My pond ATE my Dump Truck!!

[Renze]

Last time i did such thing on our dump trailer, it totally twisted the dump bed frame. I need to throw in 2 frontloader buckets of dirt to make all 4 corners of the dump bed touch the frame...

It seems you were lucky

[3RRL]

Eddie,
You crack me up.
You are always so optimistic and always come out laughing no matter what.
You have a great attitude (unlike your pond )

[GuglioLS]

Oh man Eddie, you sure know how to do things right. If your going to get the dump truck stuck at least it was done strategically so as not to cause and damage and to give us a good laugh.

Originally Posted by EddieWalker

As you can see in the previous pictures, it wasn't my fault!!!

Oh yea right,..... sure. If you had never built the pond, this would have never happened.

Did you consider pulling it out with your Dozer?

Larry

[DieselPower]

Looks like you had a fun day. Glad you got her out ok. As was already mentioned, check your rear gear oil and make sure no water got in the rear axle breather. Also, you might want to give the rear brakes a good washing out. No telling how much muck got stuck in the brakes.

[KentT]

Originally Posted by Bird

Good point. I wouldn't have thought of it, but now that you mention it, I'm reminded of a cousin of mine who did a lot of fishing in the early 90s and he very frequently backed his boat trailer (28' pontoon barge) far enough out on the ramp that the rear end (differential) of his Ford pickup was in the water. The differential had a vent on top and a flexible tube that ran up above the fuel tank, but he never noticed that the tube was broken off right at the differential until it was too late. He just replaced the entire rear axle.

Yep -- launching my v-bottom fishing boat in shallow lakes cost me a $1600 rear-end in a '95 F-150 -- same thing, broken vent tube.

[silverdollar6]

I think that you just need a bigger dump truck.

[ETD66SS]

Eddie, I'm glad you did not decide to try and dump the load.

Here is what happened to my dump truck with a weakened box, no gate on the back, and the driver's side rear wheels sinking in the dirt as I dumped a load.

This is what my truck looked like before the incident:



Here are some pic's of what it looked like after. I did not have a camera with me the day of this incident, so these are after I had already moved it from the scene of the crime:






I had to find another truck quick. In my haste I bought this one without hearing it run, the guy said it ran great, just smoked a bit:



I had it hauled to may lot. Got it fired up. It smoked alright, 2 minutes later threw a rod out the oil pan. So now I had to move the box from my new truck to the old one:



The hoist sub-frame on the "new truck" was rotted out, I had to order steel and fabricate a new one.

I don't have any close-up shots of the finished conversion, but here is the truck with the new box on it. It's 2 ft shorter than the old box, so there is a gap between the box and cab, but it dumps...



I knew the old box was going to go at some point, it was very rusty. But when it went over the side and blew the hoist cylinder all to heck, I'm just glad nothing came through the back of the cab and hit me...

I lost 1 week of vacation time getting the dump truck situation squared away. If that had not happend, the pond digging would have been finished in 2007.

[EddieWalker]

My first reaction was "HOLEY CRAPP!!!!" Then after reading the rest of your story, all I can say is "WOW."

When the bed came off your truck, was it instant, or a chain reaction? I've dumped loads at slight angles, and all my metal is in pretty good shape, but I've thought about what would happen if I was at too much of an angle and the bed twisted. I never considered that it would be anything like what happened to your truck.

Too bad about the engine in that second truck, but it sure worked for an interesting story. I've broken part of my lift for my dump truck twice now. The first time was the worse. Unfortunately, I used a welder that was cheap, but not up to the quality of welding that I needed. The next time, I used the best welding business in town. They are pricey, but they do what they say they will and they do it on time.

One thing that I don't thing people understand is what it takes to keep old equipment working when you use it on a daily basis. Until you've spent weeks working on a repair, there's just no way to express what a pain it is.

Thanks for the pictures and describing what happened.

Eddie

[ETD66SS]

Oh it happened very quickly, and it was very loud, and I got tossed around a bit.

I could see in my side mirror the tires sinking & the box tipping, and I actually tried to put the box back down, but the hoist cylinder had already started to buckle. I just hung on to the steering wheel. The cab was at about a 30 degree angle, and the right front tire was off the ground.

From the time I knew I was in trouble, to the time I was at that 30 deg angle in my seat, was no more than 2 seconds...

Needless to say, I'm a bit anal about being very level when I dump now.

But this new box is in much better shape, and the sub frame I welded up is probably a bit overkill, but it does the job.

I still wish I had one of these though: http://www.machinerytrader.com/listi...E3666B36A041D2

Maybe if I win the lotto...

[AlanB]

I was dumping a load of scrap concrete block last wed, trying to get it right where I wanted (6X10 little dump trailer) and I dropped my drivers side wheels off the edge of the hill, I was trying to get close, just not that close.

It was tilting pretty good, and well overloaded and my DW was trying to get the control out to go ahead and dump the load and did not understand why I told her not too.

I think I have to show her your shots to get the concept across.

I rode with our dirt drivers a week or two ago, they run those big dump trailers, pulled with a semi, they all seemed to hold their breath, and give a wide bearth when those things went up, if the load hangs in the front, they often roll over.

The owner (the guy I was riding with) said the trailer we were pulling had been over 3 times, and the one the other guy was pulling had been over "lots more then it ever should have"

That would have to be a scary feeling.