Taking delivery on 7x12, 14k lb dump trailer

[JB4310]

I didn't mean you shouldn't use the 3PT for your trailer, only to be careful when dumping heavy loads. The 3pt trailer hitches are the only way to go IMO, makes it so easy to couple up and go, especially for working around the property, pull to where you need it, drop it, load it with your loader then come and pick it up and move it to the next spot, you don't even have to put the jack up and down if your careful. I personally don't like the draw bar for trailering.

JB.

 

[jinman]

I didn't mean you shouldn't use the 3PT for your trailer, only to be careful when dumping heavy loads. The 3pt trailer hitches are the only way to go IMO, makes it so easy to couple up and go, especially for working around the property, pull to where you need it, drop it, load it with your loader then come and pick it up and move it to the next spot, you don't even have to put the jack up and down if your careful. I personally don't like the draw bar for trailering.

JB, I use my 3PH and a ball I have welded to an adapter on the rear of my boxblade for most trailering applications. The problem with this dump trailer is that it is so heavy I would lift the front of the tractor. I have to keep the weight as close to the rear axle as possible. Even using the drawbar, I had problems yesterday because I was trying to pull the trailer up and out of my sandpit. I've related the story with pictures below.

Yesterday was an "education" day for me. I knew I had a lot to learn, but I just didn't realize how much I would cram into one afternoon's worth of being "tutored" by my new dump trailer. I started out by finding all the grease zerks and cleaning off all the paint. I guess I should be happy that the trailer even has zerks, but it just seems so easy to put a little tape over the end of a zerk that I wonder why they don't do it. Out of 9 zerks, only one was not painted over. The unpainted one is on the tongue jack. The four zerks on the rear doors and the four zerks on the bed hinges were all painted over. So I cleaned all the zerks with a little paint thinner and greased them well. I also cleaned the paint off the hydraulic rams and gave them a wipedown with a lightly oiled rag. After charging the battery and dropping my jumper battery into the battery box as a backup, it was time to put the trailer to work.

I have some deep gullies that Mother Nature supplied me. I use two areas fairly close to my house as sand mines. The gullies are really stratified with layers of brown dirt changing to 3' of crumbly red clay/caliche to 6" of solid caliche and then a 2' layer of sand on top of a shelf of limestone about 6" - 8" thick. Other places on my property show different stratification with solid red clay and sand appearing directly under the topsoil. I've included pictures of my sand pit that show lots of different colors of soil.

 

[jinman]

The pictures of the sandpit don't really give the full feeling of how steep the slope is, but it is very steep. For some reason, I thought I might be able to pull my dump trailer out of the sandpit when it was loaded. If I had limited my load to 3 yards or less, I would probably have been okay. Unfortunately, I went with about 4 yards and my tractor just spun all four tires even with the loader bucket full of sand for front end ballast. Oops! Lesson #1. If you overload your tractor, you won't be able to pull out of the pit and you'll have to dump part of your load. The pile of sand on the left of the first picture is about 1-1/2 yards I had to dump. The second picture shows the place where my tractor tires were digging in. After dumping some of my load, I pulled the trailer up the hill, but decided the next time I would park the trailer out of the pit and bring the sand to it on more level ground. Problem solved, right? Well, maybe not. . . .

 

[jinman]

After taking my partial load of sand and dumping it in my new garden spot, I came back for the second load. I was feeling really confident and loaded the trailer with about all the sand I could get into it with the tailgate open. I figure these pictures show about 5 yards of sand since if the trailer is full, it will hold about 6.5 yards.

 

[jinman]

Now for Lesson #2. Take good notes; there will be a test later.

I was able to haul the trailer load of sand without closing the gates on the back of the bed, just as I planned. My tractor really felt pretty stable considering the load behind me was about twice my tractor's weight. As I backed into the garden spot across dry clay fill, I noticed the clay seemed a bit spongy, but I just chalked it up to compression under the heavy trailer load. Little did I know that the top was dry, but below that top layer the clay was damp and malleable. Uh-oh!

