Chip box

L

Lunny

Location
Laval
Hey guys, i want to put a chipper box on my truck and need some advice. The truck is a f-450 but it is a flatbed dumper so it has no metal siding. The bed is 14 feet and I was thinking to go with wood. So i have questions like, do i need to get the box approved for it to be legal? Do i need to add metal rods to make it more solid? Should i leave the roof open? I have a regular driving class license, if i add the box is it possible that i would need to change my driver license class due to the weight, Do i add a tool box and make the dumper smaller?
if anyone has advice i would appreciate it!
Thanks
 

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Chip boxes built out of wood are quickest builds but become shaky pretty quick. All steel is a big project , probably 30+ hrs or easily more for a backyard welder. I’ve had good luck on flatbeads welding on steel uprights and roof cross members with c channel and angle iron. Then you can weld small braces to keep everything square and tight. Angle and channel iron is easy to drill and bolt wood sides to and strong enough to support gates on back.
 
You may want a backpack or side load miniskid platform up front. I prune a lot, so the bin size does not matter as much to me. I contract out large removal loads for cheap around here. I think the bin size also does not matter as much if you chip medium sized removals. You have to build what fits your ecosystem - your business model, your optimal debris management regimen.
 
Also remember that the f450 is a bit low on payload - less than the f350 because it is almost identical to the f350 - they just added better brakes for towing, and possibly different gearing ratios. It can tow quite a bit more than the f350. Looks like it may be 5-6k payload. If you minus 1.5k for the bin, you're left with 3.5-4.5k payload. If you side load a mini skid you are down to .5k-1.5k. Seems like the optimal rig might be a 10-15-inch chipper, 2 foot of backpack, and bin.
 
Lunny said:
Hey guys, i want to put a chipper box on my truck and need some advice. The truck is a f-450 but it is a flatbed dumper so it has no metal siding. The bed is 14 feet and I was thinking to go with wood. So i have questions like, do i need to get the box approved for it to be legal? Do i need to add metal rods to make it more solid? Should i leave the roof open? I have a regular driving class license, if i add the box is it possible that i would need to change my driver license class due to the weight, Do i add a tool box and make the dumper smaller?
if anyone has advice i would appreciate it!
Thanks
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This is one old my old trucks truck. Only a 10’ dump but we’ve also done the build on a 12’ dump.

No problems with rigidity or longevity of the wood.

We used to have an open top (no roof) for loading and unloading nursery stock.
Recently we’ve been adding a roof.
 

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This is a more recent build on an 11’ body

I wanted a steel or aluminum chip body (after our other truck got totaled) but the wait time was way too long.

I needed a new truck soon since I was borrowing a friends truck that was ready to fall apart!

Ended going with the wood again
I used pressure treated 2x12s but I think that standard non pressure treated 2x12s would be fine and last plenty long
 

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With frame mounted side slung tool boxes you can get a lot of out of the way tool storage that doesn't screw up chip space etc.

Don't look at this if you're $$ averse but, "In The Ditch" has 16"x16"x 36,48,and 72 inch tool boxes that are incredibly functional and strong enough for a 250 lb person to sit on or stand on the open doors. (Four foot box is $1,000 if I recall.) They have great easy mounting bracket systems too.
 
Tom Dunlap said:
THe bed angle seems a bit shallow for getting chips to slide off. THe dump box I had was much steeper and if the load was wet it took some brake jamming stops in reverse to shock the load off. Winter?! Lots of chopping and scraping if we didn't dump every day.
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I hadn’t paid much attention to that one before but you’re right - that bed won’t dump chips very well if that’s all the higher it goes. We have one truck that won’t quite hit 45 degrees and it wont dump clean unless the nose is uphill. Get stuck dumping nose downhill and good luck!

As for my thoughts on the truck - you won’t need anything besides your regular license as long as you don’t have a trailer registered at more than 10k lbs behind you. That truck will very quickly be overweight though with a chip box that long on - likely fully loaded with a wooden box it will weigh 18k+, and the gvw is probably 15-16k, so be careful about actually filling that truck with chips.
 
