Loading issues on Dump Trailer

[sandman2234]

From the picture they are biasing to the front, if they centered the load in the trailer you should be about right for tongue weight.

It's common at my quarry for them to automatically bias to the front, guess they'd rather have someone with too much tongue weight then not enough.

If they "center the load" it qill pull like crap and pretty much be dangerous. Trailers are built to have 60% or more loaded to the front.
They are doing it right, loading nose heavy. The issue is, the original poster doesn't like his back bumper dragging the pavement when loaded close to his trucks maximum capacity. He wants more of the weight carried by the trailer which easily becomes dangerous.
I said I was going to stop posting on this thread, but I have been where he is, and put one out of control truck and trailer in the ditch. The weight ticket showed everything legal and within my load limits according to the State trooper who looked it over. It was just loaded rear heavy.
David from jax

 

[TMGT]

If they "center the load" it qill pull like crap and pretty much be dangerous. Trailers are built to have 60% or more loaded to the front.
They are doing it right, loading nose heavy. The issue is, the original poster doesn't like his back bumper dragging the pavement when loaded close to his trucks maximum capacity. He wants more of the weight carried by the trailer which easily becomes dangerous.
I said I was going to stop posting on this thread, but I have been where he is, and put one out of control truck and trailer in the ditch. The weight ticket showed everything legal and within my load limits according to the State trooper who looked it over. It was just loaded rear heavy.
David from jax

The axles are set back from center, if they loaded the bed centered it will still provide a forward bias compared to the axles. Loading front heavy on a trailer that has axles set back will put excessive load on the tongue, especially for lighter duty tow vehicles with less margin for error.

Most good dump trailers will have the axles set back enough that loading the bed centered will provide adequate tongue weight for safe towing. His appears to have proper axle placement.

 

[4570Man]

The axles are set back from center, if they loaded the bed centered it will still provide a forward bias compared to the axles. Loading front heavy on a trailer that has axles set back will put excessive load on the tongue, especially for lighter duty tow vehicles with less margin for error.

Most good dump trailers will have the axles set back enough that loading the bed centered will provide adequate tongue weight for safe towing. His appears to have proper axle placement.

The axels are so far back on my dump trailer even if you only loaded the back half of the bed I don’t think you could possibly make it fishtail. Also it’s pretty heavy on the hitch empty. It weighs 4600 pounds and has 3660 on the axels.

 

[TMGT]

The axels are so far back on my dump trailer even if you only loaded the back half of the bed I don’t think you could possibly make it fishtail. Also it’s pretty heavy on the hitch empty. It weighs 4600 pounds and has 3660 on the axels. View attachment 714385

Is that a 16ft? I see a lot of those with the axles set a little further back then the shorter ones. Mines a 16ft but has a long tongue compared to most dump trailers which help a lot with dealing with extra tongue weight.

 

[s219]

If they "center the load" it qill pull like crap and pretty much be dangerous. Trailers are built to have 60% or more loaded to the front.
They are doing it right, loading nose heavy. The issue is, the original poster doesn't like his back bumper dragging the pavement when loaded close to his trucks maximum capacity. He wants more of the weight carried by the trailer which easily becomes dangerous.
I said I was going to stop posting on this thread, but I have been where he is, and put one out of control truck and trailer in the ditch. The weight ticket showed everything legal and within my load limits according to the State trooper who looked it over. It was just loaded rear heavy.
David from jax

The way the trailer's geometry is setup, because the center of the bed is ahead of the center of the axles, you are guaranteed a front bias if you load the bed evenly. If they could do that everything would be fine. But when they load the bed with a front bias on top of the front bias of the trailer geometry, it's too much tongue weight.

To me this is simple, you can see that in the basic physics of the trailer layout and I could verify it with the scale data. This should not be complicated to understand.

 

[ddbackhoe]

Agree. But some are still living in the past, and giving advice like it's the 80's or 90's. Maybe they just aren't familiar with the advancements of trucks over the last two decades

Like the computer chips that are keeping them off the roads?

 

[bdhsfz6]

The axles on these dump trailers are set further to the rear to allow for a greater dump angle. Small capacity dump trailers have axles that are more centered but they carry the load higher off the ground.

 

[panamaguy]

Put a couple of empty 55 gallon drums standing up in the front when you go and this will force the operator to load further back. Pull them out when you need the full size trailer for other loads

 

[JWR]

Your local yards have hack loader operators who Don't Care. You buy the product and you tell
them how it should be loaded. And, you are pushing your luck with a half ton with that kind of weight. Trailer weight and product are over you recommended payload.

3 tons plus the trailer is not over specs for a typical 1/2 ton pickup.

 

[kubota shifty]

I got a 6x12 10K dump trailer earlier this year. Due to tow limits of my 1/2-ton truck, I never purchase more than 3 tons of material. When loaded properly, the trailer tows great. But I'd say 80% of the time, the local yards load me with a forward bias, creating too much tongue weight. I picked up three loads today and they were all forward biased, some worse than others.

I installed a W.D.H. to help in these situations, and it does what it is supposed to but won't cure poor loading or too much tongue weight. While pulling onto the scale for my first load this morning, I carefully noted the measurements as each axle went onto the scale, before and after being loaded. While eating lunch I did some math. The trailer has only 300# tongue weight when empty, which matches what I measured with a bathroom scale a couple months ago. When loaded too far forward, tongue weight was 1140#, more than my truck is meant to handle and visually way too much even with a W.D.H. If loaded evenly, it should have been in the 700-800# range.

I'm trying to decide how to deal with this. At this point, my only solution is to carefully raise the trailer bed to shift some of the material rearward, but that is a pain to do and needs careful judgement (not all loads slide the same). I am wondering if I should fab up some sort of sealed chamber at the front of the trailer bed to block off volume so that material cannot physically occupy the front couple feet of the bed (it would have to be angled to force material to flow to the rear). Somehow I need to prevent operators from loading with a forward bias and the only solution I can think of is to eliminate that volume. Any other ideas?

Have you thought about a weight distribution hitch (Reese is good)? I used one when I had a light duty F250 pulling a heavy horse trailer. I plan to use one with my heavy duty '96 F250 with a heavy trailer. I also had extra shocks installed in the back to prevent the back of the truck from dropping too much. Of course, distributing the load correctly is needed as everyone says.