Figured I'd post up in an old thread instead of starting a new one. I have a M101A3 and one of my many reasons for getting it was for the dump feature around the farm. After doing some more homework before I started taking things apart I discovered all the concerns for the pivot bolts, brackets, and getting everything lined up to pin back together. Well I decided to see for myself and sure enough it's a pain in the butt. My dad and I played around with it in the driveway not hooked to the truck and found the biggest issue was getting things lined back up after separating the front pin brackets.
Yesterday I went to get a few loads of cotton hull compost for the garden and figured that this was a good time to try out the best way to dump this thing without having to use the pin pull method. I have a little Yanmar 2210 tractor with a boom pole and I used it to get the hitch off the truck and was thinking I was just going to pitch the nose in the air and let the *** end set on the ground, thus dumping the load. Well, it's not that easy. When I did finally get the nose up and the *** down it still required lots of pitchfork time to get the load out due to the angle. It may work for things like firewood and such but things like damp, intertwined loads of mulch/compost don't want to slide out near as easily. I think part of this is because the ribs and wheel wells on the side walls. I took the tailgate off to do this so it wouldn't get damaged.
I had considered using the hi-lift method, fabricating mounts for a long ram jack (like on a engine hoist), and the method I tried above. The problem that I have with each of these options is that in the end the angle of the bed isn't steep enough to get a full dump, it's not high enough of the ground to get a full dump, and you can still be left with a pain to get it back together again...
So I've thrown my first hand experience out there to post in this thread and say I think the best option I've seen so far is the dump beds that a guy a few posts up was selling on ebay. It changes the geometry of the bed to give you a complete dump and takes the stress off the components that weren't intended for that in the first place. It would take some fabrication to do if you didn't buy it that way but it seems like the best option to me if you intend to do any regular dumping.
The dry run experiment...
Dumping with the tractor (not raised as high as when I was trying to dump)...
The harbor freight ram idea.
Customer Pictures - Surplus Trailers in Alabama
Bed on a sub-frame for dumping (credit to chriser above).
Hi-Lift jack dumping like Gearhead's thread above.
