Off-loading material from a flatbed trailer

[MossRoad]

In an attempt to make my rural life easier, I purchased my first ever tractor equipped with a FEL… (Kioti CK2610 if it matters)

Following that purchase, I’ve invested in a flail mower, pallet forks and various other minor improvements to make my tractor “mine”…

That being said, the purchase of an 8 to 10 thousand dollar dump trailer is currently off the table…

I have a small Aluma 638LW (63” wide, 8’ long) with a removable loading ramp… the trailer‘s GVWR is #2000… enough to transport my current needs…

View attachment 783447
(this isn‘n a great pic of the trailer but it’s all I could find)

I’ve hauled 1/4 yd of 3/8” chips, 1/4 yd topsoil and as much compost as would fit… I’ve attached 12” sideboards to keep material from escaping…

Everything goes great til I get home, the trailer is 63” wide, my tractor bucket is 66”… I don’t want to approach from the side as there are rather expensive-to-replace aluminum fenders in the way… so, out come the shovels for offloading… a real pain in the back…

I‘ve mulled this over and have come up with what I hope is a workable, albeit Rube Goldberg style, solution… something akin to a ”truck bed cargo unloader” (this setup won’t work on my trailer as the bed height won’t allow the crank handle to clear the ground)
View attachment 783448
Instead of rolling the “tarp” off the back, If I were to use a section of chain link fence to cover the trailer bed, cover that with a tarp, then load whatever on top… I could use my tractor and a chain to hook on to the front of the chain Link and pull/roll the load off the back end…

sound like this might work?

Convert the handle to a ratchet.

Or adapt a large bolt head to it and use a cordless impact gun to crank it.

 

[ZTMAN]

That crank system won’t work on my trailer… the bed is too low to allow for the rotation of the handle… bummer…

on to your issue… I’ve read that if you place a large sheet of vinyl (I.e. old billboard covers) under your conveyor it makes the handle MUCH easier to rotate… regardless of the load…

I use that set up on my trailer. Your right, the handle is too long. I JB Welded a socket in the end of the bar that the tarp wraps around and use a rachet with a cheater bar to unload. Works great on my 4x8 trailer that I use to haul dirt and firewood at the camp. I did staple a scrap piece of vinyl to the deck to reduce friction. My deck is wood. If yours is aluminum, it should not be needed.

I actually had hopes that my Milwaukee Impact Wrench would do the job, but not enough torque.

 

[2manyrocks]

Adapting to a socket and using vinyl to reduce the friction were both smart ideas.

 

[MTGreen]

Maybe not a good plan if the hitch slips off the bucket and tears up some hydraulic lines, and it looks like some hand shoveling is needed.

The thought was a hook and chain here so that doesn't happen

 

[setxjeff]

That crank system won’t work on my trailer… the bed is too low to allow for the rotation of the handle… bummer…

instead of a handle install a large nut on the end of the roll up pipe and use a 3/4 harbor freight ratchet. I took the handle off my gooseneck horse trailer and put a 1-1/4 nut on the end of the jack shaft. when using the 3/4 ratchet it cut the effort in half and you did not have to do that awkward full turn, just ratchet it back to the comfort zone.

 

[two_bit_score]

sound like this might work?

It might. Try it in various increments and see.

 

[ksJoe]

If you're a welder, you can make your current trailer into a dump trailer.
I have a standard 5x8 trailer I made dump. I added a piece of C-Channel to the frame above the axle, and built a toungue to extend back to that channel, with a heavy hinge on it. It uses a hand crank winch to raise it. My first attempt I had a single pass of cable and it popped before lifting 2,000 lbs of gravel. I reworked it with some pulleys to get 3 passes of the cable and now it will dump 2,000 lbs of gravel easily.

I also added cross bracing to strenghen the trailer and replaced the tires load range E radials.

 

[S854]

Quite a few clever solutions… here I thought I had a unique situation with my flatbed…

I still have a month or two of cold Montana weather before I get outside in earnest…

I’m gonna roll these ideas around in my head, maybe combine a couple and, hopefully come up with something that will save my back…

 

[ZTMAN]

I was at the camp today and took a few photos of the load handler mounted on my camp trailer.
That little trailer is a tilt as well, but the material would not slide off as easily as I liked, so that is why I got the load handler.

 

[2manyrocks]

Wax your vinyl flooring and see how easily the material unloads.

