Old Pickup bed as trailer

ron45 · Jun 12, 2012

blucoondawg said:
You wouldn't need suspension to get height out of your box, just block it up off your axle with a steel frame to the desired height. As for the hitch I wouldn't put any holes in your bucket, I would weld a piece of steel across the top of the bucket to strengthen it up then weld or bolt the hitch to the top center of the bucket, bolt it somehow if you want to be able to take it off for general bucket use. Another option would be to fab up a mount for your hitch which would quick couple onto the loader in place of the bucket but then you would probably want to change it out to use the bucket to level your dirt and it would be more messin around welding. At work we have pintles on backhoe buckets and move trailers around that way all the time, they push backwards rather easily as you are moving slowly enough, the only problem you may have is if u make to trailer too short it may like to jackknife but at the speeds u will be moving I wouldn't worry about it.

That seems like good thinking `dawg. At the speed I'd be traveling w/it there shouldn't be a need for it. The fewer moving parts the better. Swick1 I'd planed to use good sized tires on it for the ground clearance.

Ron

blucoondawg · Jun 12, 2012

ron45 said:
That seems like good thinking `dawg. At the speed I'd be traveling w/it there shouldn't be a need for it. The fewer moving parts the better. Swick1 I'd planed to use good sized tires on it for the ground clearance.

Ron

Ya, the thing with these sorts of trailers and suspension is you will find that your suspension will not be adequate, I have had some old truck box trailers we used for hauling firewood out of the woods to the house over the years and we always end up overloading the darn things and pretty soon they are squatting and dragging on the ground and getting all beat up bottoming out on stuff, not having any suspension eliminates that worry, we have cable trailers at work that are a little shorter than a VW Beetle car, we haul large spools of cable and copper wire on these which are very heavy, these trailers have no suspension and we pull them 60mph down the road no problem, they bounce when empty of course, they have large tires on them. I don't think you would have any problems.

Smallplot · Jun 13, 2012

ron45 said:
Hello, is this a good idea for a DIY dirt hauling trailer to use w/kioti? Some one is giving me an old truck axle. Don't know the make yet. I want to be able to use the loader bucket to tow, and raise the tongue to empty the trailer. I figure the truck sized tires and some suspension should get the bed up high enough to dump it by raising the tongue. Is there a hitch configuration what would make raising via the ball easier. That seems to be the iffy spot in my idea.

It would be easy to burn a hole for a 2" hitch. But I'm unsure if you could dump it by just raising it with the hitch ball and bucket. It's a fairly nebulous idea right now. I do own a welder, but I'm not a very good welder. Pickup beds should be fairly easy to find. But I have no idea what people pay for them. Anyone done this or something simpler. I don't want to get into a separate hydraulic system for dumping the thing. I have a mile of road that needs material in places. I am thinking that a trailer save so much back and forth w/kioti.

Seems no one has mentioned the other option. One of the bed liners with the hand crank in effect making a truck into a dump truck. Seen them on video and they look slick! Something like this. Dock & Truck Equipment | Truck, Van & SUV Accessories | Loadhandler Full-Sized Pickup Truck Cargo Unloader Mat 3000 Lb. Capacity | 984511 - GlobalIndustrial.com

Dan

bcp · Jun 13, 2012

For gravel road work, I would rather have a bottom dump trailer like these. Let gravity do the work.

BuyAlaska: Last Frontier Trailers

Trailblazer ATV Trailers

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/ag-tractors-machinery/175367-belly-dump-trailer.html

Bruce

blucoondawg · Jun 13, 2012

Smallplot said:
Seems no one has mentioned the other option. One of the bed liners with the hand crank in effect making a truck into a dump truck. Seen them on video and they look slick! Something like this. Dock & Truck Equipment | Truck, Van & SUV Accessories | Loadhandler Full-Sized Pickup Truck Cargo Unloader Mat 3000 Lb. Capacity | 984511 - GlobalIndustrial.com

Dan

Has anyone actually seen these pickup truck unloaders work? I remember seeing those on tv commercials some years back and thinking it was some kind of gimmick or rip off deal but maybe they do actually work good who knows, I know I have dumped stuff on a tarp in a truck bed before and shoveled most of it off by hand and the remainder that was left was still to heavy to drag off with the tarp until I had almost all of it hand shoveled.

ron45 · Jun 13, 2012

blucoondawg said:
Has anyone actually seen these pickup truck unloaders work? I remember seeing those on tv commercials some years back and thinking it was some kind of gimmick or rip off deal but maybe they do actually work good who knows, I know I have dumped stuff on a tarp in a truck bed before and shoveled most of it off by hand and the remainder that was left was still to heavy to drag off with the tarp until I had almost all of it hand shoveled.

I appreciate your input but turning the crank w/ some part of a yard of dirt or sand on top is not my idea of a good time but the price seems ok. Probably got some gear reduction to make it easier.

It will take some trial and error but I want to dump the trailer with the hydraulics I already paid for. I don't even like the word consumer. I'm old and stingy. bah humboogie!

blucoondawg · Jun 14, 2012

I almost forgot to mention, I see you said a friend was giving you a truck axle to use for the trailer, however you may want to consider picking up a trailer house axle instead, we get them from a mobile home dealer here for around 75 bucks a piece, we use them for all sorts of trailers, even tandem axle car haulers. The axles we get have a 6000 lb rating. They work good, we cut them down to the desired width then weld them back together, they are not as bulky as the truck axle as you don't have the pumpkin.