Dump Trailer

[Iplayfarmer]

Well, I've pretty much finished it. I turned the pump lever upsidedown so that a connecting rod from the pump to a lever near the tractor seat will clear the framework.

I put the pump and battery both back under the dump bed to keep them a little more protected from the weather, and I made a bracket to hold the pump.

One of the main reasons for the push is because my dad is moving a bunch of dirt tomorrow before we all eat the turkey. I'm taking the trailer out on it's maiden voyage to help him.

I'm actually pretty nervous. After all of a year planning and building this thing, I'm now going to really put it through a test and see if my design and fabrication skills are what I want them to be.

Wish me luck! I'll try to get some pictures of it in action.

 

[MrJimi]

Best of luck with your trailer, get some camcorder shots of it and put them on youtube.com so we can cheer you for all of your work
Jim

 

[BTDT]

I've been following this from the start. Great job. And good luck.

 

[easygo]

Iplay,

Great job! It really does look good and now you will go and scratch it all up. What a shame. I'm sure I speak for many of us if I ask for some action shots.
Good luck and happy turkey day.

 

[SkunkWerX]

We'll be looking for the "all dirted up" pics when it dumps it's first few loads.

Hoping that Iplayfarmer remembers to bring the bottle of champagne to bust-up-side the trailer just before dumping load #1.

Bon Voyage and Dirt-Speed!!

 

[Iplayfarmer]

We had quite the day. The dump trailer is actually about the only thing that didn't break on us. So, I'll consider that a declaration of success.

Sorry, I never "Christened" it unless you count the spill of ATF from the pump reservoir because I overfilled it last night.

I didn't get any video's either, but you can see some action shots.

The first thing to break on me was the charger. I realized it wasn't working when we tried to use it to charge the tow tractor. That means that I started out the day with a half-dead battery since that was the same charger that I put on the trailer over-night to charge it. The dump seemed a little sluggish even empty, but the show must go on. If anyone has any ideas how to build a charging system that will work off the tow vehicle's electrical system please chime in with suggestions.

We used my little Iseki to fill it. I kept meaning to count how many buckets full of dirt would fit in the dump trailer, but I was always busy doing other things and never remembered. It's at least 5 buckets full, but I don't know how many total. That's my dad running the Iseki.

With the trailer fully loaded to overflowing with dirt and a half charge on the battery, The bed dumped! In this second picture I show the bed dumped only partially because we only needed a little dirt to fill in some low spots. When I dumped the bed all the way up, all the dirt came out without hanging up. I never got any pictures of the dirt dumping out. Once again I was having too much fun doing other things and kept forgetting. That's my Brother in the picture pulling the dirt out with a shovel.

After this, the battery for the trailer died to the point that one of us had to lift up on the front of the trailer with one hand to get it started.

My dad and brothers got out the team of Belgians and hooked them up to the carriage to take the grandkids for a ride before Thanksgiving dinner. After everything was hitched up, Dad caught a ride in the carriage out to the dirt pile where I was working. When dad jumped off the carriage, the horses spooked at the tractor and ran away with my Brother and the carriage. The next picture here is of what was left of the Carriage. The horses both are fine, and all the people involved are okay. We've got some work to do on the carriage, though.

Also the fuel pump went out on my tractor. (either that or I got a clogged fuel line. Expect a thread on this in the Parts/Repairs section soon.) And, I got a flat tire on the John Deere 140 that I use as a tow tractor for this dump trailer.

We salvaged most of the carriage. Most of the major damage was to the wheels. We got it all mopped up and my Brother-in-Law's comment when he saw what's in the last picture was "Is this what you'd see in the front yard of an Amish Redneck?"

 

[MrJimi]

Today must of put a good feeling inside of you with your success.
Congrats
Now get a new battery/deep cycle style
Jim

 

[Iplayfarmer]

Another thing I forgot to mention in my previous long-winded post was that the dump lever out in front of the trailer didn't work.

I put too much of a forward angle on it, and it bumped in the tow tractor's seat before it would actuate the pump. I got around that today by just disconnecting the tie rod and running it by hand. I will shorten the tie rod up, and the mechanism should work perfectly.

It worked fine for dropping the bed back down, though. That proves the concept.

 

[sandman2234]

A new charger would also be nice, but you could run jumper cables to the trailer battery from the battery on the tow vehicle. Make sure you use fuses to protect both ends.
David from jax

 

[Iplayfarmer]

Today must of put a good feeling inside of you with your success.
Congrats
Now get a new battery/deep cycle style
Jim

It does feel good to see it work. Thanks for the kind words.

My battery actually is a deep cycle. It is, in fact, one of the only new things that went into building this trailer.

The only new things I used were the bolts, the battery, a few rods for the hinge and tie rod, and the shorter set of hydraulic hoses. Everything else was bought used, picked up as scrap, or salvaged from something I had laying around.

I really think that a system that ties into the tow vehicles electrical would be nice. The second best thing may be some kind of a solar trickle charger just to slow the depletion rate of the battery.