Off Road Dump Trailers Revisted...

[DMF]

I can't remember the name of the stuff. The catalog had all sorts of plastics for Ag use. Whatever they showed lining the dump trucks must have been pretty tough I'm thinking...?

 

[wejones]

Jerry, Jeff is telling it straight up. I have had mine loaded with gravel, dirt, wood, rocks, you name it, and it will hold what the manufacturer says. If you have a 20 -30 hp tractor, a full trailer will be a good load for it. Willie Jones

 

[JerryG]

Thanks, that is what I wanted to know.

 

[rswyan]

I'm building my own dump wagon using a E-Z Trail running gear. I started this project at the end of last summer and I'd sure love to get it finished in time to use it this year /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I have the bed frame welded up and only have a few more items to finish, one of which being the bed/frame hinges. As a source of inspiration if any of you with a dump wagon or cart would care to snap a couple of pics and post them I'd sure appreciate it.

 

[MadReferee]

Here are two pics of the dump hinge. It is a very simple design. A piece of 3/4" pipe is welded to the axle frame and 2 tabs are welded to the bed. The 3/4" axle goes thru a tab, then the pipe, then a tab, and is cotter keyed on. Simple.

 

[MadReferee]

Here is the second pic.

 

[rswyan]

Mad,

Thanks. Yes, it is very simple. Simple ... good ... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[DMF]

OK I put together my wagon the weekend of June 4th. I didn’t get a chance to report on it because I was at training all last week. MAD sent me some direction improvement tips but unfortunately I didn’t get them until after I discovered them for myself. I agree with most of his suggestions but I have a couple of my own if you try to follow their instructions as written.

When you bolt the rear axle to the chassis, leave the bolts loose. Later on in the instructions they will tell you to slide the dump pivot axle in and I needed to loosen the bolts to get the axle through all the holes. Grease is a good thing at this point and if I had the time I would have seriously considered adding zerk fittings (I probably will at a later date).

This brings us to the wheels which attach via a good sized cotter pin. You can’t slide the dump axle in with the rear wheel attached and of course they tell you to attach it much earlier in the assembly procedure. Bending the cotter pins wasn’t easy; straightening them to get the wheels off is harder. Yes, I ended up taking both wheels off because I struggled trying to get the dump axle in from both ends before loosening the rear axle mounting bolts (see above tip).

They didn’t ship the ¾” washers needed on the dump axle or the tow bar axle. Also, they didn’t send me the tow bar axle (3/4” x 4 3/8”). Someone made the comment that once the pressure treated boards sit in the sun a while and shrink, gaps in the floorboard develop that are “wide enough to throw a cat through” , which, BTW is one of the funniest comments I’ve heard in a while. In my case, a good size kitten could fall through while the boards are fresh and wet. I expect that pretty soon it won’t even be remotely challenging to throw a cat through the gaps in my floorboards. I thought: “No problem, I have an 8’ piece of 5/4 PT decking lying around, I’ll just rip it to a tight fit”. The problem is the boards are ¾” thick so you’d have to plane a standard deck board down to fit.

One other complaint: the kingpins on the steering knuckles (which come pre-assembled) have the welded head of the pin at the bottom and the washer/cotter pin at the top. It just seems backwards to me; if the cotter pin fails the kingpin falls out. If it was turned the other way around, the kingpin could remain working even without a cotter pin.

I haven’t used it for hauling anything except a few kids and adults at my daughter’s birthday party. I have ordered a cylinder and my next plan is to design a drop tailgate vs. the slide-out design. By the time I get to those changes my deck boards will hopefully have finished shrinking and I’ll rip my deck board to width, bring it to my friend’s house to plane it, and have a solid floor for once.

 

[MadReferee]

I got all the parts for mine except the two 3/4" washers. I had a few on hand so it really didn't matter. My floor boards are pretty dry right now and the total gap is less than 1/4".

I didn't have to loosen the rear axle assembly bolts, but did have to remove one tire. Luckly I hadn't yet cotter keyed it on but I did make a mess with grease. That's why I sent you the assembly hints. /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

The kingpin issue is something I did not notice until now. I am going to reverse the pins as soon as I get a chance.

As for the tailgate, I have a design in my mind and this weekend I might just get it to hard metal.

