Technical Can Anyone Tell Me What This Chevy Truck Might Have Been Used For?

I've been looking at this old Chevy truck off & on for the past year. The back half of it has me puzzled. I know this isn't a very good picture of the area, but can anyone tell me by looking what was this truck possibly used for in it's hay day. It looks like it has a slide steel channel over part of the frame on top, as well as a possible hydraulic pump in the middle, so I'm thinking it may have been a dump truck at one time. But the bed looks pretty long so it could have been a flat bed truck also. It has me confused. Any input would be appreciated.

 

Dump truck, bed is missing.

Bones

 

My guess is it had a wood sided dump body on it, not like the dump trucks we think of today with giant steel boxes, but a kind of flatbed with wood sides that would tip to dump off hay bales or something like that. Pretty common on old farms, very useful if you didn't have a giant skid loader with forks.

 

It would make a neat car hauler.

 

You can still haul seed with a wood side bed dump box , they just had gates in the back pannels , or rocks dirt anything, just don’t fill up all the way to the back

 

Grain bed

 

Prefab tool shed delivery truck? What does it say on the cab door?

Bob

 

I say dump truck also.....

 

You could make a ramp truck out of it!

 

It's a dump. My grandad had a work truck with a short sided steel bed that was 12' long, and the frame underneath was outfitted just like this. He was a lath and plaster contractor. I assume you could get a grain bed, or a short steel bed, or...

 

It was a truck like at a lumber yard. The two bottom lines on the door says “custom cabinets”.


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Those long bed dump truck, used on a lot of farms and ranches were easy to overload, due to the length of the bed. They were never intended to have rock or dirt loaded to the top the full length of the bed. That was reserved for lighter stuff such as grain, hay, manure,etc.
If you look closely you can see where this truck was overloaded at some time and the hydraulic lift bowed the sub frame. Look where the large pins go through the dump frame.

Very common mistake

That’s why dump trucks, primarily used for dirt and rocks are short beds on single axle trucks. Also the long wheel base dump trucks are easy to turn over while dumping if they are overloaded..... ask me how I know, he he.

Bones

 

Yes its a dump bed. most likely had a wooden bed and sides and was used on a farm or possibly a cabinet business to haul sawdust.

 

That was my thought.

 

Custom Cabinets

 

Typically, the tired or busted truck got parked and the dump/flatbed got moved onto a newer chassis.
I'm wondering if the black, early 60's Chevy "big series" truck in the background took the honors of wearing the green truck's bed?
The AD Chevy looks really solid. Grab it and bundle it up with the 60's Chevy if you can. Both are great rig material!

 

It's a 51 1-1/2 ton instead of a 48 1 ton. The hood corner, vent wing, turn down handle and gas filler in the cab rather than on the frame show that.
and may have been primarily used to deliver lumber to job sites. Had a guy with a much newer truck do it on a job I was working on, he backed up to where we wanted the lumber, unstrapped it and pulled the pto lever and drove out from under the load when it slid off.
I'd agree that someone overloaded it pretty seriously at one time.
I've got the same type of 2 cylinder hoist on my 77 1 ton but have an electric pump on the hydraulics. Not near as nice as having a pto pump.
I've got a quite similar 51 1-1/2 ton sitting in my yard.

 

Like This?

 

Yes, you should open the gate before you dump,lol. Man , imagine if that bed side hinge broke when that guy was standing there. Looks to also have hinged sides along with back tailgate.

 

Tehe, yep done that a couple of times too. Those and the long beds especially have a tendency to fall over side ways if your on unlevel or soft ground.

Bones

 

Work.

 

As has already been mentioned, a grain truck. In this area, Midwest was a common brand for the truck box. Usually, there would be a hydraulic lift for the box, and the bed sides were removable.

 

If you rear up a truck in that manner simply put it in reverse ease out on the clutch and let it idle and it will slowly settle to the ground.

 

Torkwrench nailed it with the picture. Used to see lots of those hauling soybeans and shelled corn in Iowa.

 

Thanks guys got it.

 

Let us know what you do with it....

Bones

 

Agree with AZbent-- the door lettering is the key to the trucks past. It would be neat to find old pictures of the business if it was close by and maybe catch it in a original photo. cab looks to be in good shape. Cool project

 

I'd like to add to Bones' comments...not to be taken as a correction. I don't think overloading was a mistake. You see there are quite a few folks out there with different vocations. ...and it really doesn't matter what size vehicle they are using...or what the the vehicle's rated load capacity is....the owner/operator have their own criteria for a vehicle's load rating.#1) Did the load stay on the truck? #2) Are any of the tires flat? #3) Did the engine die when the clutch was slipped in order to start moving? If the answer to all three of these questions is "yes" then the vehicle is not overloaded.

 

I worked for a guy that had a GMC like this with a straight non-dump bed. Perfect hay truck, except everybody was going to round bales at the time. I had a Jones for that beast that I thought I'd never get over.

 

Bob, that’s kinda scary thinking. Every vehicle has a rated capacity that it can safely handle. Now that’s safely and at speed. The truck can usually handle more than rated capicity with out damage.
If you look at the ops truck you can see damage from grossly overloading the truck. If you load your truck to the point of bending parts of the frame, it’s “ overloaded” and dangerous.
I, myself, have been guilty of a few extra pounds on vehicles, but I’ve never bent a frame. Blew a couple tires though. Lol

Bones