Tom DeFrancesco 23 Report post Posted April 23, 2012 Brian congrats on your new flatbed. What is the GVW?? Not sure by you but have to be careful with weight. HEAVY fines for being overweight. In the process of getting an F650 now with 24' box. Have a 2007 LCF 55 with 18' box we use for FW'ing, 16' enclosed trailer for res/comm work. Going to make the big truck mine and turn trailer into extra water tank/recovery trailer. Lots of plans!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
John T 744 Report post Posted April 23, 2012 Brian congrats on your new flatbed. What is the GVW?? Not sure by you but have to be careful with weight. HEAVY fines for being overweight. In the process of getting an F650 now with 24' box. Have a 2007 LCF 55 with 18' box we use for FW'ing, 16' enclosed trailer for res/comm work. Going to make the big truck mine and turn trailer into extra water tank/recovery trailer. Lots of plans!!! Cool stuff Tom. If you ever post pics they would be cool to see. The F650 is some truck. Which engine comes with the 650 your looking at? I seen them with the Cummins engine which is a great engine and same with the caterpillar engine. To bad Diesel is going thru the roof but I still wouldn't go heavy duty anything without a Diesel truck at the helm. My F550 7.3 liter flatbed drives like a charm and is strong as heck. It can hold alot of weight and also pull a shizz load. The only drawback with the Ford is the turning radius.. It bites. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
John T 744 Report post Posted April 23, 2012 Just got a brand new Isuzu 14 foot flatbed. How would you set it up? I have to get 3 power washers a udor roof pump and 5 hose reels. Also 600 gal. Water tank. 125 gal. Chem tank and 50 gal. Roof mix tank? Since your setting up your truck with a roof cleaning set-up on it I would make sure the bed is well protected. Aluminum bed would be my first choice and if you don't have that I would put a good cover of a linex type coating over the bed. Chlorine is so corrosive and it will find a way to leak on the bed of the truck. Can't wait to see your finished set-up. Good luck. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tom DeFrancesco 23 Report post Posted April 23, 2012 Cool stuff Tom. If you ever post pics they would be cool to see. The F650 is some truck. Which engine comes with the 650 your looking at? I seen them with the Cummins engine which is a great engine and same with the caterpillar engine.To bad Diesel is going thru the roof but I still wouldn't go heavy duty anything without a Diesel truck at the helm. My F550 7.3 liter flatbed drives like a charm and is strong as heck. It can hold alot of weight and also pull a shizz load. The only drawback with the Ford is the turning radius.. It bites. Hi John, honestly will take either one. I prefer the CAT but at this point will take the nicest one I can find. Some may think overkill but I am looking to be able to carry at least 1500 gals of water when I need to. We do a decent amount of commercial (not including fleet washing) and large residential work where water is limited. Especially when running 2, 9 GPM's and 2 to 3, 6 GPM machines at once. It becomes EXTREMELY time consuming when you are trying to fill tanks from only one or if lucky 2 hose bibs. Most of my Orange County work is all well water. In my opinion time is money!!! If I can save a couple of hours by not having to keep refilling tanks, I will take it. I will absolutely post pics!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
John T 744 Report post Posted April 24, 2012 Hi John, honestly will take either one. I prefer the CAT but at this point will take the nicest one I can find. Some may think overkill but I am looking to be able to carry at least 1500 gals of water when I need to. We do a decent amount of commercial (not including fleet washing) and large residential work where water is limited. Especially when running 2, 9 GPM's and 2 to 3, 6 GPM machines at once. It becomes EXTREMELY time consuming when you are trying to fill tanks from only one or if lucky 2 hose bibs. Most of my Orange County work is all well water. In my opinion time is money!!! If I can save a couple of hours by not having to keep refilling tanks, I will take it. I will absolutely post pics!!! David Olsen who just recently passed away had some killer trucks. I use to correspond with him alot when I was going thru my propane stage. He had a neat business and his trucks were very efficient with heaters, large tanks etc. He use to show alot of us his trucks via the net. Real cool to see stuff like that and get some idea's from it. With him nothing was overkill. It's like you said time is money. His system was made to make the optimum amount of money in the least amount of time. Good luck with finding and building the best setup possible. That is a fun and sometimes frustrating challenge. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RSuds 24 Report post Posted April 25, 2012 It is a 14,500 gvw but I did vet gas and a nice fiberglass bed that will be great with the chemicals. Since I got the gas and the light bed it can hold around 8300 pounds on the bed. We only put 8,000-10,000 miles a year on them. Just got my machines and will show some pics. I need to figure out were to put it all? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
John T 744 Report post Posted April 25, 2012 It is a 14,500 gvw but I did vet gas and a nice fiberglass bed that will be great with the chemicals. Since I got the gas and the light bed it can hold around 8300 pounds on the bed. We only put 8,000-10,000 miles a year on them. Just got my machines and will show some pics. I need to figure out were to put it all? Real cool. Can't wait to see the pics. I bet that truck turns on a dime. What is the height from the ground to the top of the cab? My F550 Flatbed is about 78" to top of the cab which is about as high as I can go to get into some garages. The truck with a 14' aluminum flatbed weighed in at 6800lbs and has a GVWR of 17500lbs. Figure with people in the cab the truck can hold about 10,500lbs. The two water tanks on the truck together are about 900 gallons and when full weigh about 7800lbs and between the burners and washers along with gas tanks and hose and hose reels where sitting with a full load of about 9500-10,000lbs and with the trailer we are probably at or very near the Full capacity of 25900 lbs which includes towing weight... And the truck still runs like a charm. We don't usually drive the truck full of water except for maybe one tank because the two pressure washers on it total over 19gpm and they can go thru a tank of water in no time.. With all this the truck still gets around 10-11 mpg.. Got to love the flatbeds:) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
