Northern Tool DT-4000 Dump Wagon

[Luremaker]

Just wondering if anyone owns one of these 2 ton DT-4000 Dump wagons. How is the quality? Any problems? Are they worth the money (~$1100 CDN)?

They are made in Ontario so I could actually pick it up and therefore would cost much less than the similar one made by Country Mfg.

 

[Glowplug]

No I don't have one; but ironically I was just looking at those earlier today on their website. They are about $1,000.00 US. It doesn't seem like that's a bad price at all. But the thing is that it doesn't come with hydraulics. It's set up for hydraulic dumping, they're just sold separately. If you truly want to use the dump mechanism through your hydraulic remote you need to get a 24" stroke hydraulic cylinder plus tubing. But still, looks like a decent deal. I'm seriously considering it.

 

[MadReferee]

About a year or so ago there was a discussion here on the Northern wagon vs the Country Manufacturing wagon. It seems that the Northern vendor copied the Country design and some bad blood existed between the two companies. I believe the general consensus was that the Country Mfg wagon was a better buy and better product and with a few simple mods could be made into a very superior wagon. There are also many posts describing modifications to the Country wagon including a swinging tailgate and more.

The Country Mfg wagons are currently on sale. See Country Manufacturing wagons

 

[N80]

What is the benefit of the trailer over the wagon? I know with the wagon that you have zero tongue weight and can leave it sitting with a load in it. I could see how the wagon might be easier to hook up too.

So why would you want the trailer? I'm assuming the trailer must be easier to back and maneuver? Anything else?

 

[MadReferee]

So why would you want the trailer? I'm assuming the trailer must be easier to back and maneuver?

Bingo. It also has floating axles that makes it traverse bumpy terrain better. I have the Country wagon. I know others have the trailer and can give additional info.

 

[N80]

I would like one of these. Just another iten on the list of things for my tractor. I have a virtually endless supply of sand down in my creekbottom. This sand does a great job for patching mudholes etc on my roads. But right now its one bucket full at a time on a pretty long round trip. The wagon would be nice since it will just sit there when unhooked and I can load and go. With the trailer I'd have to put down the tongue jack each time. However, it is pretty tight down in the bottom so maneuvering is an issue too.

Decisions decisions. But, its going to be a while before I have the cash for this anyway so I'll have time to ponder.

I have a rear remote so I'm assuming that all I'd need to do is bolt the ram in place and run a hose with quick detachs from each port on the ram to the remote on the tractor?

 

[MadReferee]

I have a rear remote so I'm assuming that all I'd need to do is bolt the ram in place and run a hose with quick detachs from each port on the ram to the remote on the tractor?

That's all you got to do.

 

[CTyler]

I have the trailer from Country Mfg and have been happy with it except for the tires. Thier a 6 ply balloon looking tire like what Mad has in his picture. The ones on mine really ballooned in the middle though like they were ready to pop when properly inflated. Actually I have had two of them pop. The first one looked like someone cut it 5" across with a knife. The second one tore open about 4". One day I'd come out to use it and the tire would be flat. I have replaced the tires with ones that look just like the tire Northern has on thiers.

 

[MadReferee]

Interesting. I have never experienced that with the tires and I don't even know how much air is in them. In fact, the baloon style tires make for easy going in muddy situations like most of my wooded area. Other than learning how to back up I have been very pleased with my Country Mfg wagon's performance.

 

[N80]

Is the floor made of planks or plywood? If planks, what kind of gap is there...in other words, would sand 'leak' out?

 

[MadReferee]

Is the floor made of planks or plywood? If planks, what kind of gap is there...in other words, would sand 'leak' out?

The Country Mfg wagon is planks. I screwed a 1/4" sheet of plywood, that I "painted" with CopperCoat green wood presertive, over the planks. Works perfectly for keeping sand in the wagon bed and for ease in getting material to dump from the bed.

 

[Glowplug]

Does anyone know how to find the previous mentioned thread on this wagon/trailer including all the modifications? I did a search and came up with a zippo, nada, no thang.

 

[MadReferee]

Which trailer? The Country Mfg one? Or the Northern?

There have been many posts on the Country Mfg trailer. All I did was search for "country manufacturing" and my user name "madreferee" and I got 19 different threads.

Here is the one I did on the swinging tailgate.

Country Mfg swinging tailgte

 

[Kays Supply]

I have the smaller TSC wagon. I had to remake just about everything to make it solid enough to use. It came in a box and I had to put it together. The "hydraulics" are a 1 ton jack with an extension on the pump handle. It is working out OK, but it is just for light work.

 

[DAP]

Bingo. It also has floating axles that makes it traverse bumpy terrain better. I have the Country wagon. I know others have the trailer and can give additional info.

I too have the country wagon (1 ton 6 footer with the dump) ... I am smitten with it but try backing it up EMPTY .. next to impossible!

 

[EddieWalker]

Wagons are pretty easy to back up with a little practice. The key is to remember that everything works oposite than a trailer and that you have to pay attention to your front wheels, not the back ones. If you go really, really slow and adjust for the movement in those front wheels, it's easy.

People that never got it were always reacting to the wheels long after they had already turned and then overcompensating. You have to adjust imediatly.

I know guys who can back up two wagons hooked together, but I never got the hang of that.

Eddie

 

[HomeBrew2]

Agree w/ Eddie ... and steering brakes really help too

 

[N80]

Well, I've always been good at backing a trailer I can see. Throw anything else in the mix and I'm done. I have a little short utility trailer that is very hard to back with my pick-up because you can barely see it. I put a flag on the back corner and that makes it easy. I used to work on a telephone line crew and I could not back the pole truck with a pole trailer on it to save my life. The reason was that you had to back using the side mirrors, no back window. Soooo, maybe I should stick with the trailer rather than the wagon.

 

[MadReferee]

The problem is that the wagon HAS front wheel steering too and if you only have a single pin to attach to the drawbar then that rotates too. Those two and the tractor front wheels make 3 steering axis you have to deal with. Try it sometime and you will know what I mean since your average landscape trailer does not have front steerable wheels.

I eliminated one axis by using 2 pins in the drawbar but as long as the front wagon wheels steers you will find it rather difficult to manuever in reverse.

 

[N80]

I'm still unclear about how to hook these wagons and trailers to the tractor. My tractor has a single straight drawbar that attaches under the tractor, not between the lower hitch arms. So if I hitched there, I'd need to use a pretty small pin so there would be enough 'slop' to allow the trailer to pitch and twist on rough terrain. This doesn't sound like a great way to do it and all of my B-I-L's implements have wallowed out holes in the trailer tongue and drawbar from doing this.

The other option is a drawbar between the lower 3pt hitch arms. With the wagon (which has an articulated tongue) I guess the drawbar would need to be fixed so that it would not rotate. It seems to me that with the trailer it wouldn't matter if it rotated since the tongue is fixed. Am I right or off base?