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Piedmont, NC | My Dad is Hell bent on not owning Semi. He still owns the land so I'll obey his wishes. I can't find a tandem I would own so can I convert a road tractor to the length I want. Are there kits for this? |
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Kansas City area | I'm sure you could convert one, but by the time you buy a hoist and a good box, you are going to have as much or more money in a truck that hauls 2/3 as much grain. And when you convert a semi with a heavy diesel engine, you can get limited on the amount of grain you can haul without being over limit - you can easily put more grain in the box than you can legally haul, because the truck is so heavy. But I understand where you are with Dad and keeping him happy, I went through the same thing with my old man. We finally have a semi, and now he won't hardly drive the old tandem with the 427 gasser and the 5+2 tranny that he used to love so much. We have found it easier to get others to drive truck for us now too, I guess AC is a pretty good draw. |
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Piedmont, NC | I know, he just is afraid he won't be able to drive it. I told him its no big deal, but he says no and gets mad. So I'm getting a tandem. When he retires, I'm getting a semi. |
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Mid-Missouri | Usually find one longer with a sleeper, remove sleeper, and you have a truck ready for a bed. Preferably, find a truck with a deep frame, double frame, or find a frame shop to beef it up where it should be. |
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Statesville, NC | I think it's a lot of work to do it right. A road tractor is built to move 80,000 pounds, and has a fifth wheel over the tandems, so you end up with a heavy engine and driveline, and a light frame. Sometimes the suspension is not good for a dump truck. Many times the front axle gets overloaded. I have an old '73 chevy with a 427, 5+2, and an air tag axle. I know a lot of people on here hate them, but it will haul a lot for what it weighs. Empty weight of 15,500 and gross of 45,000 gives a good payload. The old truck has a newer dump body and is doing ok for now, but my plan is to keep an eye out for a good IH tandem with hendrickson suspension and a DT466, a van body or flatbed or whatever and put the grain body off the Chevy on to it. |
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Piedmont, NC | I'm wondering If that's the way I'm heading as well. |
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Wolcottville,Indiana | Hi GreenhouseGuy, this has been around before on this form, I have converted a road trator with heavy frame to 20 foot tandem dump and am now fixing a tandem box van 22 foot to a grain box, still looking for used box to put on it. An Allison transmission will cost a grand to put a pto on it extra, a heavy front axle with 2 steering boxes a plus too. some use air bags but I have stuck to spring on the tandem. also anything new 20 foot and over in my area will have the tax of 12% on it too.
My one ct Chuck |
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North Central Ohio | things to look for,half inch frame or double frame,long enough wheelbase to put whatever lengh box you want,removable sleeper,spring suspension,you really dont need a big hp engine alltho nice. hope this helps. |
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Statesville, NC | There are a lot of old tandems for sale you could get a grain dump body and hoist off of much cheaper than you can buy a new body; and scrap the rest of the truck. I drove mine back from Illinois in 2003, and so far it's doing well. |
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| We purchased an 88 Freightliner with a 350 cummins and 9 spd. several years ago for $3000. We remove the sleeper, 5th wheel, replaced 10 tires (poor condition), and put our on our 20 ft bed. Truck already had wet kit. Wish it were a little longer with shorter sides but it handles great in tight places, most anyone can jump in and drive, and it has power to spare. We do have trucks with trailers that are used for longer hauls and certain farms with good entrances.
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Mid-Missouri | Older used concrete trucks can be great candidates. Heavy, tried and true. Yes, an old gasser will haul alot, and was "designed" for it. We use several here all the time. But, on the road, I would take a decent converted road tractor over the older juice brake gassers almost anyday. If you are near a Ritchie Bros, they sell a ton of equipment for this project. My neighbor bought three bed hoists for total of $500. One of them was well suited for an 18 foot bed capacity. |
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NE S.Dakota | 
 
I was out on a parts run in August when I came across this truck. It is the type of truck I would be interested in, my farmyard will not work well for a semi, without removing some trees, and driveway mods. Not sure if it still there,was in Madison,Mn. There is a local shop that is in the business of stretching and installing grain boxes, he does some nice work. Let me know if you want his number, he has trucks and new boxes on hand. I have a 78 IHC S2500 that I use for hauling grain, and have used for silage,haylage and manure. It has a silage endgate. Mine, started life as a tractor,someone stretched the frame,and added a box, and I think it does a good job for me. The 855 Cummins, has plenty of power. At 20800 lbs empty, I can carry a fair legal load, sure beats my old '73 Chevy single axle,uses less fuel than the 350 gasser in the Chev and hauls 10k more grain. One of the tasks this truck must do for me, is dump high moisture corn in a pit,at a local feedlot,I sell to,it works well for that too. Good luck on your search, and I know how it goes with Dad,Mine is farming with me,and I am happy to have him. Take care of your elders. Bob |
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| My dad stretched out two of them over the years, one of which is still in use at my place. Cut the frame, add in (and get a certified frame welder to weld), add hanger bearing and a piece of drive shaft. Trust me, it's a lot of work that I would never do. If I ever have to replace that tandem, I'd go buy another. And no, I won't replace it with a semi. We don't use the one we got unless we have to. Royal PITA.
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| Just had the same scrap with my old man as well LOL... We actually needed another tandem so am having one retrofitted for a box right now. This is a very common procedure here in Canada and there seem to be very few problems with them if the conversion is done professionaly. Typically most of them have 12000 front and 40000 rears which seem to be adequate, however a heavier front end is definately better. |
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Virginia | Be patient with him. Find someone with a semi and get him in it and let him drive it on the farm.
We have a tandem and a semi. My wife at first refused to drive the tandem because of the 9 speed. She now feels comfortable doing it. She also said she wouldn't drive the semi. One day I needed it moved from one field to the next and it needed to be spotted inside the field and backed through a gate. She said she would move it but not back it through the gate. After I made my first round there the semi was backed through the gate.
We've had the tandem for 15 years and the semi for 2. We're both in our 60's so you see old dogs can learn new tricks, lol. We should should have gone the semi route years ago.
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NW Iowa | What about mounting a gravity wagon box instead of a dump box? I've seen them before and thought it seemed like an OK idea. I think a center dump might be a good set-up. If you put on a hitch, you could also pull a wagon at the same time and have the capacity of a semi. Your old man probably wouldn't like this idea either... |
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| If you do it half smart.... get a tractor with a pull off bunk, fill the hole in with Lexan or one of the kits that's out there if you prefer.... put a good wetline on it.... then build the hinge into the frame correctly, I'm sure you could set the thing up to swap the plate back on in half a day if you chose to remvoe the box. Boxes aren't hard to remove IF you have the lifting gear. It's really only 2 pins and 4 bolts, and a line to pop the scope and box off.
I've got an IH 9400 with N14, 13 speed, 217" wheelbase on a setback front axle... airride, etc. I still have the fifth wheel plate... I could easily reinstall it in a few hours.
Something to think about...
Rod |
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Wyoming | Yeah it's simple... I did exactly what Rod said, I set up my western star with a bolt on hinge plate so I can take it off and have the angle back on the end of the frame for the trailers. I even left the plate frame on, it was air slide so I just cut the stops off and slid it off. My boards under the box just go to the edge of the plate frame. I should be able to swap back and forth easy. Finding the right truck to start with is the most important part. Our other newer truck is similar, a long wheelbase semi with the sleeper removed. Lots of them like that around here.
I need to get around to making a thread on it, pretty cool I think how we set it up. |
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Converting road tractor to tandem dump