So in my brilliant (uneducated) brain, I decided that dumping part of the load would make things easier. It had worked on the last load, why not this one too? It didn't dawn on me that I would be putting more weight on the trailer wheels as the bed went up and the load shifted toward the rear. "Class was in session" for only a few minutes when I watched the trailer tires sink into the clay all the way up to their axles. My now educated brain realized that you should stop and pull the trailer to solid ground before attempting to dump it. Too late! For Lesson #3, today we learn how to get a trailer unstuck.

Luckily, I wa able to get about 1/2 the load on the ground. I also had some long 4x6s nearby and knew an old trick I had used to get a vehicle unstuck by using the hydraulic lift bed as a jack. I placed two 4x6s under the rear of the dump bed and then raised the bed. As the bed came up, the back goes down, but I had the 4x6s there, so the bed lifted the whole trailer. There was enough room under the wheels for me to put boards down and get the trailer axles out of the dirt.

After letting the trailer back down on the ramps, I used all the power my tractor could muster and even the loader digging while curling down for extra pull. The trailer lifted slowly and moved forward out of the ruts. Whew! What a relief.

Well, that's enough lessons for today. I really learned alot about this trailer from one afternoon's work. Maybe I'll get careful enough to really increase productivity next time. After all that, I just parked the trailer and put the battery on the charger. I'd had enough for one day.

 

[JB4310]

Jim,
You said in your second post you didn't think you'd be using your new trailer to it's full capacity, if your putting 5 cubic yards of sand in there and from what I can see in the pictures, I'd say you are at capacity maybe even over weight unless that stuff is real fluffy/loamy.

Anyway it looks like you got the right tool for the job, any hesitation when dumping? With my 5 ton with just 1 cylinder if the load is to far forward mine wont dump and I'll have to shovel some material towards the rear just a few shovels but it's a little hassle.
When you get loaded at the quarry with those huge loaders, they scoop up the material with just one corner of the bucket so they don't spill much out the back, that puts most of the pile towards the front.

I wish I got the 12 footer (mine's 10), I'm fine with the 5 ton capacity but the 12 footers have 2 cylinders and I don't think they would be easily overwhelmed even if overweight.

As far as the battery goes, they told me to charge it, so I did the night before I was gonna use it the first few times, but apparently they must get charged by the truck cause I have not charged mine in over 2 years and it works fine. With the tractor use you'll have to charge it occasionally

JB.

 

[jinman]

Jim,
You said in your second post you didn't think you'd be using your new trailer to it's full capacity, if your putting 5 cubic yards of sand in there and from what I can see in the pictures, I'd say you are at capacity maybe even over weight unless that stuff is real fluffy/loamy.

Anyway it looks like you got the right tool for the job, any hesitation when dumping?

I probably am at capacity. The trailer seemed to handle the load really well. The tires didn't even look like they were under load. The trailer also has no hesitation when it dumps. The pump is quite large and very substantial. The problem is it takes twice as much fluid to fill two cylinders as one. Even though the cylinders are double-acting, you still have to pump the fluid from one side to the other. It takes a little more fluid to extend the cylinders than to retract them also. Because of gravity assistance, the pump runs at top speed on the way down and the trailer drops slightly faster that it raises.

The trailer came with a nice deep cycle battery. I already have a 2nd deep cycle battery I use with trolling motors, so it will be pressed into service as my backup battery on big jobs. The electrical diagrams I was provided with the trailer are not complete. I'm going to request a full set from Texas Pride next week.

 

[Skyco]

I'm not convinced a deep cycle battery is right for a dump trailer. A deep cycle is best at supplying relatively light current for a long period. A starting battery is best for supplying a lot of current for a short time. A dump trailer needs a lot of current to dump for a short time, much like a starting load.
My dump trailer came with a starting battery and I believe that is correct.

 

[257NH]

Nice pick Jinman,good luck with the new investment.

 

[JoelD]

Real nice trailer, good luck with it.

I'd like to get one, one-day when this economy thing settles down. I really like the idea of a dump without the maintenance of a dump truck.

Joel