Brand new dump trailer, not paying attention to the details...

[cabover4us]

Back in the middle 80s I worked for a Bark Mulch Company from Lake George, NY and you know mulch, loaded my trailer to 13'-4" an old 45' Branch Freight trailer converted to live floor, that trailer saw some huge heavy loads, that was when trucking was fun, driving an IH cabover 4070B with a 8V92 Hendrickson suspension. Once you had a good load on didn't ride all that bad. Remember when New York only charged $100 for a overload, then the laws changed, now it's no fun and super expensive. One of our trucks got nabbed in Windstead, Ct 150,000 lbs heaviest in CT with a 5 axle unit so the judge told my boss, had to drive down himself and pay the ticket and get the truck released from Impound.
Enough of the past... What brand axles do you guys recommend for my 16' Doolittle Landscape Trailer? Two 3500 lb axles both with brakes. The axle tubes were so rotted they collapsed one foot in from the right side wheels. Also need axles with backing plates for switching over brakes. That Doolittle trailer pulled sweet, straight behind and with hardly any effort. Some years back stripped her clean and rewired and added some large light boxes and LEDs everywhere put wiring in soft conduit with junctions so wiring could be compartmentalized if there was a shorting problem. Long while back installed cheap winch, and did I mention cheap?
I used it one time to load a rolling car frame with one rear tire dragging, by the time it was on platform of trailer white smoke was bellowing out of the plastic case... And of course typical Greg fashion I went out and bought three more continuous duty electric motors, original one could only run five minutes rest ten, of course who reads directions....
Been an interesting journey so far...

 

[CalG]

Many years ago, I moved family from California to New Hampshire. I had a 2 ton Dodge box truck with a lift gate , The house hold goods...... and a machine shop.... in the basement. mill, drill press, etc and crates full of tooling. I had sold the two lathes. Whew!

I towed our '84 Toyota Land Cruiser wagon as well.

Just for yucks (and a fair bit of concern), I pulled over the pay to weigh scales at a truck stop in Arizona.

a tad over 12,000 #, .... the toyota was not on the scale.

I was shocked, and impressed. The Dodge was driving and handling the load just fine. I wouldn't have wanted to test the stopping distance however.//// ;-)

The cross country drive was uneventful. My Brittney Spaniel loved it!

 

[Rara Avis]

Yesterday my wife and I decided to go get some maybe two loads of topsoil if time permits. Earlier this summer I purchased a 12' x 6' N & N
galvinized dump trailer, mostly for keeping up our private road. Debbie was tied up doing her mom's laundry so I took off for the other side of Greenwich. Now when I bought this model it's one slice down from the contractor's version, added 2" X 12" to both sides for added capacity. Found operator and he gently put on just one bucket charged me $54, not bad, my tare was 10,580lbs and this trailer is rated for 7000lb payload. Felt not bad, but due to the many dump trucks driving in I didn't weight out upon leaving.. (very large mistake)
The old 2003 Chevy 2500HD pulled it without any blood trails. Getting home we off loaded to two large raised bed gardens 12' X 4' X 12" then huge area in front where Charlie seems to keep digging to China. Also spot by the back steps where ground hog decided to dig huge cavernis hole.
So, second trip Debbie goes, we arrive and again one scoop from the loader but noticed this time it was heaping. Since the morning traffic has died down, pulled up to see what my gross was and OMGosh, it was 21,280, should of been around 17,580 max, should have had him put half a bucket in and go check it on scale. And another mistake I did, drove it 12 miles home with that load on. It did handle ok, but I wasn't driving over 45 to 50. Luckily I didn't break anything or damage trailer or cause accident, but should have used more common sense in finding the right weight for our trailer before letting him plop a big slug in the trailer, completely my fault for sure. The trailer has a 3 stage piston on the very front of the box and it lifted both loads like it was hauling a load sawdust. As I write this,
wonder how many others have done the same thing but too embarrassed to admit?

Well, then again, you didn't take out a bridge with your overloaded trailer like this guy...


or you could have been this guy who put 14,000 lbs of blasting sand right up next to the gooseneck...

