Building a Chip Box

[treesandsurf]

I've been meaning to post these photos on here after getting some advice from flyingsquirrel25 and brendonv on this project. A friend and I built this box back in January on a mason style dump bed.

The truck is a 2001 F550 7.3L which I picked up from a municipality in California w/ 73,000miles.

 

[treesandsurf]

We used 1.5X1.5X1/4" steel square tubing. I debated for a while on whether to use aluminum or steel but as we only had access to a welder that could handle steel and virtually no experience welding aluminum and got a great price on the steel we went with that.

Here's a photo of the drawing for the box.

jp

 

[treesandsurf]

A photo of the framing coming together. My buddy had the real welding experience so I played apprentice/gopher on this project with him.

jp

 

[treesandsurf]

We built the main frame off the bed and then used a tractor to lift the whole thing and put into onto the mason dump bed.

jp

 

[treesandsurf]

Here's a photo with the box frame on the truck.

jp

 

[treesandsurf]

Once the whole thing was welded together and we made sure it fit correctly on the bed we pulled it off, sanded the whole thing and then applied several coats of primer and paint.

jp

 

[treesandsurf]

I had looked around for some aluminum sheeting for the walls of the box but was pretty surprised by the prices here on Oahu. I remembered a year or two back seeing a box flyingsquirrel had made with polycarbonate sheeting. After contacting him and brendonv about the material I decided to give it a shot.

When the sheets arrived rolled up I was pretty skeptical about their ability to take the abuse. We used 1/4" thick 4X8 polycarbonate from farmtek.

jp

 

[treesandsurf]

The sheeting went on pretty smoothly. We used pop rivets to secure it to the frame. The finished product.

jp

 

[treesandsurf]

All together we put about 2K into the materials for the box and then of course the time involved, about 3 long weekends all together. I'm sure many could do it much faster but we found the angles on the front portion of the box over the toolbox took quite a while.

jp

 

[treesandsurf]

Been using the box now for a few months and the sheeting is holding up amazingly well. Even when the box is empty and the chips are shooting straight into the sheeting, there is virtually no damage/distortion and can handle the load when maxed out no problem. I'm really impressed with this material!

jp

 

[Phil]

love me some home made stuff. i wish i had a welder...i wish i knew how to weld as well. looks good...im gonna make my sides out of wood so i can take em off manually by had. how high is the top of the box from the bed surface? I have 1' metal sides on my 1ton and was thinking of going 5' or 6' higher with the woodsides

 

[Tr33Climb3r]

Great Work. It looks fairly simple. I will have to look into those side panels you used.

 

[treesandsurf]

[ QUOTE ]
how high is the top of the box from the bed surface? I have 1' metal sides on my 1ton and was thinking of going 5' or 6' higher with the woodsides

[/ QUOTE ]

The box is just under six feet from the bed surface. I would probably suggest going to 5' as the height is more than I was anticipating but it does okay. If you are going to do this with a 1 ton you will probably be better off with 5' as you will have to watch how much you put on the bed with what your truck can handle (legally).

jp

 

[brendonv]

Go 5' with a one ton. Mines 6 currently and can you say overweight? Even 5' is pushing it, depending on your body weight. My truck is about 9k empty, (diesel, 4x4, DRW) with a mason dump and aluminum chip box. That leaves only about 6yards of chips. That would be a small box.

I'm saving money for an aluminum flatbed. They weigh 300 lbs and I will drop 1,000 but getting rid of the mason dump. A 5' tall box with a tall tailgate would be perfecto. Better fuel mileage too.

 

[CreTree]

Where are you looking for alum bed? And how much are they running?

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Nicely done! It looks great.

 

[brendonv]

I'm going with one made by Truckcraft. About $2500 plus headboard.

 

[flyingsquirrel25]

Great job treesandturf. I wish I had the time and money to do all the steel fame work. It looks great. I was supprised to see the poly came all rolled up. Mine all came on a large pallet (flat), I had to find someone to off load it as I didn't have the space.
PS vynal graphics hold up extremely well on this stuff. Mine is almost two years old and they look as good today as when I had them done.

 

[allmark]

[ QUOTE ]
We built the main frame off the bed and then used a tractor to lift the whole thing and put into onto the mason dump bed.

jp

[/ QUOTE ]

Looks great. Of course I would have used a crane not a tractor..