I'm curious what led you to that decision. I see a scissor lift only costing more money, lowering payload by adding weight and increasing maintenance by adding more moving parts to grease...
It doesn't dump faster and seems to lift as well as a standard straight piston and not better.
Mostly, it's just my personal preference. But...
You see scissor lifts used everywhere, on "smaller" dumptrucks, bucket trucks, dump bed conversions, etc.. so in my eyes, they are a proven design. Having read stories about some of the single and dual cylinder designs failing to lift the rated capacity of the dump trailer, and observing that the cylinder attachment points for "some" single cylinder designs don't seem very strong, I'd rather not take any chances.
Single cylinder designs are lighter and cheaper to manufacture, making them more profitable to sell, which in my opinion, is why you don't see them on more dump trailers, except on the larger and heavier models, which says something in and of itself.
My research indicates that one of the dirty little secrets of the single cylinder design, is that it often causes excessive stress on the hinge points, potentially leading to sudden and catastrophic failure. In addition, to compensate for the decreased lifting capacity of many single cylinder designs, I have read that many manufacturers will move the hing point inward, thus decreasing the lift angle and causing one to have to pull much farther foreward to fully empty the load.
On many single cylinder designs, one also has to be very careful to load it evenly or the box might twist when the center mounted cylinder lifts it, which could damage the box or bend the frame. Scissor lifts effectively prevent the bed from racking or twisting when dumping heavy or uneven loads.
I'm no engineer so I can't comment on the precise engineering aspects of each design. All I have to go on is my personal observations which tell me that the scissor lift is the best and safest way to go.
On a side note, that looks like a well made trailer but wow is it heavy...
Yes it's heavy, but that's because they use thick steel in it's construction, but I'm more than happy to sacrifice a few hundred pounds of hauling capacity and having to grease a few additional fittings to ensure that I have a dump trailer that is both strong and reliable.
A few days ago I visited my local Hawke dealer to look at their dump trailers in person and make my final determination. They only had the 6x10 version of the dump trailer on the lot, which is identical to the 6x12, except for the length. Overall, I observed that the Hawke dump trailers are very well made and I am confident that my decision will be ultimately be a good one.
