Slightly OT: Chevy C60 Tandem

Been needing a grain truck forever and ran across one last Saturday at an auction about an hour away from home. It's '73 Chevy C60 with tandem axles, twin cylinder hoist that seems to work fine, and 20' bed. It being something that nobody else but me would consider, I got it for $1600. Runs good, drives good down the road and doesn't wander, and brakes are solid. Not gorgeous, but not all beat up either. 4 & 2, and the 2-speed works. Some minor body work and new paint on the cab would do wonders for how it looks. Bed is in good shape, but is a wood bed. Would prefer steel, but again, $1600. According to the tag in the glovebox, it has a 350 engine. My question at this point is: will that be enough engine to pull a full load down the road at 40 mph or so? I never have driven a loaded truck very fast (we had a C50 when I was a kid w/a 366 - great engine), but I calculated that this truck will hold 475 bu. of beans +/-. Seems like a load for a 350. Anyone have experience with a rig like this?
 
Should have no trouble at all hauling at 40/45 mph.I ran a 68 C50 for years that regularly carried 12+ tons. it had only a 327.Honestly,It would outrun bigger trucks.BTW,you stole it! Congrats!!
 
4x2 tandem? It sounds to me more like an added lift/pusher/tag axle than a true tandem drive. Do all axles have good brakes? If your roads are level, you can get it rolling. But stopping is the bigger challenge.
 
Have a 1973 C65 20' box, single axle w/duals. 366 engine. Works great but with a full load it is 45mph tops, doesn't like hills much. Only does 55 or sometimes 60 empty.
You'll like the truck and be frustrated with it all at the same time. I realize that prices are regional, but around here that truck is worth 2-3 times what you paid for it. Med sized grain farmers seem to like them as seed tenders.
 
Bought a 75 Dodge D-500 last fall for $1500. New steer tires and 90% rears, 40000 miles. Steel box and hoist that I only haul 375 bu. in. Not legal at 375, but hope to not get caught. Handles it good a 55, but geared low in the rear-end.
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That 350 should handle it just fine. I have a old Ford 1 ton that we have hauled 7000lbs in the dump bad and it only has a 300 six in it and it would do 55mph all day long with that load
 
Your roads will make a big difference on your speed: flat paved county roads with good visibility no traffic and few stops; twisty roads with long hills poor visibility heavy traffic with turning vehicles and frequent stops; or gravel roads with heavy washboard at every stop sign will all be different. Stopping it in a reasonable distance will be more important than getting it up to speed.

The 20 foot wood bed was probably needed for hauling livestock, and only partially filled when hauling grain. 475 Bushels of soybeans at 60#/bu is a 28,500 pound load. That sounds like a lot for a C60. Weigh your truck and check the GVWR tag and the options on the glovebox tag to be sure. Was the extra axle added later?

You can always move the bed and hoist to a heavier truck.
 
I used to have propane delivery trucks with 350's in them. it will be slow but should be ok I'll bet you will be using the 2 speed a lot.
 
old I'LL one up you , I've haled 10,000 lbs. on a 80' ford 1 ton dump several times , 300-6 as well. It was a load for sure but pulled it just fine.
 
I won't say you stole it until I see it. There are a lot of these trucks out there and they are not all equals. I have a 1972 single axle C-50 and I paid just over twice what you did. It's in really nice shape, though. One owner, very low mileage, high end box on the back. I believe it has a 350 V-8 but my memory is not clear on this. Nice little straight truck, it zips around empty just like a PU. Put 3-4 tons of aggregate in it and it hardly notices. When I was hauling over 9 ton of grain in it there was a noticeable load on it. Quite a bit more sluggish in acceleration but once up to speed it just kept going. After you dumped a load and turned around you felt like she had the bit in her teeth and were trying to hold her back. :)
 
Oops...one more thing. I have three pieces of equipment with those old Chevy engines in them. They are excellent. One known flaw is that the cam shafts seem to go bad in the 80-90K mileage range. My 76 PU passed thru that range and started giving me trouble. Cam rounded over in several places. Not a big deal fix. Once we got it done the truck has run fine ever since. Other people have told me they had the same issue.
 
You were VERY LUCKY! I helped my buddy and his Dad with potato harvest one summer. Driving harvest trucks, all C65 Chevy's and an old F-850 Ford. Late one afternoon three guys showed up with an F-350 cab/chassis and a nice little combination box with 6 ft tall sides about 6 ft wide X 8 ft long. They put 100 bags of spuds on that truck, 10,000#! They jumped in and slowly went down the road. I worked about another hour more cleaning up and fueling and checking over trucks. Then I jumped in my F-150 and ran the 25 miles home. I was 6-8 miles from home when I saw this F-350 sitting on the side of the road leaning HARD to the left. Down the road about 300-400 feet was a guy rolling a pair of dual wheels with a foot of axle shaft and a brake drum sticking out of the wheel. As I drive by the F-350 two of the three guys who picked up potatos are standing by the truck scratching their head. Truck was a '70's vintage, probably rated to weigh 10,000# gross, so those idiots put 10,000# in the truck so it weighed 16,000-17,000#. They broke the axle housing just outside where the leaf springs clamped to the axle, broke the axle shaft, brake line to that wheel, emergency brake cable to that wheel. They had just driven over a couple sets of railroad tracks and made a right turn which shifted weight to the left for a couple seconds.

