One Tailgate Does It All

One Tailgate Does It All PICKUPS Accessories 2-5-6 How about this - a new multipurpose tailgate for trucks that does it all. It's double hung and drops down to serve as a ramp for loading cattle or machinery. For dumping silage, grain or other materials, it swings up from the top. "It's taken 5 years to develop but we've ironed out the bugs. We know it works," inventor Bud Streeter, of Greenfield, Mass., told FARM SHOW. "It all started about 5 years ago. Some local farmers wanted a truck with a body equipped to handle everything from cattle, sawdust, hay bales, lumber, apples and gravel to small cars and tractors." A truck equipped with a cattle gate isn't the most convenient thing for hauling hay bales or bedding. And, loading cattle in a standard dump body - without benefit of a loading chute - isn't the easiest chore. Streeter's solution to the problem: An all-purpose tailgate that swings up for dumping, lays out flat to serve as an extended bed, and drops down into a loading ramp. To do all this, Streeter incorporated the combination of double hung latches and hydraulic powered linkage. Called Bud's Multi-Purpose tailgate, it's rigid in any position, versatile enough to handle a wide variety of jobs and can even be locked open at the bottom to reduce wind drag when running empty at highway speeds. It can be adapted to it most any truck box ranging in size from a,big tandem axle down to a 12 ft. dump body. So far, Streeter has had his unique tailgates manufactured on a custom order basis by a small firm in Vermont. He'd.welcome the opportunity to compare notes with larger manufacturers who may be interested in taking on the new product. Cost for a 14 ft. multi-purpose truck body equipped with the new tailgate, including installation and painting to match the truck cab, is right at $6,638. The "package" features 1-1/8 in. hardwood flooring, 60 in. high front and sides made of 3 in. plywood, a 60 in. high tailgate which is hydraulically operated with valve operation at both the front and back of the body, and a 12 in. cattle gate extension. There is a catwalk across the front of the body with a ladder on each side, screen window in the headboard, clearance lights, reflectors, mud flaps, hydraulic hoist for tilting the box, and a grain gate in the center of the tailgate. For more details, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, B & B Auto Sales, 1399 Bernard Rd., Greenfield, Mass. 01301 (ph 413 773-9601).

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