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I have an old ford 1 ton van bucket truck it is all rotted it out and is not road worthy any more . I have a heavy duty boat trailer it used to carry a 24 ft Cristcraft .My Idea it to make a custom plat form on the trailer and trans plant the bucket boom Assembly on the trailer and use a small 5hp engine and a hydrorolic pump to power. The trailer will have out riggers with heavy duty jacks to help level every thing up . I am in inquiring if anyone out there has successfully done this safely . I have seen pic,s on one that was made out of a small landscape trailer it did not look very safe. My main concern it to do this safely. thanks for any help. This project is hopefully start in the fall of this year this will give me time to get all the materials togeather.
Reply:I'm not sure a boat trailer has the frame stiffness needed to make this work safely. There's a lot of leverage applied with a bucket to the frame. My guess is you'll have to completely rebuild the trailer to get the stiffness needed to make this safe. I probably wouldn't try it on anything lighter framed than our 10 K flat deck skidsteer trailer. Factory units are designed and engineered to have the strength in all the right places to make this work and be light weight. If something buckles when you are up in the air, it's not going to be a fun ride.I'm trying to remember who here cut the old bucket truck down and built a home use bucket trailer. In his case the frame was already there IIRC all he was doing was deleting the drive train and cab, shortening the frame rails, and attaching a hitch. To do this right, you probably need someone with a bit of engineering knowledge to make sure your frame is up to snuff..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan |
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