Air Powered Dump Trailer....Do-able?

TBDonnelly · Jul 9, 2006

Is an air powered dump trailer do-able?

I was looking at the trailers at Country Manufacturing: (http://www.countrylawn-garden.com/wagonstrailers.htm) Model 6500

They offer a hand operated hydraulic lift kit which, does not appeal to me because of the number of strokes it takes to lift the trailer bed to a decent dump angle.

I came across this air operated hydraulic jack (http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=41487) and started to wonder 'if' there is a way to set up the correct size cylinder to be operated with air by mounting a portable air tank to the front of the trailer. This would be for occasional use and an air compressor would be close by to refill the trailer tank as needed.

Do-able or not?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Don

Soundguy · Jul 10, 2006

Air pressure alone? probably not doable.

Air over hyd.. probably very doable.

Doing it from a portable air tank? I think you will have BIG volume issues.

Perhaps a 12v pump plumbed into the tank.. and then it might go from 'maddening' to just 'painfull'.

If it were me.. I'f get a 12v powered hyd unit. i think you can get them in the 299$ range or so.. Surplus center has them.

I've seen a couple of them. We used one instead of adding a wet kit to a truck, so that we coul run some hyd actuated spray bar arms from the cab of a water truck.

I've also seen one on a big old tractor that had a bad hydro pump, and the owner mounted the 12v hyd unit on a fender and plumbed a line into the tractors hyd top cover to run the 3pt lift.

Neat repair.. kinda....

Soundguy

TBDonnelly said:
Is an air powered dump trailer do-able?

I was looking at the trailers at Country Manufacturing: (http://www.countrylawn-garden.com/wagonstrailers.htm) Model 6500

They offer a hand operated hydraulic lift kit which, does not appeal to me because of the number of strokes it takes to lift the trailer bed to a decent dump angle.

I came across this air operated hydraulic jack (http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=41487) and started to wonder 'if' there is a way to set up the correct size cylinder to be operated with air by mounting a portable air tank to the front of the trailer. This would be for occasional use and an air compressor would be close by to refill the trailer tank as needed.

Do-able or not?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Don

Bird · Jul 10, 2006

Don, I don't doubt that air over hydraulic could be done, but I doubt that you'd be happy with it. It's been a number of years since I've used air over hydraulic jacks and they were great, but you sure had to be careful with them because they both lifted and dropped too fast if you weren't.

have_blue · Jul 10, 2006

TBDonnelly said:
Is an air powered dump trailer do-able?

Don

Don,

Air is so doggoned inefficient. You would need a big bore cylinder, then a giant tank to cycle it.

Hydraulic is more efficient, and pretty easy to rig. A big battery or heavy direct wiring to the tractor/truck would be needed for regular use.

Motorized winch is the most efficient, but the hardest and most awkward to rig. A small battery would get you quite a few dumps. If the dump pivot point and load was balanced right, the trailer could almost dump itself, and the winch would be used mostly to return the bed to horizontal.

KWentling · Jul 10, 2006

I saw on "Trucks" show an air bag operated dump system used on a pickup. I have seen the same in a farm store magazine but I don't recall which one. At least one of these used the pickups exhaust to inflate the bag. You would need a large volume but low pressure to operate. Maybe even the tractors exhaust would work.

Kim

jrm223 · Jul 10, 2006

KWentling said:
I saw on "Trucks" show an air bag operated dump system used on a pickup. I have seen the same in a farm store magazine but I don't recall which one. At least one of these used the pickups exhaust to inflate the bag. You would need a large volume but low pressure to operate. Maybe even the tractors exhaust would work.

Kim

As soon as I read the first post, that episode came to mind

I believe the one on the show was regular compressed air, but it has been a long time since I saw the episode...

Something to keep in mind is air-bag suspensions on cars, 4 bags @ 150ish PSI can lift a 3000+ pound car up, and a set-up can be made fairly easily using air cylinders (just like hydraulic cylinders) to lift a dump bed. So it definetly is do-able. As for the "huge bores" mentioned above, the huge bore is used at low air pressure - you can raise the PSI, and have a smaller bore to do the same job. Generally it's less harsh on the components to run large bore w/ low PSI than small bore w/ high PSI.

Soundguy · Jul 10, 2006

Volume and leakage and temperature come into play if you use an air only system.. etc.

Soundguy

Taylortractornut · Jul 10, 2006

Im just a spring chicken to the older tractors but I ve heard my dad talk about the old exhaust lift Farmall A's and seen a few to. had a valve and a large pistoned ram to make the implement lift work. THey even made a few little manure loaders for the A's to that were exhaust powered. Hydraulics would be easier, air over hydraulics is powerful but needs alot of air. My 30 gallon 16 horse compressor om yservice truck has to cycle 3 times to raise my air over hydraulic jack6 inches. A car pwer steering pump makes a great pto pump for a little trailer. You could even use a 12 volt convertible top pump to work the bed.

JD3520 · Jul 11, 2006

My dad took and old dump truck and cut the cab off. He then made a gooseneck out of the bed part and hooked up an industrial engine to run the hyd. lift. As a truck it had used a p.t.o. system so he hooked the engine up using that. Worked great as it lifted a 4 yard dump in around 30-45 seconds.

Chuck