1955 F600, heavy duty build.......with a bus.

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jmlcolorado

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 23, 2010
Messages
1,839
Location
The flat plains of Elbert County, CO
It’s been awhile since I’ve been here. Mostly because life gets in the way sometimes.
A lot has changed. I changed jobs a couple times, last time was with a “friend” with his company. Turns out he was a better friend than boss. Then once we worked together, we lost the friendship all together.
Oh well. Move on I suppose.
Had a baby boy then promptly got snipped :)
And most recently started my own construction business last August. It’s thriving and I don’t have to chase work. It all,just come to me which is very nice. Trying to maintain the work life balance has been a learning experience for sure, but I’m getting it dialed in.
I was looking for a dump trailer for the occasional trash haul. But even at auctions, with a wrecked and nasty trailer, the prices are far above what I’m willing to spend.
Along comes this 1955 Ford f600 with a 14’ flatbed with a dump hoist.
The interior is nearly flawless, half of the glass is new, and it runs and drives.
Picked it up for $2500 which I felt was fair.
Since I’ve had it home, I’ve lewrned to drive the 5 speed slush box and 2 speed rear end. It’s an absolute hoot to drive for sure!
Problem is it has a 239 car engine in it, and the rear end is geared with 8.81 and 6.33 gears.
This combination means it goes.........but not fast by any stretch. In fact, it can’t hold speed going up any grade even when empty.

The natural thought is to engine swap the thing. And of course, since it’s the ‘in’ thing to do, it would have to be a cummins right?
Yeah. Well. BECAUSE it’s the cool thing, everyone wants an arm and half a leg for one (my apologies to you amputees for my crappy jokes).
Additionally the truck has split rims, however they are lock ring style so that’s not terrible. The issue is the tires are.......um......bumpy. And not tubeles. And if I ever want to change wheels, I’m stuck with the old style 5 on 8” lug pattern.
Additionally, the brakes, while vacuum assist, are sluggish. To the point where I don’t know I’d want to test their ability with a load on the truck.
They really do stop the truck well, I’m just not confident in their ability loaded down.

Soooooo what to do.
Maybe a International 3800 school bus will work.
So I’ve been watching the auctions at pricing and they are mostly reasonable. In fact I almost flew out to Nebraska to drive on back but it sold before I could set it in stone.
We’re talking a full, running and driving bus that is completely road worthy for about $5k and a lot of times, les than that.
The frame width on the Ford is industry standard 34” and flat as can be from front to back. Same as medium duty chassis.
Seems like a good start.
Then suddenly I remembered we voted last year for the school district to get additional funding. It passed, and with some of those funds, they bought a handful of new busses.
I wondered what they were doing with the old ones so I asked my daughters bus driver/and friendly neighbor, if she knew anything about them. She said they have a few for sale.
Called on them today and they do, and the prices are reasonable.
Even ran into the maintnence guy and chatted with him for a bit. He mentioned one has a rebuild not long ago, and all 3 have full maintnence records. A big plus.
He asked what the transportation official told me the prices were, and he laughed. He said, offer half that price for all three and he’ll take it. Just don’t tell him I told you that 🤣
So Wednesday I will be going back with a bunch of greenbacks and see if I can swing a deal. I want al least 1, but if it works out, I’ll drive all three out of the lot with the intentions of selling off two making the third free to me.
Not a bad deal.
All three have International DT466 engines ( to my first choice due to the legnth of them) but for the price, I’ll cut and shim to make work.
Anyways, enough chatter. Here’s some photos.
 

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Many of you will say it can’t be done with an engine of that size. You’re probably right. However, I have a couple grinders and a plasma cutter on my side.
I stopped today to take some rough measurements.
I’ll have to widen the front fenders at least 3” each to tuck the tires under it.
Height from top of frame rail to top of engine (or top of air compressor in this case) is 22” on the newest one, and 17” on the other two.
I have 22” to the top of the air cleaner in the ford now. So that works.
Length is where we run into issues with the inline 6.
It appears I’ll need to put a fairly sizable doghouse in the truck. As much as 13” from the firewall as far as I can tell. That really sucks because I was hoping to leave the interior of the ford unmolested. Good news is it looks like I don’t have to cut up the dash.
The trucks have air ride rear, which is cool. But I’ll have to get a Air brake cert.

Here are the runners up.
 

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Quote by jmlcolorado "Many of you will say it can’t be done with an engine of that size."
Nope, you won't get that around here....[P[cl
 
19.5 1.jpg

19.5.jpg

these 5 lug 19.5s and rear axle would fit

would solve the split wheel issue and the gearing in the dana 70 is a lot better than the stock ford

cool truck
 
View attachment 147647

View attachment 147648

these 5 lug 19.5s and rear axle would fit

would solve the split wheel issue and the gearing in the dana 70 is a lot better than the stock ford

cool truck

I would appreciate if you wouldn’t try to provide realistic solutions to my issues 😁

Yes, a rear axle swap would be simple enough. But.......but......**** your face an air back and watch the show 😂🤣😂



I hope you can read my smartassness in the text :)
 
I would appreciate if you wouldn’t try to provide realistic solutions to my issues 😁

Yes, a rear axle swap would be simple enough. But.......but......**** your face an air back and watch the show 😂🤣😂



I hope you can read my smartassness in the text :)

sorry
sometimes I forget this is not one of the resto sites I visit
lucked into a early 60s c60 chevy that was ordered with the big 10 bolt pattern, just dont like the 327 4spd/2spd stuff
thought about using the drivetrain from a bus as well
 
I’m thinking that IH diesel is computer control, right? Probably need the dash to go with it due to all the sensors and electronics.

I think I’d rather have the Cummins, even it costs more. Or maybe find one of the Mitsubishi trucks and put the cab on that frame, probably a better fit. Those Japanese trucks are usually pretty cheap because they are cabovers.
 
I would appreciate if you wouldn’t try to provide realistic solutions to my issues 😁

Yes, a rear axle swap would be simple enough. But.......but......**** your face an air back and watch the show 😂🤣😂



I hope you can read my smartassness in the text :)

Apparently I’m so profane, my phone autocorrects “shut” to another word that has an I in it instead. Sorry about that 😳🤣
 
I’m thinking that IH diesel is computer control, right? Probably need the dash to go with it due to all the sensors and electronics.

I think I’d rather have the Cummins, even it costs more. Or maybe find one of the Mitsubishi trucks and put the cab on that frame, probably a better fit. Those Japanese trucks are usually pretty cheap because they are cabovers.

I have the option of 3 of them. None ate electronic. They changed over to that later in life.
I stopped and looked at all 3 and I can make it work. Radiator and intercooler will be the problem.
 
The plan was to pick up one. But I called the school district and they had all three. I asked if they were going to auction them or what and he said no. Just whoever comes to buy em, gets em. No time for auction crap. No time for tire kickers so he didn’t even bother listing them.
All three run and drove thoug ph one needs a battery.
I got them all for the cost of one I’ve seen all over online, so I can’t complain. I’ll sell the other two off and basically have a free one at the end.

Now I have more time for measuring and making a game plan :)
 

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