Hopper, Dump O/O's & Drivers

Dairyman we had a good Christmas. I hope everybody did. Got 5 loads today which is a good day from where we're hauling from. Riceland is slow but they told us they're calling a bunch in starting Monday. Back to sittin in line. Part of it I guess.

 

Yea I couldn't believe the trades either. Only reason we thought about buying a new one is we have a 2002 Timpte that's small. It's only a 40' 66" and being pulled by a super light T800 it has to be almost completely full to get a legal load. (corn) That's how I found out how big the demand was for new trailers.

 

What is the ideal size of a trailer or what are you guys pulling? I see a lot of trailers on Truck Paper that are 43'x78"102" but then I see alot of short sided ag trailers. I guess if you are going to haul feed ingridents you want the 78" sides. Wilson is the popular brand down this way plus they are the only hopper dealer in Oklahoma unless you go to Wichita who has them all.

I used to pull a real high sided Wilson hopper that was 42' long and 102" wide and not for sure of the sides but it was like 88" or 92" something like that, it was the tallest trailer they made and we hauled mostly wheat midds and no problem getting a load on.

 

Is that with high-clearance traps? I'd love to be so light that I needed more volume! Although it would've come in handy this year with all the wet, light test weight corn, I hand to change from normally putting 2 piles in each hopper to 3 piles in each to get enough weight.

Big John for what we haul (99% corn and beans) a 41'x66"x96" works pretty well. The elevators I haul for have a few older spouts that a taller trailer couldn't get under. I saw an unusual one in line the other day- a farmer had about a 34' long hopper that had 78" sides. I guess the short length for manuverability and the tall sides to recoop the lost volume?? Sorta weird looking....


Got a couple more inches of snow here today, its great when you're not out driving in it. Sounds like after tomorrow its going to get effing cold.

 

I've seen those little short high sides before usually marketed as peanut trailers

you can usually weigh over 80k with a 66" side 34' farm trailer if you fill it but there is no way to bridge it obviously but people here do it all the time

 

We've had 2 43'-96" 78" sides and worked real well. The 102" changes things a lot. Like with Wilson you can get aluminum door plates with a 96" but the 102" are steel because their wider.(that may have changed) That size is big enough to haul normal products (corn, beans ect.) and not have to tarp loaded because it's far enough down to not blow out. But isn't too heavy.

High clearance traps are what they call "ag-hoppers" supposed to be for swing away hoppers. However they cut A LOT of capacity and IMO aren't normally needed since I've never had a problem with clearing anything with a normal hopper. With the 43-78" you normally only need one pile in each hopper, with the high clearance you'd need at least 3 in each.

 

People around here do that also, salesman never tells them they can't legally gross 80 with those short trailers. Portable scales usually inform them.

 

I hope everyone of my friends on here had a good and safe New Years eve and is going to have a good day today.

I hope we all have a good and profitable year in 2010, I hope.