End dumps that haul steel coils

at alot of the steel and aluminium places you'll see this kind of set up.....pretty neat as they can hual dirt, grain or whatever else they can get in there

they cut holes in the front and rear of the trailers and add chain tie downs
pretty nifty set up i think

 

On the upside of this, most dumps are already fitted, or easily fitted with a well sealed tarp system, so you shouldn;t have to do any tarping to make this work.

Take a good look at a couple of other things before doing this. Check with the trailer manufacturer and ensure that you can adequately mount the tiedowns in the trailer. Especially with an aluminum dump, there may be some issues here to consider. It may well be that you would have to go to a full framed steel dump to make this work out.

A dump weighs quite a bit more empty than a flatbed does, so you are going to have to be sensitive to the weight issue to make this work. I used to pull a 4 axle full frame Alum 34' dump here in Mich, and with a sleeper tractor hooked up, it was 38k empty. I could put 101k on it, so I loaded up to 63,000 on the trailer. With an 80k gross, you may not be able to pick up all steel coils, even deleting the weight of the two extra axles.

You will need to contact the manufacturer and ensure that the trailer is rated to have that amount of weight within that short of a space. Usually, a dump is run with the weight spread equally throughout the trailer, so this could be an issue to deal with, and I would get the hard infor from the manufatcurer before buying any trailer.

I would want to stick with the lightest tractor i could get hold of, no more than a small sleeper, and probably a 10-11 liter motor vice a larger one. The weight savings on the tractor all amount to greater payload in the box, and that;s the name of the game when it comes to dumps.

There are a lot of ethanol and biodiesel plants settling into that area, and they may be able to provide cargo, based on fuel prices and conditions. I know the biodiesel plants are taking a major hit from corn and bean prices right now concurrent with the lower than expected prices for diesel at the pumps. But, if they are working right, they can provide hauls in both directions.

 

That sounds like a great idea. As long as the weight issue pans out. The coils are loaded and unloaded by crane so no issues there. What about the height of the trailer though. Isn't the floor of an end dump taller than the bed of a skateboard? I'm not sure so I'm asking. I would be leary of a frameless aluminum end dump. I've cringed more than once when that old fontaine of mine twisted up with coils on it. I've watched a frameless end dump twist up and roll before while the guy was dumping grain. Sounds like it could work though.