walking floor vs dump trailers

If you pull a dump type trailer into the landfill you will be dumping it yourself and not using the tipper. The trailers that go on the tipper are usually non mechanical, no hoist, no walking floor.

 

I used to pull walking floor trailer and empty at the landfill. Have never pulled a dump trailer.

The landfill is pretty much a big hole that's been filled in with compacted garbage, then covered with dirt on a pretty regular basis. That results in a pretty soft surface, especially with just a little bit of rain. If it were me, I'd be scared to use a dump trailer on something that was not more compact.

Your situation could be different than what I was seeing, but I can tell you that it's a pretty rough environment for a truck. I'd pull for a large company who could do the repairs and maintenance, but would never subject my own truck to those conditions.

The upside is that pulling garbage is awesome. You never have to worry about damaging the load, people don't want to tailgate you as much, and DOT is not nearly as willing to crawl up under your trailer.

 

There application/use is different.

Walking floor trailers are 48' trailers designed to haul trash, construction debris, mulch - etc. Dump trailers are much smaller in length and capacity (the short ones are around 26' trailer) and are used to haul gravel, dirt, rock - etc. But for instance, its not uncommon for a 26' trailer to be filled with water logged soil being removed from a construction site, to weigh close to 100,00o lbs. when filled to capacity. If you filled a live floor trailer with that kind of material - it would be insanely heavy - so heavy in fact, that it would probably tip going around a corner at 10mph.

Dump trailers are piston raised (most, not all) from a horizontal position to probably about 60 or 70 degrees from trailer chasis/frame, to the bottom of the dump trailer bed when fully extended (not exact, I don't know the exact engineering specs on dump trailer mechanics). Live floor trailers push the debris out of the tailgate.

 

I have done them both. Walking floor is a pain in the butt. Especially when it rain. Opossum belly trailer (48 footer) on a tipper is the way to go. You can get a nice heavy load. Its alot faster. Unless you while its dumping you get a jam. That get resolved easily in most cases with an excavatore. When it rains, you are clean and dry. Just unhook an then re-hook up. Walking floor is just a big mess.

 

You had a gravey job for horses. I was taking everyday garbage to the landfill site. That is what I was baseing my experiance with.

 

Can anyone tell me the cost to ship on a walking floor trailer as compared to a regular trailer , same size.

 

I would go for walking floor, safety is one reason, you can unload on any surface and the other reason is the walking floor is more versatile , bigger volume for one (great for sawdust) and you can also haul palletised loads so it keeps your options open