Drive tractor up into dump trailer to fill bucket

[Sodo]

Just got a dump trailer and discovered this little trick to getting a bucket full. I'm getting used to the little tractor's limitations, one of which is the light weight, it doesn't have enough traction to push the bucket into a pile to fill the bucket. Maybe garden mix though. But anyway this works well.

You set the bucket beyond the tailgate then float the front wheels over the tailgate. Probably helps a little having 450 lbs counterweight, but the trailer can hold 8,000 lbs, I can't imagine half of a 2600 lb tractor bothering it in the slightest.

Springtime in the Pacific Northwest is good tractoring! Happy spring to you all.

 

[mykleh]

two thoughts.. trailer is rated at 8K but it is intended in the lowered position spread across the whole area of bottom.. it can also lift probably close to that but between the F-150 getting bounced around and potential side loading on the ram couldn't you just dump into the bucket in the first place or tailgate spread it and just smooth it out?? thats what I do with gravel.. tail gate spread it then smooth it with the box scraper.. I have a 14K trailer but wouldn't want to test chaining my 10K tractor and see if it can lift it to top lift to see if it can..

 

[Sodo]

True, but most of the tractor weight remains on its rear wheels, on the ground.

And when the front-loader dumps a yard of rock right in the middle, there's ALSO impact and it's not really spread out.
The tractor can't be much weight especially with the counterweight behind the rear wheels.
Anyway I unloaded the whole 2 yds like this and no problems came up, so I think its good.
My trailer can handle my tractor. YMMV. But I think your 14k trailer can handle some fraction of your 10k tractor (30% ? ) in a steep wheelie, especially of you have a counterweight. But maybe you don't have a use for this method (yet) .

Many many uses for this. I can dump a bucket load right where my wife wants it,
and leave the rest of the load in the trailer until it's time to make a pile.

For this task I had to fill the bucket and travel pretty far, so I wanted the bucket absolutely full as possible.
I was even compacting it with my feet and shoveling more in, it would take maybe 25% more like that.

It was satisfying to scoop it clean off the smooth trailer surface.

This "road' is about 6 feet wide.
Nothin' quite like a nice morning steamer!
I will seed it today (and mow it someday).

 

[4570Man]

I load my L3800 on a dovetail equipment trailer without ramps. It's probably a foot off the ground. I lift the front up with the loader and ease them back down when unloading. The back tires will cross that no problem. I really don't see any problem with your unloading strategy.

 

[MossRoad]

I haul a lot of loos material and firewood on my steel decked car hauler trailer. I have a little articulated loader that I drive right up onto the trailer and scoop it out.

I'm kind of wondering about why your tractor won't push into a pile of material with the loader bucket?

Do you have a tooth bar on your bucket?

 

[4570Man]

I haul a lot of loos material and firewood on my steel decked car hauler trailer. I have a little articulated loader that I drive right up onto the trailer and scoop it out.

I'm kind of wondering about why your tractor won't push into a pile of material with the loader bucket?

Do you have a tooth bar on your bucket?

I find that my tractor's don't have the muscle to get a full bucket full from a hard packed pile. I put the bucket cutting edge curled way down on the top of the pile and back up to avalanche the pile. Then it'll get full scoops with a lot less effort. I have a tooth bar but I don't use it because I frequently need to scoop off concrete and leave a mostly clean surface behind.

 

[MossRoad]

I've never had issues filling the bucket on my little PT425 bucket with straight edge when it comes to material like sand, gravel, mulch, crushed limestone, etc... the only thing I've ever had issues with is large rocks, like railroad ballast. Then I switch to my smaller bucket with teeth.

My IH2500b tractor loader operator's manual had a nice section about how to load the bucket efficiently.

Lay the bucket so the cutting edge and bottom are flat to the ground.
Drive into the pile.
As the tractor slows, or the wheels start to spin, lift and curl the bucket at the same time.
This causes the dirt above the cutting edge to crowd the bucket and it fills itself as you lift and curl and drive forward.