I really should take some good pictures of our f550 setup. We have a 11'6" bed that started life as a flat bed. We added metal sides but have two removable oak 2x12s on the top of each side so we can load over the side if we want. We made a couple of roof sections out of some 5/4" pine lumber so we can chip into it but also open the top for loading logs with the crane. We have barn doors on the back so we can open them with the chipper still hooked up to throw misc stuff in the back. We can even jack knife the chipper and load logs without unhooking.

We added two 4 ft underbody toolboxes down both sides under the bed in front of the rear tires. We also have a small 5 drawer tool box behind one of the rear tires. We also have a large bin at the front of the bed over the cab. Its 2x2x8 plus the slanted part towards the front. We keep pole saw stuff in there plus a backpack blower, two rakes, a scoop shovel, some wheel choccks, a tarp, and some other stuff. Its really handy to have this much storage space.
 
Speaking of pictures, where was a new chip body pictured a while ago that someone bought from Eloquip or Voth truck bodies? I searched by search bar and by going back through all relevant threads I can think of.

It might have been a add on canopy you install on an existing dump truck body.
 
Lunny said:
Hey guys, i want to put a chipper box on my truck and need some advice. The truck is a f-450 but it is a flatbed dumper so it has no metal siding. The bed is 14 feet and I was thinking to go with wood. So i have questions like, do i need to get the box approved for it to be legal? Do i need to add metal rods to make it more solid? Should i leave the roof open? I have a regular driving class license, if i add the box is it possible that i would need to change my driver license class due to the weight, Do i add a tool box and make the dumper smaller?
if anyone has advice i would appreciate it!
Thanks
Click to expand...

If you trim the tail a bit can you get more dump angle? 12’ would be good for that truck I would think.

I would advise an angle iron frame 2”x 2” or 3”x3” x3/16” or 1/4” thick with either 1/8” sheet steel or 2x wood for the sides.

Look at the tag on your door & see what your GVWR is: as mentioned it will probably be around 16k. As chips weigh on average 550 lbs/ yard, if you truck weighs ~9k already then you are only good for 7k.

12’l x 7.75’w x 4’h = 13.8 cy.

13.8cy • 550lbs= 7,578lbs which is overweight assuming your truck is a 16k truck.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
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It's pouring rain and turning into an ice storm here today so I'll have to take pics another time.

Another feature I didn't mention is we set up the bed for ramps so we can drive our mini skid into the back of the truck. With the top off, our sk650 can turn around and drive out forward. We also had to add 4 tie down loops for chaining it down.

I will add, we did the wood route the first go round with this truck. It was not a good way to go. We kept busting the wood plus splinters sucked. It didn't look good either after being in the weather for a while. Having done it both ways, I wouldn't go the wood route again. We actually busted one of my roof board the other day. If did it all over again, I'd not having the removable 2x12 oak boards at the top of mine. We just don't end up removing them to load over the side. They are just to heavy and after they warp up it's hard to get them in and out. Having metal sides all the way up would make it easier to do a removable top. I keep thinking about doing a three section aluminum removable roof. Being able to use some destaco clamps to hold it on would be nice.
 
I recently posted this on another thread but I’ll post again just bc I think it’s a great way to enclose a dump bed with very minimal material and can be taken on and off easily.

Use steel hoop material, like 1” wide 1/8” thick, bend and secure to either side of bed, ideally with bolts so they can be taken on and off.

Affix waxed canvas and stretch across. How you affix the front and end can be done many different ways. Time to get creative :)

My build is on a f250 so I kept it small. The hoops cost me $2 at the local scrapyard. The tarp was $50ish at tractor supply.image.jpg
 
Stumpsprouts said:
I recently posted this on another thread but I’ll post again just bc I think it’s a great way to enclose a dump bed with very minimal material and can be taken on and off easily.

Use steel hoop material, like 1” wide 1/8” thick, bend and secure to either side of bed, ideally with bolts so they can be taken on and off.

Affix waxed canvas and stretch across. How you affix the front and end can be done many different ways. Time to get creative :)

My build is on a f250 so I kept it small. The hoops cost me $2 at the local scrapyard. The tarp was $50ish at tractor supply.View attachment 73591
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I ran a dump trailer set up like that years ago, but we used a mesh tarp and hauled leaves. We had 1” pvc for the bows though, no need to bend them to a fixed shape, just bend them into place and they’ll straighten back out for easy storage when you take them off.
 
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