What I have learned

[Steve]

I have already eliminate the tailer and use a cube van with a ramp, my pickup was getting about 10 mpg. the bigger stronger truck can do 15 in town easy, and haul everything i could ever need.

That is fantastic! You improved your gas mileage by 50% by doing that!

Have you found any downsides to switching from your pickup with your trailer to your cube van?

What about leaves? Do you use a trailer to collect leaves with your cub van?

I also noticed you have two different cube van trucks. Did one work out better than the other?

[hansons_lawncare]

It was the best i could do in the situation. I had an 06 pick up, that couldnt handle what I was putting it through, I went to the dealership and they had 5 cube vans from a large vending company in town that was upgrading that they pushed me towords. The first was a diesel F350 big jump from my F150. It has the huge 7.2L engine that I worried would eat up my milage but it really doesnt. It has the large frame and box that i dont notice if im pulling anything, very smoth ride. They had it listed at 9,000 with 145,000 miles. For the same Model in a Pick up was around 15,000. I saw the room for advertising and decided I would do that. The problem was my pick up was worth 17,000 and they didnt like the idea of trading down. so i looked at a few smaller trucks, telling them that I had the ford for power and needed a get around truck that i could do estimates or maybe throw a weed whip in the back and run around in the morning when its 2 wet to mow and knock out some trimming without having to have an employee to pay. so we found a little ford ranger, no towing power, small box, and surprisingly bad gas milage. So i took the weekend to study up and found out that they had 1 isuzu that was a 4 cylender diesel engine. I read the reviews on the isuzu NPRs and couldnt find a bad review. they are build with just the chassie and you can add anything to the back of it. I got looking around and found a site that takes these isuzu frames and makes a custom lawn truck for 70,000. I decided i could take a crack at building my own. so i went back to try the isuzu and from the moment i got inside i LOVED it. it is built like a small semi. its very simple but made to last. I am confident that this truck will last. They had it listed for 10,000 with 140,000 miles. we talked for a while and they did an even trade with me. So i got to work building the ramp. that was a chore. i want it to be light enough to lift but strong enouh to trust. when it was finished and i felt good about it it ended up beeing a little over 800 pounds. now i had a new problem, i tried a winch, a boat crank, considered adding hydrolics. finally decided on a garage door torshen spring. now i can drive in and out in seconds and flip up the door with 1 hand. i mounted weed whips and blowers on the wall and have a work bench in the front to store tools and gas cans. It truely is a 1 car garage. When i got the ford it was going to be my leaf truck. I had a lot of designing and hours and hours of strgle with this one and i had to give up on the idea. easy to get leaves in, a terrible half a day dirty job to get them out. I decide instead to build a box on the front of my trailer and set the billy goat in the back of the truck shooting into the trailer box. i put doors all around it so i could open them up and drive forward and close it up...... NOT how it works. the billy goat chops up so small and tight that it was a solid wall all around. It would take me 2 hours every night to empty it. on busy days i would do it 2 times. after a year and a half I decided my health and my time could be better used somewhere else and got the dump truck. i went with the metel box to cut down on places for leaves to catch when i dump, and so it wouldnt break during the summer when I take it out to do multch or rocks or whatever jobs it comes in useful. After all of this is done the things i woul consider doing differently... I would have gotten a dump truck with 4 wheel drive. Im not plowing with it so i decided i wouldnt need it. I would buy 2 isuzus over the ford. the power i gain is nice in a few cases but the milage and ease and manuverability are un matched. I have driven around in the larger cities in the fall and have seen comanies with huge leaf trucks, I wish there was a way to use the ford but i cant figure out how to get them out. It is nice however to have a safe spot to keep blowers and rakes and gas, anything you could imagine in the back of a 8x16 box truck. Ive even considered building a wall and making a little office in the back, and add a printer to do bills and everything on the job sight. or have a generater in the back with a few outlets on the out side to be able to use some electric tools. an electric chain saw is MUCH cheaper than a gas, and for the amount i use it.... just an idea. I may also use the isuzu ford for chemicles, i could have the tanks inside with the line running out the side, similar to how true green does it. I could have a VERY large tank on that frame.

[950thomas]

to get the leavs out of the truck mount a pallet to a chain and pull them out

[hansons_lawncare]

with the amout that would be in the tuck i bet i would need another truck to pull that chain, but thats an awesome ideal. i was thinking of it all wrong i was thinking about somethng that would push out, do you think the pallet will stay strait or will it twist and only pull out a small amout. is this something you have tried

[950thomas]

We dump at a much yard and the front leaders will pull the chain with the pallet off 4 us

[950thomas]

I don't use that method but most companies where I live use it u can rig the pallet where it will stand up till u get the leaves in it to hold it up the pallet will pull out most of the leaves

[hansons_lawncare]

alright cool, that just makes one of my trucks much more useful. how do they vent the truck for the air to get out. i have seen 2 different ways of doing it, where the back door only comes half way up. and a way where the hose fits tight in a hole. i prefer using the hole, so there is less of a mess and i can fill the box more.

[950thomas]

they make a vent for those trucks that u can put on or u can buy a cloths dryer vent and cut a hole and put in

[SLPettet]

Have you tried Partstree. com or smallenginewarehouse.com?? You can get cheap mower blades at expressmowerparts.com also.

[Steve]

I decided i could take a crack at building my own. so i went back to try the isuzu and from the moment i got inside i LOVED it.

Do you have any pictures of the construction process? I'd love to see what you did.