I'd have to assume the stuff in that dump trailer is not gonna be packed down after it's dumped out on the ground. That's why I was asking about why his machine has trouble filling the bucket from a pile dumped out of a trailer.

 

[Sodo]

I've never had issues filling the bucket

Probably no trouble filling the bucket with garden mix in a big pile that you can lift & curl. But a 2 yd pile... maybe 1 full bucket & the rest would be floggin’ it. .

I was working in the yard too, would have to scrape it off the grass. This was FAR superior - theres no question that overfilling the bucket with every scoop, the first try, to the last bucket, was the superior method. Pretty sure I’ll do it again.

 

[npalen]

Just remember to set the vehicle brakes! I'm recalling my incident many years ago with a skid steer and dump truck.

 

[4570Man]

Vehicle brakes don't work if the back end gets lifted up. I chock the trailer tires if I'm loading on a hill. If I've got help I have them hold the vehicle breaks and the trailer brake controller. I probably should keep a rubber band to lock down the trailer brake controller.

 

[MossRoad]

Probably no trouble filling the bucket with garden mix in a big pile that you can lift & curl. But a 2 yd pile... maybe 1 full bucket & the rest would be floggin’ it. .

I was working in the yard too, would have to scrape it off the grass. This was FAR superior - theres no question that overfilling the bucket with every scoop, the first try, to the last bucket, was the superior method. Pretty sure I’ll do it again.

I moved 60 yards of moon dust (granulated limestone) from three 20 yard dump trucks, in a centrally located pile, spread over 4 ball diamonds at a little league park one year, in two days with my little PT425 and 1/3 yard bucket with straight cutting edge. If you've ever moved that stuff... it's a tightly packed granulated limestone that is extremely heavy and dense. It was close to 800# per heaping bucketload.

 

[Sodo]

Vehicle brakes don't work if the back end gets lifted up. I chock the trailer tires if I'm loading on a hill. If I've got help I have them hold the vehicle breaks and the trailer brake controller. I probably should keep a rubber band to lock down the trailer brake controller.

Remembering to park in 4WD too.

But the only time it could lift on the trailer ball is when the bucket is rearward of the trailer wheels. And it's only rearward of the wheels, when there's a lot of the pile ---->forward of the wheels. So logically this won't happen.

I wonder if the trailer brakes electromagnet would get hot (rubber-banded for some time).

 

[4570Man]

Remembering to park in 4WD too.

But the only time it could lift on the trailer ball is when the bucket is rearward of the trailer wheels. And it's only rearward of the wheels, when there's a lot of the pile ---->forward of the wheels. So logically this won't happen.

I wonder if the trailer brakes electromagnet would get hot (rubber-banded for some time).

It's probably not a problem in what you're doing, but it's a problem trying to load a 6 ton skid steer. Especially if the ramp supports don't touch the ground due to a low spot. I doubt rubber banding the brakes is a good plan for the time frame you'd need, but it's not going to hurt anything in the 2 minutes you'd need load the machine for transport.

 

[Sodo]

2 minutes is probably OK. I'd forget, and it would be a lot longer than 2 minutes.
Some sort of jackstands at the rear corners is the certain method to eliminate all concerns of lifting up on the trailer ball.

 

[4570Man]

2 minutes is probably OK. I'd forget, and it would be a lot longer than 2 minutes.
Some sort of jackstands at the rear corners is the certain method to eliminate all concerns of lifting up on the trailer ball.

My trailer has supports in the ramps that catch before disaster strikes. I just feel safer loading the skid steer without the trailer rolling back and forth.

 

[flingwing1969]

Probably no trouble filling the bucket with garden mix in a big pile that you can lift & curl. But a 2 yd pile... maybe 1 full bucket & the rest would be floggin it. .

I was working in the yard too, would have to scrape it off the grass. This was FAR superior - theres no question that overfilling the bucket with every scoop, the first try, to the last bucket, was the superior method. Pretty sure I値l do it again.

Go for it. Can't hurt a thing. What works, works.