Stupid question about pulling hopper.

We have to sweep out when we haul fertilizer then switch to corn etc. Get yourself a lead rope (for leading horses, cattle etc.) and hook it onto the tarp bow at the front and one at the rear of the trailer. You can use it to lower yourself down and to get yourself out.

We put steps in our trailers to get out but the rope deal works just fine.

Those extendable broom sticks work real good to be able to reach the whole trailer. Pay close attention to the rubber flaps that seal the hopper door on the bottom. I bring a pocket knife in with me and scrape that area out with it.

 

We have a hose reel mounted under the trailer in the center and have a blow gun with a 2 foot wand on our hoppers. Works good for blowing the doors off and getting material out of the track the door runs in.

 

I always crawled in from the bottom and use a extended handle[like the ones for washing your truck] on a broom head. Can be a dirty job, but somebody has got to do it. If its just dust, a couple miles down the road with the tarp open can work also. I don't like to run it very far that way,because its hard on the rear tarp cap, but a couple miles won't hurt.

 

You'll get more cross contamination on the hopper slide than anyplace else in the trailer.

 

Good luck on your new venture. I think you will like hopper work.

Lead rope is nice even with the steps.

We wash the trailers out every once in awhile. If we have been hauling fertilizer when its been damp outside it can get a little sticky in the trailer. I know when we were doing otr hopper the trailer would have to be washed out between certain loads. I was never involved with that.

Its a no no to find a kernel of corn in fertilizer and a big no no to find fertilizer in corn.

Do you know are you going to be hauling and where?

 

Pretty much what MJ1657 said. If you are going to haul any kind of feed ingredient (grain, DDG, cereal feed, etc.), anything on the previous load that would be harmful to the animal eating it is frowned upon. Most of the time you can get by with a sweep, however some feed ingredient receivers will require you to washout prior to loading their product. On any kind of blood meal, meat and bone meal, poultry meal, etc you can almost count on washing out before and after the load. That's something you have to keep in mind when booking your loads (always ask if its required before/after), not only from a cost standpoint but from a logistics standpoint, because washouts aren't everywhere. Most of the time they pop up around shippers and receivers that require that kind of thing, but not always.

Another reason it is required is because the rates (buying, selling, freight, etc.) are all based on weight or volume (bushels). If you leave 300-400 lbs of material stuck to the sides of your trailer, the receiver gets shorted on the product they bought and you can get charged for the weight differential at the cost of the product. A lot of shippers will set acceptable thresholds for differing weights at the shipper and receiver to accommodate different scales. However if you go over that threshold for whatever reason, it can get costly in a hurry, especially with feed ingredients that cost $300/ton and grain that can cost $13-14/bushel (soybeans). If you ever experience a weight discrepancy of over 250 lbs, I would advise you stay put and make your dispatch aware of the situation or call the shipper/broker that way you can avoid getting charged later.

Beyond that its just good practice to keep the trailer clean, if someone shows up to a shipper/receiver with 3 or 4 loads of built up material on the tarp, catwalk, sides of the trailer, etc. it's not going to say much about a persons attention to detail, and probably won't inspire a great deal of confidence with the customer.

Agree that steps are the best method to get into the bottom of the trailer, but the rope method is good to.

 

I added some steps to one of the hoppers last fall. They are cheap and it doesn't take long to install them.