Pickup truck roll out dump bed on a budget

[KYErik]

I saw an article about one of these in Mother Earth news and decided to build it. The ball bearing rollers are rated at 900 lbs each. The main frame is made of two 5"X5" red oak beams and five black locust 2x6's (all sawn with my home built bandmill) covered by half inch plywood. I really need to build the sides up taller, right now they are only about 16 inches and this limits the amount of dirt that can be loaded. There are two pieces of channel iron bolted to the pickup bed that act as tracks for the front rollers and one piece of channel iron bolted to the passender side beam that acts as a guide for the rear of the dump bed.

That old beat up truck is a 69 chevy. The proceedure to dump is as follows.

1. Drop the tailgate while on a level surface ahead of where you want to dump.
2. Shift into reverse and approach the spot where you want to dump the load.
3. Apply the brake firmly so that the bed has just enough momentum to roll out of the truck bed and then the back drops over center. The 2 straps catch the whole bed from rolling out onto the ground. I would guess that too quick of a stop would cause the straps to beak and the whole apparatus would come out of the truck.
4. To reset it- lift the back of the wooden bed (not too difficult- maybe 60 lbs) and roll it back into the truck. Then latch the tailgate and load it with dirt.

So far I have only dumped one load of dirt, but it worked very well. I can load it with my old backhoe and then simply dump the load without worrying with hydraulics etc. My total investment here was about $50 (the casters were on clearance at TSC for $7 each)

I realize I have raised my center of gravity and wouldn't want to drive this on a slope.

 

[KYErik]

Here is a better pic of the tracks and rollers

 

[jjcc246]

Simple set up really. Nice job on the tracks. Looks very handy and a lot cheaper than buying a dump truck. If you made the straps out of chain would it lessen the worry about them snapping? Nice job. I'm sure you'll have plenty of fun with it.

 

[MikeD74T]

Have dumped many tons of brush that way with a sheet of plywood & 3 or 4 broomsticks.

 

[CharlieTR]

That's really cool! I was think about a dump trailer, but I will build this kind for my trailer instead, But I still may have to lift the front up somehow, since the trailer is lower. Thanks for the post!

 

[1claydude]

Try Welcome to Loadhandler.com It is harder on your arms and you have a lot more control (but not as much fun.)

 

[bikerdib]

That dump bed is pretty cool. I might have to go buy an old beater PU to make a mini dump truck out of. Some chain as the stop instead of strap and a small electric wench to pull it back into place with the wench control inside the cab and it would be pretty much automatic. You could put a mark on the wench cable so you know how much to let out to give it slack before dumping then just watch through the back window. Only problem is how to control the slack cable so it doesn't tangle or get caught on something.

 

[bironacad]

Were there is a will there is a way. I liked that load handler too, I wonder though how long the load handler would last?

 

[PGBiodiesel]

Pretty slick set-up. Better than what I used to do.

30 years ago, down in a big city, I had a '71 Ford 1-ton dually flat-bed w/stake sides and electric/hydraulic lift gate. Great truck.

I did alot of odd jobs, remodels etc.

When I would have a load of stuff to take to the dump I would first go to an appliance dealer and get a bunch of the empty stove & refrigerator cardboard boxes. Open them up and line the sides and 3 layers on the bed.

Get lined up at the dump, drop the gate, let-er-rip in reverse, slam on the brakes and watch 2-tons of debris shoot out onto the ground.
Very little left to clean off.
Scale guys that knew me would win bets on how fast I would be back to weigh out.
The newbees would make me wait while they checked under the truck for the hydraulic lift.

The dump charged different rates for dump and hand unload. I didn't get a discount.

Had to finally rebuild the brake system, blew alot of seals.

I'm now building a wood box, something like yours, to stick in an old pick-up bed trailer. I think I might make an A-frame and hand crank winch to raise and lower the front of the box.
I'll use your straps/chains to keep the box in the bed without having to rig a hinge and still keep my ground clearance.
Will be easy to remove when needing full capacity to load something else.

 

[2manyrocks]

Similar, but uses pipes as the rollers.

A Sliding Dump Bed Makes Unloading Gravel Fast and Easy