate to heavy insulation is important!
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it would definitely make it easier to do that stuff. since you will have it all apart you should try looking into spray foam insulation. spray foam insulation is suppose to be way better than any other insulation. just like a foam coffee cup apposed to a paper one.
 
glitch said:
Yeah, definitely wear a respirator and drink lots of water! It's disgusting, hot work, and you're constantly uncomfortable because it gets in any gap in your clothing (ruined a bunch of magstripe cards from it getting in my wallet).
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I always outsource big projects to the Latin community: cheap and very effective/efficient. :D
 
Love an old Ford! :thumbsup: They run forever. Hate to be the person changing the leaf springs though! O_O
 
I spent $350 for a dumpster dropoff that held a similar size load as that truck. If you make a few runs looks like you probably will break even (and can sell the truck for more!).
 
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