There IS a limit to how much you can overload a truck!

I absolutely scares me to death how much farmers overload grain trucks! Just because you can fit that much weight in the box has absolutely nothing to do with whether the chassis, tires, brakes, etc are capable of hauling that much weight. I've backed up more miles than 98% of you guys have ever driven and I wouldn't drive some of the trucks you guys own let alone overload!
 

A Ford 300 6 is hard to beat! One of the best truck engines ever! I've owned 4 of them and still have 2 of them.
they are pretty good AND I'm NOT a Ford man! 8)
 
Ya those straight 6 engines sure do have a lot of torque and they have it at low RPM so it makes it easy to get them rolling also
 
By "4 & 2," I was meaning 4 speed transmission w/2 speed axle, but yes, it's a pusher axle. I wish it were tandem drive, so I'm going to have to be careful where I park & drive it. Looks to me like a guy could get stuck easy with only 1 drive axle. All axles seem to have good brakes, but I haven't loaded it yet either. I'm in the hills of So. Ill, so good brakes are a must.
 
Years ago the company I ran for had Chevy single axle tractors with two speed single axles 5 speed trans. and 366 engine and they would run down the 65 and 70 MPH with a pay load of 34,000 lbs. with no problems.
 
Had that same truck only with a 10' dump bed.Scaled it a lot at 29000-30000 gross. Never let me down.Pulled a 12 ton trailer with a 555 JD high lift .Never had a problem. Your big issue is gonna be that dead axle .Be carful in soft ground. That engine has a governor on it too.Good Luck.
 
When you said 2 speed axle right after 4x2, I took it to be 4 speed trans. What I was inferring is that I'd never heard of a true tandem with that drive train.
Without air, I'm assuming you have no control over that added axle? Sounds like maybe a road truck only?
 
Wish mine would. Doesn't sound right if I get that fast. Engine seems to be screaming too much to me. Maybe I'm just afraid to really push it?
 
It will get that job done and you won't get any speeding tickets...A neighbor got a new 1976 Chevy C-60 with a 350 and 4 speed-2 speed single rear axle.....He put a new 16 ft bed on with extra tall sides which held 375 bushels..It would run 50- 55 mph loaded with no problems..When he retired in 1993 the truck had 16,000 miles and brought more than he paid for it..It had never sat out a night in its life..
 
that sounds like the 1967 c63 tandem I bought a few years back ($1650). has a 20 ft box also. Mine has the 5+2 drivetrain and a 366. I would assume the 350 should rev a little higher then my 366, so long as you have a flat or downhill grade you should hit 55 no problem. may be a little slow getting there. if that 350 doesn't have HEI distributor, make sure you add one. it will help with starts and give you a little more top end along with a hotter spark.
 
Wish I had at least a 366. Wouldn't mind a 5 & 2 transmission either. We had a C50 when I was a kid w/a 366 & 13.5 ft bed and it'd run with a full load. 350 seems a bit small, but evidently, it works.
 
A 350 in good condition/tune will be just fine.

Do you really thin the extra 16 cubic inches (and, likely lower compression) of a 366 is gonna get you to the finish line much faster? LOL!
 
The 5+2 trans will help keep your 350 in it's peak torque without dropping down so low when shifting. It's also nice when you are going up a hill you can drop it into 4th and not lose much speed. far as the 366/350 discussion. I would prefer a 350 because the 366 runs out of top end when your going down the road. Yes it has low end torque to pull a tree, house or what ever you want. but at 50mhp which is 3,000 rpm it's about wound out and doesn't have much more. At 55 your basically at red line of the engine. I typically shift at 3500 or 4 grand but when cruising I don't push it that far. Where as a 350 can handle 4 grand or higher all day long and won't fail. Fact is a 350 is cheaper to build up and can have almost as much if not more torque/power at the same fuel consumption. I think you'll do just fine with your 350. can probably find a 5 speed with a 1 to 1 top gear in a junk yard from a old bus or something like that.
 
After I was out of HS I worked for a grain elevator with two Chevy feed delivery trucks....One had a 350 and the other had a 366.....I preferred the 350 as once you get it wound up it would actually out run the 366....Once a week I went 100 miles to Kansas City after bean meal and I always took the 350...We could never keep the 366 running right..It was in the shop all the time..
 
If you guys are driving over about 25-35 with a loaded grain truck with no tarp your blowing grain off on the road. I don't really care, but it comes to hard for me to blow any possible profit on to the road.
 

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