Nice truck. These roll back trucks are truly the one truck that a guy can make money with. We have a single axle International with a roll back. People are always approaching me to haul stuff but I just do not have the time and here in BC you need insurance to haul other peoples stuff so I have to be careful. Can haul our stuff as well as anything for customers of our business, just can not haul for people who want us specifically for hauling.
We just repainted entire truck and rebuilt the deck. One thing I did do was mount a three valve hyd. lever set up on the frame of truck. I now have to hook hoses to winch with quick connects. Save a lot of hose and weight, my winch hoses use to get pinched and burst once in a while. Managed to shave off nearly 3000lbs and still have a strong deck.
Thanks Lowbed driver, I'm finding it to be one of the best decisions I've made in buying older trucks. This one's been used several times since I got it for "productive things", rather than just for shows and bleeding money.
I'm going through similar trouble with this one with the winch lines myself. Originally, it had two very long hoses from the winch to the rear of the deck where the valve body is mounted. They slid in a tray about 10 feet (the length that the deck slides,) and laid on the ground, and you had to constantly watch them for pinching, catching on something. I had to re-plumb them due to a bursted hose, so I went with 1/2" pipe from winch all the way to the back of the deck by the hinge pins, then thought I could cheat and use 2 6' hoses from there. I was wrong. I ended up making up 2 12 footers, so I really didn't accomplish a thing other that changing the long runs of hose over to steel piping. I still have 2 hoses that lay on the ground as you slide back, and when I'm done I wrap them around the bumper and bungee them. It's an awful setup. I'm trying to figure out a way to get them normal again, like a new rollback.
All I see on the newer trucks is the winch hoses are TWICE the length as I have now, but folded over so they roll out flat, then they re-roll back over themselves. I say that's still a pain, because they will eventually wear at the bend, catch, blow, etc. and now you have a 24 footer rather than a 12 to change out.
Your quick connects are something I should think about. I have to look that over today. Getting toward winter here, so my projects are going to be postponed till warm weather. I thought about mounting a single valve up toward the front of the bed across from the winch so all I'd need is a couple of 4 foot hoses to feed that, but then you'll be 20+ feet away from the hook all the time. Not really feasible either. Quick connects may be my solution.
