Heavy-Duty “Truck Box” Wagons

Heavy-Duty “Truck Box” Wagons TRUCKS Conversions “Mounting old heavy-duty truck hoist boxes onto a pair of wagon running gears gives us the benefits of hauling all kinds of heavy material that an ordinary wagon can’t hold up to ” says Timm Johnson Galesburg Ill He and his brother Terry bought the 9-ft long “contractor boxes” which came with self-contained hydraulics from a local municipality The boxes still have the front headboard that originally went over the truck cab They often pull 2 of the wagons at a time The running gears were painted black and the wheels silver “The boxes on these trucks were starting to rust so the city removed the boxes from the trucks and installed new stainless steel ones However other than a little rust the boxes are still in good shape ” says Timm “We’ve used them to haul dirt and gravel broken-up concrete from old corn crib foundations large rocks 12-ft long tree trunks from an old shelter belt and ground-up asphalt we used to build up our driveway One time we hauled away 15 double wagon loads of black dirt for the city when they built a new park ” They installed the boxes 2 years ago after a 4-year search “We had been using an old wooden wagon but the wood floor broke after concrete was dumped onto it ” says Johnson “The floors on these boxes are made from 3/8-in thick steel so they aren’t likely to break We spent only about one third as much as we would have for comparable new pull-type wagons ” The boxes are mounted on a pair of heavy-duty Deere 1065A wagon running gears they bought used Each box came with a subframe that supported a scissor hoist The Johnsons reinforced the subframe by cutting up the 6-in sq toolbar off an old 3-pt rotary hoe and welding it onto the running gear and also to the hoist “The front part of the subframe is independent of the running gear and the scissor hoist which keeps the front end of the running gear from lifting up in the air as the hoist raises the wagon ” says Timm They use their Deere 7600 145 hp tractor to pull doubled-up wagons and a stripped down Deere 4020 to haul single wagons “The stripped down 4020 only has one remote outlet so we added another one to unload both wagons ” says Timm U-bolts from the rotary hoe serve as mounting brackets to store hydraulic hoses on front of both wagons Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Timm & Terry Johnson 1866 Knox Road 500 E Galesburg Ill 61401 ph 309 343-6817; buzman6000@yahoo com

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