 

[two_bit_score]

Yard Glider (Drag Mat, Stone Boat, Yard Sled)

Yard Glider loads easier, hauls more, dumps faster and stores easier than carts, tarps and wheel barrows. Built to last. USA Yard Glider The Cart Without Wheels

yardglider.com

Somewhere on their website I saw a video where they were unloading material from a truck or trailer. They put the glider in the truck and loaded gravel on top of it then pulled the glider out and almost all the gravel slid out.

actually looks pretty handy.

 

[ZTMAN]

Wax your vinyl flooring and see how easily the material unloads.

Funny story. We were installing a new culvert pipe. I was digging in a shale bank loading the trailer. Another fellow had the trailer hooked to his Ford Ranger and was transporting the shale to the pipe where my son was waiting. On the first load the truck arrived, My son said "where is the shale?"
The shale slide off going up a hill and the trailer was empty. Had to find a new route.

 

[2manyrocks]

Some guys had just gotten a load of fence pickets from Home Depot in Nashville in a pickup truck, but didn't strap them down. They slid out into the middle of the road at the traffic light less than a block from the store.

 

[scootr]

Was headed down the 101 freeway out of Hollywood for the desert on a Friday afternoon. Main rules of the road was leave early and never stop or sit and cry in traffic all night. Suddenly my buddy Corky grabbed the dash with one hand and the door with the other and shouted look out he's loosing that plywood. 4 or 5 cars ahead I saw full sheets just peeling off a lumber rack ahead. One hit a car. Another hit another car. 2 hit the road. Everybody hit the brakes including the offending truck. I swerved right then left around 2 stopping cars, over one sheet then another and away we went down a wide open freeway. We laughed half the way home

 

[3 Horse Ranch]

That crank system won’t work on my trailer… the bed is too low to allow for the rotation of the handle… bummer…

on to your issue… I’ve read that if you place a large sheet of vinyl (I.e. old billboard covers) under your conveyor it makes the handle MUCH easier to rotate… regardless of the load…

Too bad it can't be converted to take some kind of rachet like a Harbor Freight 1/2 x 18" and use a cheater for extra leverage.

 

[AnotherBueller]

I have such a system for my 1/2 ton pick up. It works well IF the load is not too heavy. If I put in too much gravel I then have to still shovel of enough until it is light enough to crank. Lighter/ less material and it works quite well.

I have a 'Easy Unloader' that I bought ~30 yrs ago with a rubber/teflon bed liner. Rubber side up for general use & teflon side up for unloading rock.
worked so well my 8 yro daughter could crank off 2 tons of 1 1/2" rock. Course I had to make some side boards so that the rock didn't lock up on the wheel wells. Handle length worked just fine of my F350.
Looks just like the HF knock off, all the way to the color of the caps of the pipe.

 

[Torvy]

48" used bucket on tractor house for under $400. I would probably go that way. I can use the bucket for other things, too.

 

[S854]

This is what I've come up with:

I picked up the IBC totes from the company where I work... they, at one time, contained chemicals... I did a quick SDS search on all the available totes and came up with these two... the chemicals they contained were virtually innocuous, so much so the SDS listed their toxicity to water animals as zero...

The forks I spent much hand-wringing time on are coming in handy...

I started with mulch as it was lightest... compost is next... someday, when I'm feeling adventerous, I may try sand, rock or road base... although I don't think I'll fill the totes quite to the top with those... my trailer is rated at 2,000 lbs.

One other thing, next time I'll remove the loading ramp and remove both totes from the back... probably should have done it that way from the beginning... live and learn...

 

[2manyrocks]

That's a jump from piling material on a trailer and then rolling it off. But you are able to contain the mulch in the IBCs for transport and then the IBCs let you manage the material with your tractor forks. So good ideas.

Don't trust the rock quarry guys to not overload your nice alum trailer.

 

[S854]

That's a jump from piling material on a trailer and then rolling it off. But you are able to contain the mulch in the IBCs for transport and then the IBCs let you manage the material with your tractor forks. So good ideas.

Don't trust the rock quarry guys to not overload your nice alum trailer.

Yeah... I'm a cheap buzzard... as I was scavenging around the bone yard at work, looking for various materials to accomplish my original plan, I stumbled on the stack of totes... my mind began racing... well, maybe my mind finally shifted out of granny-gear...