Help me make my trailer self loading

NS Gearhead · Jun 22, 2016

I've got a huge pile of gravel just waiting to be taken... but shoveling's getting very, very old. I'm on a shoe string budget and I want to somehow make my trailer self loading.

Here's the trailer

the gravel (broken up shale)

the pile

I loosened as much as I could last year when I had this rented

Here's my first idea. The boom would be a pipe inside another pipe. The clamshell bucket would lay flat on the ground, and if it doesn't have enough digging power, I could stand on both halfs and draw the winch in to close. The only part I don't have figured out is how to open the bucket both to start digging and to dump.

2nd idea is like a backwards loader bucket lifted by the winch. At first I thought of running it backwards, but thought the ball coupler would hijack once I touched the gravel.

kind of like this;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaRNs2M2fVs

Thoughts on why these wouldn't work, what would work better, or possible solutions?

MossRoad · Jun 22, 2016

I'd sell the ATV and get a small tractor with a loader or a slip scoop on the 3pt hitch. A tooth bar on the loader bucket works wonders when pushing into rock.

DuckSlayer1017 · Jun 22, 2016

Rent the bobcat again.

MossRoad · Jun 22, 2016

Looking at your designs, here's why I don't think either one will work.

1st design, even standing on the clamshell to get some weight on it, I don't think it'll dig into that crushed rock far enough to get a usable load in the clamshell worth the physical effort you'll have to put into it to force it down into the pile and crank the winch at the same time. You'd be better off shoveling.

2nd design, as soon as you try to push backwards into the pile, its gonna raise the trailer wheels up and the trailer will try to climb up over the scoop. The tight winch cable will stop that force, depending on where you mount the pivot point of the scoop, but then the entire trailer will lift up at the point where it attaches to the ATV. It would be like trying to push the bucket of a front end loader into a pile while in float... the tractor tries to climb up over the bucket.

Both designs, you'll be adding so much weight to the trailer to make it functional, that you'll detract from the load carrying ability of the trailer, and even if it doesn't, you'll be raising the center of gravity of the trailer even higher with the added load of a couple hundred pounds of steel. I'd be concerned about tipping the trailer off the trail behind the ATV.

bcp · Jun 22, 2016

The answer may be in the past.

"Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear, when from out of the past come the" many ways of loading gravel without machinery.

A low route with a bridge over it was often used. The bridge had a hole or slot where the horse-drawn scraper dumped into the truck trailer, railcar, etc. You could pull a scraper with ATV or Jeep instead of a horse. I've seen the same arrangement used in later years with a dozer used to push material onto the bridge. The bridge then often didn't have the fill on one side as the dozer didn't need to cross.

Or you could build an elevating mechanism that pulled a scraper up and over the trailer.

Bruce

MossRoad · Jun 22, 2016

NS Gearhead said:
The only part I don't have figured out is how to open the bucket both to start digging and to dump.

Clamshell buckets on cranes required two cables. The hoist cable and the closing cable. The weight of the bucket kept the bucket open until the closing cable was retracted. The closing cable then had to be held taught at the hoist cable lifted. If the operator allowed any slack in the closing cable during any part of the lift/swing/ movement, the bucket would open and dump the load.

They make radio controlled dump latches that allow for single cable operation of clamshells, but man, you're now talking dollars.

Again, I suppose you could make some sort of manual latch that would hold the bucket open while dropping it into the pile, then you'd have to walk away from the winch, trip the latch, jump up and down on the bucket to try to force the halves into the material, walk back over to the winch, start cranking 40-50 turns, hope the weight of the material in the bucket doesn't push the clamshells apart and dump, push the crane to swing it over the trailer, pull some sort of leverage device to open the bucket, repeat, etc.... It's way more work than a shovel.

As someone mentioned, rent a bobcat or backhoe for a weekend to load the trailer. Or build a wooden loading chute for the trailer near the edge of the pile and shovel the load downhill into the trailer. At least you wouldn't have to lift the rocks.