Dump trailers, why does everyone love them?

[CM1995]

Guy here has ten of them. He drops it at your house instead of a dumpster. So much a day plus so much a tonne, with a minimum charge for a load. A lot of the roofers use him. Big sign on the trailers for advertising. He goes steady

Now they have the little roll off trailers they rent as well. 5-10 CY boxes great for residential and small projects. Kicked around the idea of adding it as a service.

 

[skyking1]

I am spoiled, I strip into the dump truck when I can. If you can´t hit it from above though, a high sided truck is no bueno from the ground level.






There is a chimney in that load too.

 

[Welder Dave]

There's a difference between an established business and someone relatively new in the game. If a customer is getting estimates they can sometimes think the guy that shows up with a ratty old truck that needs a muffler isn't going to do the highest quality of work.

 

[cuttin edge]

There's a difference between an established business and someone relatively new in the game. If a customer is getting estimates they can sometimes think the guy that shows up with a ratty old truck that needs a muffler isn't going to do the highest quality of work.

Agree. Some of the snow removal contracts want an equipment list. We do the walmart. A guy under bid us one fall. First storm, they tried to plow it with a 3/4 ton truck with a plow, and a skid steer. We were plowing there next storm. Some spots want newer machinery as well. Our fleet is getting older, and with all the downtime some of this emission stuff causes, a lot of the older stuff is getting a fresh coat of paint.

 

[Welder Dave]

I lived in an apartment for a little while and couple guys from a farm or something brought an older skid steer to clear the snow. It was about -25C and there was no cab or heater on the machine. One guy would clear snow for about 1/2 an hour and then go warm up in the truck and the other would run the did steer. The truck was running the whole time. What was even worse is they just leveled off the packed snow and didn't dig down to pavement. 3 days later it warmed up and people were getting stuck. They had to call a bigger outfit who brought a wheel loaders to dig the snow up. That was bit of a gong show too. The job was 3/4's done and the guy quit at 5 o'clock. Came back the next day for less than 2 hours. Ridiculous is an understatement.

 

[Welder Dave]

Agree. Some of the snow removal contracts want an equipment list. We do the walmart. A guy under bid us one fall. First storm, they tried to plow it with a 3/4 ton truck with a plow, and a skid steer. We were plowing there next storm. Some spots want newer machinery as well. Our fleet is getting older, and with all the downtime some of this emission stuff causes, a lot of the older stuff is getting a fresh coat of paint.

Even the new member on here who works for Jade said the emissions stuff on newer machines poses a serious safety hazard if a machine breaks down in the middle of nowhere and it's -30 out with poor cell phone service. Snow clearing equipment like graders should have military type specs. with factory deletes.

 

[Mobiltech]

I have a gooseneck dump trailer with 2 7000 lb axles and an 8x8 flatdeck over the neck. I wired it to the truck with #4 cables and a quick coupler so the battery is never dead. I also added a 4000 lb winch to assist the start of lift for those heavy loads that it wouldn't dump on its own.
Its nice to just leave at a site and fill with garbage. Most people are envious when you wheel into the dump and unload while they are handbombing it off.

 

[digger doug]

I do think this is a factor as well, there is a lot of monkey-see-monkey-do with GCs and landscapers.


None of my medium duty trucks are 4wd, nor would I wan’t one. Maintenance is higher, and initial cost is much higher and drivetrain options are limited. Mine go plenty fine off road, was recently on a very muddy job site hauling in gravel alongside another contractor and his 4wd F450 mason dump. He got stuck dozens of times, never had to hook a chain to my truck once. A 3/4 ton 4wd pickup pulling any kind of heavily loaded trailer off road is virtually worthless, BTDT on nearly a weekly basis lol

W-O-W....does your f-700 fly too ?

Get out the tape measure, it's getting deep in here.....

 

[MG84]

W-O-W....does your f-700 fly too ?

Get out the tape measure, it's getting deep in here.....

Don’t have to take my word for it, go ride with any of the ol boys hauling logs out of the mountains if you want to see where a truck can go. Or guys hauling silage along side the chopper or grain out of the field during a wet fall. Sure you get stuck sometimes but its also amazing where you can go with a good driver and a truck thats setup right (not too heavy on the front, good aggressive tires, lockers etc.) They do a lot better than a pickup pulling a trailer, thats for damn sure. If conditions get really bad throw a set of double row tire chains on.

 

[digger doug]

Don’t have to take my word for it, go ride with any of the ol boys hauling logs out of the mountains if you want to see where a truck can go. Or guys hauling silage along side the chopper or grain out of the field during a wet fall. Sure you get stuck sometimes but its also amazing where you can go with a good driver and a truck thats setup right (not too heavy on the front, good aggressive tires, lockers etc.) They do a lot better than a pickup pulling a trailer, thats for damn sure. If conditions get really bad throw a set of double row tire chains on.

