jmlcolorado
Well-known member
It’s been awhile since I’ve been here. Mostly because life gets in the way sometimes.
A lot has changed. I changed jobs a couple times, last time was with a “friend” with his company. Turns out he was a better friend than boss. Then once we worked together, we lost the friendship all together.
Oh well. Move on I suppose.
Had a baby boy then promptly got snipped
And most recently started my own construction business last August. It’s thriving and I don’t have to chase work. It all,just come to me which is very nice. Trying to maintain the work life balance has been a learning experience for sure, but I’m getting it dialed in.
I was looking for a dump trailer for the occasional trash haul. But even at auctions, with a wrecked and nasty trailer, the prices are far above what I’m willing to spend.
Along comes this 1955 Ford f600 with a 14’ flatbed with a dump hoist.
The interior is nearly flawless, half of the glass is new, and it runs and drives.
Picked it up for $2500 which I felt was fair.
Since I’ve had it home, I’ve lewrned to drive the 5 speed slush box and 2 speed rear end. It’s an absolute hoot to drive for sure!
Problem is it has a 239 car engine in it, and the rear end is geared with 8.81 and 6.33 gears.
This combination means it goes.........but not fast by any stretch. In fact, it can’t hold speed going up any grade even when empty.
The natural thought is to engine swap the thing. And of course, since it’s the ‘in’ thing to do, it would have to be a cummins right?
Yeah. Well. BECAUSE it’s the cool thing, everyone wants an arm and half a leg for one (my apologies to you amputees for my crappy jokes).
Additionally the truck has split rims, however they are lock ring style so that’s not terrible. The issue is the tires are.......um......bumpy. And not tubeles. And if I ever want to change wheels, I’m stuck with the old style 5 on 8” lug pattern.
Additionally, the brakes, while vacuum assist, are sluggish. To the point where I don’t know I’d want to test their ability with a load on the truck.
They really do stop the truck well, I’m just not confident in their ability loaded down.
Soooooo what to do.
Maybe a International 3800 school bus will work.
So I’ve been watching the auctions at pricing and they are mostly reasonable. In fact I almost flew out to Nebraska to drive on back but it sold before I could set it in stone.
We’re talking a full, running and driving bus that is completely road worthy for about $5k and a lot of times, les than that.
The frame width on the Ford is industry standard 34” and flat as can be from front to back. Same as medium duty chassis.
Seems like a good start.
Then suddenly I remembered we voted last year for the school district to get additional funding. It passed, and with some of those funds, they bought a handful of new busses.
I wondered what they were doing with the old ones so I asked my daughters bus driver/and friendly neighbor, if she knew anything about them. She said they have a few for sale.
Called on them today and they do, and the prices are reasonable.
Even ran into the maintnence guy and chatted with him for a bit. He mentioned one has a rebuild not long ago, and all 3 have full maintnence records. A big plus.
He asked what the transportation official told me the prices were, and he laughed. He said, offer half that price for all three and he’ll take it. Just don’t tell him I told you that
So Wednesday I will be going back with a bunch of greenbacks and see if I can swing a deal. I want al least 1, but if it works out, I’ll drive all three out of the lot with the intentions of selling off two making the third free to me.
Not a bad deal.
All three have International DT466 engines ( to my first choice due to the legnth of them) but for the price, I’ll cut and shim to make work.
Anyways, enough chatter. Here’s some photos.
A lot has changed. I changed jobs a couple times, last time was with a “friend” with his company. Turns out he was a better friend than boss. Then once we worked together, we lost the friendship all together.
Oh well. Move on I suppose.
Had a baby boy then promptly got snipped
And most recently started my own construction business last August. It’s thriving and I don’t have to chase work. It all,just come to me which is very nice. Trying to maintain the work life balance has been a learning experience for sure, but I’m getting it dialed in.
I was looking for a dump trailer for the occasional trash haul. But even at auctions, with a wrecked and nasty trailer, the prices are far above what I’m willing to spend.
Along comes this 1955 Ford f600 with a 14’ flatbed with a dump hoist.
The interior is nearly flawless, half of the glass is new, and it runs and drives.
Picked it up for $2500 which I felt was fair.
Since I’ve had it home, I’ve lewrned to drive the 5 speed slush box and 2 speed rear end. It’s an absolute hoot to drive for sure!
Problem is it has a 239 car engine in it, and the rear end is geared with 8.81 and 6.33 gears.
This combination means it goes.........but not fast by any stretch. In fact, it can’t hold speed going up any grade even when empty.
The natural thought is to engine swap the thing. And of course, since it’s the ‘in’ thing to do, it would have to be a cummins right?
Yeah. Well. BECAUSE it’s the cool thing, everyone wants an arm and half a leg for one (my apologies to you amputees for my crappy jokes).
Additionally the truck has split rims, however they are lock ring style so that’s not terrible. The issue is the tires are.......um......bumpy. And not tubeles. And if I ever want to change wheels, I’m stuck with the old style 5 on 8” lug pattern.
Additionally, the brakes, while vacuum assist, are sluggish. To the point where I don’t know I’d want to test their ability with a load on the truck.
They really do stop the truck well, I’m just not confident in their ability loaded down.
Soooooo what to do.
Maybe a International 3800 school bus will work.
So I’ve been watching the auctions at pricing and they are mostly reasonable. In fact I almost flew out to Nebraska to drive on back but it sold before I could set it in stone.
We’re talking a full, running and driving bus that is completely road worthy for about $5k and a lot of times, les than that.
The frame width on the Ford is industry standard 34” and flat as can be from front to back. Same as medium duty chassis.
Seems like a good start.
Then suddenly I remembered we voted last year for the school district to get additional funding. It passed, and with some of those funds, they bought a handful of new busses.
I wondered what they were doing with the old ones so I asked my daughters bus driver/and friendly neighbor, if she knew anything about them. She said they have a few for sale.
Called on them today and they do, and the prices are reasonable.
Even ran into the maintnence guy and chatted with him for a bit. He mentioned one has a rebuild not long ago, and all 3 have full maintnence records. A big plus.
He asked what the transportation official told me the prices were, and he laughed. He said, offer half that price for all three and he’ll take it. Just don’t tell him I told you that
So Wednesday I will be going back with a bunch of greenbacks and see if I can swing a deal. I want al least 1, but if it works out, I’ll drive all three out of the lot with the intentions of selling off two making the third free to me.
Not a bad deal.
All three have International DT466 engines ( to my first choice due to the legnth of them) but for the price, I’ll cut and shim to make work.
Anyways, enough chatter. Here’s some photos.
