Aluminum end Dump Trailer (Sand, gravel)

I’m geared up to switch over from Flatbed to End Dump in the next week or so. I’ve got a 379 so no skirts etc to mess with.

Ive got my wet kit on a week or so ago. Got my fifth wheel blocked and it is removable in case I want or need to haul my flatbed.

My shocks are all good and new, my airbags (though not leaking etc) are all new.

Took my headache rack off and stowed a decent set of chains and binders on the flatbed.

My stacks are about 13’3 so I may need to make and adjustment there lol I will know more about that soon.

Have not been able to find a decent trailer to buy yet so I’m leasing one. Plus, I figured in case I hate it or don’t have the cahones for it I’m only out the cost of wet kit. I’ve posted this before that I hate to move from flatbed but I need to be home for my wife while she is dealing with medical stuff.
I’ve also researched end dump for months now and I feel it is a good fit for me right now. So folks on the board here and others places have answered a ton of questions.

I will say I’ve gotten the mafia/cartel/good ol boys club vib about end dump even before I even started trucking. Many won’t answer questions and I got the same feeling that has been talked about here. Seems to be very competitive and I don’t see me going after loads on my own as a good thing.
I’ve kind of searched and been a fly on the wall on the end dump Facebook groups and decided to work with a company here that has a decent group of company trucks and a group of owner operators. I’ve seen nothing bad posted about them and I’ve seen good reviews posted on them which from what I’ve seen if you screw someone over you’ll get called out pretty quick. I am keeping my own authority active and I am not leasing on to anyone.

 

‘DFW area. Not a large company. 15 company trucks and a number of owner ops.

 

What type of material will you be hauling? Aluminum trailers are nice, but you can be limited to what you haul, I wouldn’t load rock in one,

 

There's definitely a huge market in north Texas for end dumps. I see some really nice equipment in that area all the time. I've thought about coming down there and working on it all week then coming home on the weekends. End dump with in my area is pretty beat down now.

 

Depends on what type of rock you're talking about I guess. Hauling crushed rock in an aluminum end dump is perfectly fine.

 

Normal sand or Frac Sand? Watched a lot of guys take on a lot of debt for high paying sand loads in 2013 and 2014 then watched rates slowly keep falling and then the floor fell out and a bunch of guys were stuck with almost new end dumps and hoppers and nothing to haul with them