You seem to be bent on calling yourself right on everything eh ?

Not everything is right for everyone.
Get over it.

 

[PeterG]

Well everyone gets overloaded at times!
Hum, cheap undersized electric scissor lift dump trailer, or big lift cylinders PTO, 5 yd or 12yd dump trucks that lifts faster and with better dump angles. Gets old real fast when you go to dump your dump trailer, and the load is too heavy to dump, or not all of the load will come out because it does not lift high enough. I started out with a couple of dump trailers and I'm not going back to shoveling dirt out in the rain to get it to dump. And I prefer my tilt trailers with D-rings every few feet to haul equipment around. Then again, the big dump truck so far has some return of investment concerns.

 

[673moto]

It’s kind of an “apple and oranges” thing...
you can’t really compare a full size hauling truck with a smaller homeowner setup trailer.
I think mg84 is talking about dump trailers being used for actual bulk hauling of material while in Real life they’re just used by contractors to haul trash and debris from job sites. ..or small scale landscapers moving bark or decorative gravel.

Good discussion tho:.. I’m in the market for a dump trailer and like hearing these opinions

 

[MG84]

You seem to be bent on calling yourself right on everything eh ?

Not everything is right for everyone.
Get over it.

Not really, I have nothing to prove or gain, just trying to get people to discuss and think about how and why we all do what we do. I have good success with my equipment doing my type of work, others may not.

Obviously to a lot of people dump trailers are a good value as evident by the replies to this thread. I’d also guess that there are a lot of new land owners, small time farmers, etc out there that have no idea that you can go to a farm auction and pick up a really nice 2-ton grain truck for $2500. Sure it’ll be a little older, maybe gas powered, but most were very well taken care of. You can do a lot of work with a truck like that around a piece of property, for very little investment.

 

[673moto]

A lot of it is location too.
Here in California you can’t use that old stuff... it’s either buy the new, expensive trucks or find a way around that with a dump trailer.

 

[Delmer]

A lot of people don't want to license and insure that old truck either. Not to mention maintain it.

 

[Pixie]

Here in New Hampshire there are no older trucks to buy.

Turned to rust long ago.

 

[PeterG]

I agree that for a homeowner, a dump trailer is the only way to go. That being said, often when I'm picking up gravel and topsoil, I see homeowners way over loading their dump trailers (to be safe and legal). Just this morning I had a contractor call me about hauling off some dirt. Although he has a dump trailer, he says it would take too long and be too many trips. If you're looking for a dump trailer, pay special attention to the way it dumps and note, that a dump trailer with just a couple of yards of gravel is around 6 tons. And most people will pick up 4 yds or more.

 

[MG84]

I agree that for a homeowner, a dump trailer is the only way to go. That being said, often when I'm picking up gravel and topsoil, I see homeowners way over loading their dump trailers (to be safe and legal). Just this morning I had a contractor call me about hauling off some dirt. Although he has a dump trailer, he says it would take too long and be too many trips. If you're looking for a dump trailer, pay special attention to the way it dumps and note, that a dump trailer with just a couple of yards of gravel is around 6 tons. And most people will pick up 4 yds or more.

Yes, this is perhaps one of my biggest gripes with them. There are lots of them running around here with permanently bent axles/spindles from being overloaded. This is, of course, as much a problem with the operator as the equipment, but Harry homeowner doesn’t understand that you can’t fill it to the brim with gravel or heavy wet clay.

Wasn’t a dump trailer, but one of the little single axle Uhaul open top trailers utility trailers, maybe 4x8 or whatever they are. It was sitting at the quarry with a wheel broken off, gravel spilling over the sides, probably 7000lbs of gravel on a 3500lb trailer. There is a line marked inside the box of those that says “gravel level” or something to that effect and its only just a few inches deep. Wish I’d have gotten a pic but was before I had a camera phone.

 

[Acoals]

Snow clearing equipment like graders should have military type specs. with factory deletes.

When that law gets passed there are going to a whole bunch of excavators and dozers that became snow removal machines . . .

 

[renovator]

I agree that for a homeowner, a dump trailer is the only way to go. That being said, often when I'm picking up gravel and topsoil, I see homeowners way over loading their dump trailers (to be safe and legal). Just this morning I had a contractor call me about hauling off some dirt. Although he has a dump trailer, he says it would take too long and be too many trips. If you're looking for a dump trailer, pay special attention to the way it dumps and note, that a dump trailer with just a couple of yards of gravel is around 6 tons. And most people will pick up 4 yds or more.

I've not seen a "homeowner" with a dump trailer--way too expensive. I've seen utility trailers with sides (7k or less), but not dump trailers--unless they also own a landscaping or construction business.