Hopper, Dump O/O's & Drivers

Well wheathauler I was just thinking that great offer of $1.20 you got this morning you could turn that into $3.60 a mile with a High Side Live Bottom????

I don't know either wheathauler and sometimes in this business it gets very confusing and I'm always willing and trying to learn new things everyday but I exhausted myself today on this one.. Time for me to go home

 

We were moving it between piles maybe 2000 ft apart I broke the frame on my trailer that day lol

We have a fleet overweight permit. Every year we have to apply for it in all states. Some years we won't get the Wyoming or Kansas permit. I run a 98 freight shaker tandem with a tag my trailer is a Wilson tandem with two tags. It's very hard on our equipment loading to 97000 I go thru a trailer about every two years. We used to have regular tandems but we had alot of frame problems on the tractors and trailers.

Keep in mind most of my day is local I'm based out of sterling. Max haul is 76 miles of wet cake. Once I'm done filling up our feedlots ill start running corn to the ethanol plants in Yuma and Windsor and return with cake then every night ill pre load corn run to Windsor park at the plant and have a load of cake by 6 headed east bound.


1.3 million bu of wheat compared to a tiny ford bronco.


Only downside to having a hi side is I can't fit under some loading arms and we guess my weight but these are usually my average weights


My rig and a front end loader compared a pile of corn which is our smallest pile at 2.4 million bu our largest this year was 3.2 million bu



And yes anything I run over 100k gross I wait till dark keep my ears on and avoid main roads.



Another note our over weight permit forbids us to run on the interstate system. We have to stick to us and state highways at best.

 

Live bottoms your best bet is find a few feedlots in your area and if you have a ethanol plant nearby haul wet cake from plant to the lot all day everyday. Load with corn then back haul with cake keeps your rig very profitable

 

Good to see ya back posting Big John,i know how ya feel dealing with the 'younguns'. My truck is older the some of the snotty-nosed little brats that call themselves ''load planners'' at CG&B

How'd ya like pulling the pot,always have had a lot of respect for folks that have yanked those suckers around,bound to have been a whole new learning curve hauling livestock i would think,and the wind had to have been a killer on mpg's.

Awe,you know you'd still love itHow ya been doing stranger,good to see ya.

Welcome to the hopper/dump thread Rodeoman7! Sounds like you could teach us a thing or 2 about maximizing our load capacities ,you must be a bull-rider or a steer wrestler at the rodeos 'cause from the gross weights your yanking,you obviously are not afraid of a little excitment,my little 425 kitty would faint yanking those weights around

 

Yes it is and I pull 9 loads a day of it lol. My truck. My clothes. Heck even my sweat smells like the stuff.

Yes it is very hard on our trailers heck anything at the weights I pull is hard on trailers.


Dairyman, thank you for the welcome. I ride broncs when I have the chance. I know how to shave lots of weight.

My dad runs a cattle pot so I learned maximizing your load, fitting the most product in your trailer, how to dodge scales and well any 5-0. And always be ahead of schedule...

 

I threw the schedule away. I run ahead, the place is full when I get there, and I sit and wait anyway. I get it loaded so we got it, then I get there when I get there. Though this last place that made me wait got nailed with 17 hours of detention pay. Whoops on them, learn how to order. Our trucks ain't free storage bins.

 

It was a fun gig, not doing it anymore. Pulling those trailers is hard on mpg's, almost always overweight, and don't get enough sleep for me.

 

Rodeoman7 you driving for Allen Mitcheck? Didn't know he was still around and in business. I worked there for a short time in the early 90's when I lived in Colorado. Drove a 1986 Freightliner with a 315 Cummins, 9spd with top speed of 69 mph pulling one of those old Colt hoppers. Back then he had mostly hoppers, few cattle trucks and a few tanks.

 

I grew up on a Feedlot so I can relate Rodeoman7.. Around my neck of the woods a lot of the feedlots have their own trucks and only need help hauling corn in when their trucks are all busy bringing cattle in and fats out, and yes every truck that comes in was always heavy and loaded to the rim and it seemed like they loaded the cattle pots to where all you seen was hair sticking out the holes of the cattle pots.. The old saying was you ain't loaded until you see hair sticking out the holes in the trailer. Those were the good ol days..

Around here when guys do haul into the feedlots it never seems to pay enough for most guys but there are guys that do it. Ethanol Plants a lot of those have closed up or cut way back because of the corn prices and not much crop from lack of moisture, so it's tough for everyone out there and what is out there is not enough to go around for everyone. We could sure use some moisture have not really had any all winter and I heard we are finally supposed to get a good snow storm here in the next couple days. I won't complain and will take anything we can get right now.

I know a lot of you guys stay busy in your area.. For the last several months we have been hauling hay into feedlots to the grinders in Yuma, Co and all over in Western Nebraska and was told that would most likely last all year round this year with nobody getting any moisture and still dry everywhere. All the hay is coming out of Canada and we been bringing it across the border into the states and load trucks to go to Colorado and Nebraska mainly to the feedlots and some ranchers