What Material?

[MMW]

Customer wants the floor in the dump body of their haul truck (cat d-400) replaced. Most likely cut out the old & replace with new. What material would you use? T-1, AR-321? Anyone done this & know the correct stuff to use? The last one they did themselves with regular hot rolled plate. I didn't get to ask them how it is holding up.

[bill5674]

i have patched up a bunch with hot rolled. Pain in the butt cutting out the old ,with ribs and all,but that was using o/a.hard to go over the exsiting floor cause they are usally dips between the ribs. let us know how you make out.

[bikecollector12]

My father owns a small trucking company and he lined all his trucks with cold rolled but it really depends on what they are hauling. Is it an aluminum bed? I'm guessing so. Alot of guys in the Utah area are stacking steel right on top of aluminum beds for some light demolition hauling. They just weld the seams and bolt them to the top. I've had a few guys wanting them completely replaced, but that's quite a chore. Around these parts they don't want to spend that much money. Sand, light gravel and things like that would be fine with aluminum, but the minute you get some demo or heavy rock it anihilates the bed immediately.

[Copperdog]

Body liner

Cat might have that meterial avaliable for sale?
The sell bucket wear parts and things like that, might be worth a call?

[SundownIII]

Copperdog,

Cat doesn't make their own steel, and I can assure you they are not in business to sell raw material to consumers.

To the original poster,

In our area, the use of a product called ArmorStone has become quite popular for use in jetty and bulkhead construction. (Erosion Control). Armor Stone is no secret product, just large chunks of granite (800-2500#). Needless to say, they can tear up a dumpbed pretty quickly.

Aluminum is not the solution. Cold rolled steel is probably a better bet. Whatever is used is going to get "beat up". You may talk to your customer about using steel and then building a grid system which would hold wooden planks to provide abrasion resistance. The wood IS GOING TO GET TORN UP but if designed properly, it can be easily replaced versus having to completely redo the metal bed.

Just food for thought.

[Grigg]

I was at a big trucking show several months ago.
A few different manufacturers were selling heavy plastic liners for dump trucks.
Some of them about 1/2" thick or a little more. Supposed to make things slide out nicely, and protect the bed, and last a long time.

I have never seen it used, but it sounded promising, and definitely worth looking in to.

I would imagine you would have to have a good floor under the plastic stuff to start with.

Grigg

[stick man]

we always used AR 400 1" thick but that was for triple 7's and larger. 1/2" might work for a 400. hope that helps

[cajuncat]

I work at the cat dealership down in Louisiana and we just replace it with regular ar plate and that seems to work fine.We do put the plastic liners in most of our trucks on top of the steel plates and that helps out the beds alot.The material slides out alot easier with it.We get the plastic already cut to size to fit in the trucks from dynamic plastics up in Maryland.When you get them in its like putting a puzzle together.Real simple to install,they are welded in with steel clips that fits inside of predrilled holes.We pay about 12000 dollars for a set for a D400 which does include shipping.

[HarborSteel]

We sell steel into the truck bed industry and most folks we deal with use two types in their bed repairs. On the sides of the bed, the normal material is AR-400 (AR = Abrasion Resistant) and in the bottom of the bed, T-1 is used. T-1 is an impact resistant steel. We have several customers that replace and/or repair these beds, Cat included.

If you need more information, you can reach us at (888) 356-8061.

Mark

[MMW]

Thanks for the replies. This truck is an on-site haul truck not an over the road dump truck. It is a Caterpiller d-400. We did not wind up doing the job as they found a good used bed for $12,000 from the mid-west. They have not figured out what to do with the old one yet. They are leaning towards just patching it up & hanging onto it for now but most likely it will lay in the yard till spring & then they will sell it off for whatever they can get for it.