F550- would this make a good chipper truck

[TreeJunkie]

Do you all think this could be transformed into a chipper truck fairly easily. Add a hoist, pintle hitch and some siding/top. I've priced adding the hoist. However i'm not sure how much work it would be to add pintle and would the lift gate cause problems?


http://adcache.trucktraderonline.com/4/6/7/79085267.htm

 

[begleytree]

nice truck. For that money you could buy a dedicated chip truck, though, and be ready to work.
-Ralph

 

[MasterBlaster]

"True dat!"

 

[Stumper]

Ralph is right.(He does that quite a lot.) However that 550 would be a great chipper truck platform.

 

[rivahrat]

they drive nice too used to drive one for a roofing co i worked for

 

[kf_tree]

i'd double check those gvw rateing's.....they seem a little fudged to me.

 

[TreeJunkie]

I'm wanting to start w/ a good platform, i figure down the line i could build a better box. My main questions are about how big of a problem will it be to have a pintle and dump added on? Will i need to remove the lift gate first to do this. I'll be pulling a vermeer 1230, i'm hoping that by going w/ the 550 i won't be overweight w/ a load of chips on board.

 

[TreeJunkie]

I think the gvw is around 18000

 

[Tom Dunlap]

A guy who worked for my years ago talked about working with a chip truck that had a lift gate mounted on the passenger side at the front of the bed. There was a cut-out in the side of the box for the platform. It did require load-planning so that you put the logs on before chipping.

Be sure that you don't get a truck that doesn't have the load capacity. Chips weigh 550#/cubic yard. Get an empty weight of the truck and then see how large a load you can haul. Don't forget to calculate gear weight.