 

[RyeThomas]

I hauled some asphalt millings last week and the deal was at the end of each day I could take a few loads for myself. Well each load got bigger and the final load I pulled out of there on my 7x12-12k was severely overloaded. It was too late to go back so I hauled it the 25 miles or so home. My 3500 DRW didn't care but it was a struggle to get going from a stop. When I got home I offloaded a bunch with my tractor and some by hand before I lifted her. Not real happy or proud of myself, I have a good idea of how much I had once I got home and calculated. I know I was well over the trailers weight and I'm sure I was over my trucks GCWR. Not smart and I hope to be more intelligent next time but my equipment handled it fine.

 

[SJay]

I just picked up a baby dump trailer . A 5 by 8 Brimar with a single 5200 lb axle . Barely used , its 10 years old and still has paint on the floor of the bed . I figure its good for 2 tons of material . For $ 1500 I had to buy it . It is replacing a 3000 lb utility trailer I have had for 8 years as my landfill trailer

Nice Find :thumbsup:

 

[s219]

Twice I have seen someone with a busted down trailer due to overloading, one time right at the stone quarry and the next time just down the road from a mulch yard. It was suspension in one case and tire blowout in the other. Made me wonder what I'd do in those cases with several tons of gravel on my trailer. I carry a spare and timber blocks that would let me change a single tire on a tandem trailer, but with multiple tires blown or a suspension problem I'd probably be scratching my head and needing help.

The one guy that had a tire blowout was so obviously overweight it made me wonder why the mulch place even loaded him. He had one of the small ATV trailers with those small wide tires. I actually think he had as much mulch heaped on his ATV trailer as I had loaded on my tandem-axle.

I also remember when a neighbor went down the road to get some free fill dirt with one of those ATV trailers and blew both tires within about 20' of the dirt pile. He figured he ran over some construction debris and damaged the tires, but I did the math based on number of bucket scoops and he had almost 2 tons of dirt on that trailer that was probably rated for 1600# maximum.

Anyhow, cabover, I think you're still a heck of a lot closer to the safety margin with your trailer than most of the yahoos I see around here. I think the immediate safety risk with overloading is braking, and you would have known that pretty darn quick if it was an issue.

 

[check]

I went to the gravel pit the other day with my 5 x 10 utility trailer. As the guy with the giant loader was dumping the gravel in, I was watching carefully to make sure the load was centered, and then he stopped and looked at me for directions of how much more to put in. I told him it will handle around 3000 pounds. So he dumped little bit more in, and off I went. Just for fun I stopped at the scales on the way out, and it was exactly 3000 pounds. I told the lady at the scale that I was really impressed with this guy that could load so exactly and she said "don't be. He has a scale on the bucket of his loader!" LOL!

 

[s219]

Yeah those loader scales built into the bucket are surprisingly accurate. They usually get me within 50-100# of the target. The operator at my local quarry yard will raise the bucket to get a reading, then shake a little material out until he's close to the requested amount.

 

[cabover4us]

Yesterday my wife and I decided to go get some maybe two loads of topsoil if time permits. Earlier this summer I purchased a 12' x 6' N & N
galvinized dump trailer, mostly for keeping up our private road. Debbie was tied up doing her mom's laundry so I took off for the other side of Greenwich. Now when I bought this model it's one slice down from the contractor's version, added 2" X 12" to both sides for added capacity. Found operator and he gently put on just one bucket charged me $54, not bad, my tare was 10,580lbs and this trailer is rated for 7000lb payload. Felt not bad, but due to the many dump trucks driving in I didn't weight out upon leaving.. (very large mistake)
The old 2003 Chevy 2500HD pulled it without any blood trails. Getting home we off loaded to two large raised bed gardens 12' X 4' X 12" then huge area in front where Charlie seems to keep digging to China. Also spot by the back steps where ground hog decided to dig huge cavernis hole.
So, second trip Debbie goes, we arrive and again one scoop from the loader but noticed this time it was heaping. Since the morning traffic has died down, pulled up to see what my gross was and OMGosh, it was 21,280, should of been around 17,580 max, should have had him put half a bucket in and go check it on scale. And another mistake I did, drove it 12 miles home with that load on. It did handle ok, but I wasn't driving over 45 to 50. Luckily I didn't break anything or damage trailer or cause accident, but should have used more common sense in finding the right weight for our trailer before letting him plop a big slug in the trailer, completely my fault for sure. The trailer has a 3 stage piston on the very front of the box and it lifted both loads like it was hauling a load sawdust. As I write this,
wonder how many others have done the same thing but too embarrassed to admit?

From the little thumbnail it looks upside down

 

[Xfaxman]

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