 

[dwl]

I should receive my trailer this week. I ordered the tandem axle unit. I plan on getting a hydraulic cylinder and at some point revamping the tailgate. Thanks for the assembly tips.

 

[DMF]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( As for the tailgate, I have a design in my mind and this weekend I might just get it to hard metal.)</font>

Please make sure to take some photos!

As for the floor gap: I had close to an inch the day it was assembled!

 

[MadReferee]

I just more or less finished a swinging tailgate for my Country Mfg wagon and it works like a champ. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

I still have some cross members to add along with finish welding and cleanup/paint. I hope to have a full set of pics later this weekend, I hope.

Until then, here is a quick teaser shot of work in progress at this time.

 

[have_blue]

Nice heavy hinges. They should take all the banging and abuse you can dish out.

My buddy just bought one of these used, 1 year old, only used by an old lady to haul clean dirt on Sundays. He stole, uh, I mean bought it, for $14K for both the trailer and an F350 to pull it with.

http://www.bigtextrailers.com/spec/25du.html

I can't wait to borrow it from him and see it up close. It will give me some ideas for building a *much smaller* one of my own some day.

 

[MadReferee]

The dump tailgate and a few other mods are finished. You can read about it here.

Country Mfg dump wagon swinging tailgate

 

[dwl]

Where and what size of hydraulic cylinder did you use for your trailer? I received my trailer and have is assembled but have not purchased a cylinder as yet. I installed the remote hydraulic kit on the tractor, but need to get a cylinder.

 

[MadReferee]

I used a Chief 3x24 cylinder from Surplus Center.

I also got two 1/2" to 3/8" reducer bushings and used 3/8" hose with MPX90-06-06 fittings on one end and MPX06-06 on the other end with the 3/8 male QD.

Chief 3x24 cylinder at Surplus Center

 

[rswyan]

I'm reposting some thoughts I had on a recent thread where the subject of off-road dump trailers came up. Essentially one of the posters was looking at putting a Country Mfg. dump wagon on an on-road equipment trailer, then loading the Country wagon with materials (dirt, gravel, etc.) and hauling it. My take on it was that I didn't think it would be a real good idea to be hauling the loaded Country dump wagon on a trailer, over the road.

The first question that popped into my mind was "How do you plan on securing it while in transit ?" (....... with chain binders on four points I hope ?)

I've only had my Country dump trailer for a couple of weeks, and have only been using it for about a week or so since I got the hydraulics hooked up, so I'm no expert but here's a couple of thoughts.

For the price these were recently going for ($750) on their "spring special", they are worth the money in my book. However, after getting an up close and personal look, I would not say that these are the most heavily constructed units ...... the frames are relatively light for what they are doing.

I've hauled over 28,000 lbs of sheep manure about 1200 feet, through a large field and a woods (uneven terrain) from the neighbors in the last couple of days .... going through the field I can move at a decent clip (but then the top speed on my B2910 is only around 11 mph at most - although I'm sure I'm not going half that speed), through the woods I slow down considerably (1-2 mph)

Higher speed (on the road, in a trailer) = more mass moving at a greater velocity = more inertia = more stress on components with any sudden changes.

I have loaded my dump trailer heaping with wet sheep manure .... if it don't weigh every bit of 4K lbs I'd be real surprised ..... and when I go to dump it I can see the dumpbed frame doing some very significant flexing from the sheer weight of the load.

I was in the process of fabbing a dump wagon using an E-ZTrail 2-ton running gear and decided that I needed to be getting something done in the nice weather other than fab work .... so I bought the Country Mfg. unit .... I will finish up the E-ZTrail dump wagon this winter. The bed I've built for it is far more heavily contructed than the Country unit (2"x3"x 1/4 & 1/8 box tube, not angle like the Country.)

After my limited experience I would even say the E-ZTrail (and the probably the Kory) 2 ton gears gears might be a bit light .... I think Larry Van Horn ended up going with a Kory 6 ton running gear as the basis for the dump wagon he built ... probably a very wise move on his part ..... it will probably last and won't get too torn up.

All I'm saying is that treated with some care these units are fine and will probably do alot of work ..... but I don't think they are heavy enough to take a whole lot of abuse. YMMV.

 

[rswyan]

Up ....

 

[rswyan]

.... up ....

 

[rswyan]

... and away ....