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.
