rEdNeCk dUMp tRuCK!

['Bota Fan]

I hauled 2 more loads of rock today after I took those pics... removing the tailgate makes a HUGE difference... I just got too excited to try it on the first load and forgot all about the tailgate being on there still. I can unhook from the pickup, dump the trailer, clean off the remaining 3 or 4 shovels full of rock from the back of the bed/bumper, and have the trailer hooked back up again to the pickup, all within about 5 minutes... I had the gal at the scale at the quarry scratching her head as to how I got back there for another load so quickly... I told her I've got a BIG shovel

Looks like as much fun as a barrel of monkeys, and I'm always in favor of getting something done faster. Law-dee, they's plenty o' werk to be done heah.

But serious and for sure, does your little method not put too much strain on the tongue (the trailer's, not yours)? I never professed to be an engineer. I suppose if you can tow it behind a vehicle and the load is pushing down, is it the same stress raising it up?

 

[xlr82v2]

Yep, the direction of the force is the same.

I'm sure that the stress does increase when the bumper of the trailer contacts the ground and then the entire "system" starts to pivot at the bumper because it is starting to lift the entire trailer plus whatever load (payload) remains in it at that point in an upward direction...but also, the force required is probably near the maximum at point, and diminishing rapidly as you go higher, because the payload is coming off the trailer, and, as you move toward the vertical, weight of the entire system is transferring from the tongue+bumper, to bumper only. It's just a variation on the old lever/fulcrum thing... with the bumper being the fulcrum, the entire trailer is the lever.

The first time I did it, I was much more concerned about rolling the bumper up than damaging the tongue... I put the edge of the bucket under the frame rails where they meet, and not the actual "tongue". As I lifted it up, I didn't keep speed with the tractor, and it slipped from the frame rails to the tongue itself, but it was fairly high at that point, and the loads on the tongue would have been fairly low.