Hopper, Dump O/O's & Drivers

Glad you're keeping busy for now anyway. The rates are headed down as I have feared but expected. They dropped the rate on a load I hauled last week by a nickel. Darned if I'm going to haul it fuel is still pretty high.

 

Fuel is back down a little, $3.19 here, was $3.29 last week. I've been keeping busy hauling lime and some fertilizer with the dump. The quarry and the gravel roads are dustier than.......um, well, they're really dusty! A lot of fall fertilizer, tillage, drainage and bulldozing work being done around here, still too warm to put anhydrous on so far. Some crops still to get mostly west of us, but harvest for the most part is close to being wrapped up. Rain in the forecast for this weekend, its so dry, we could actually use it, and probably go right back to work very soon after.

I found a belt hopper conveyor built just 50 miles from us actually, made by Doyle Mfg. Apparently they don't answer email, and I haven't had a good chance to call them. Not sure what I've got in mind is going to work or not, or be worth the trouble. Have any of you guys hauled fertilizer in a hopper? (DAP, potash, urea, etc.) Does it come out ok? Any long term corrosion problems? I can only scale 44,000# on our little dump, being able to haul 54,000#+ in a hopper is a lot more attractive.

 

Some hopper guys haul fertilizer around here. In fact ADM put in a fertilizer storage facility in Hutch. They use that a lot instead of Catoosa. Hoppers pick it up all the time. I'm not sure what it might do to the hopper however.

 

Finally getting caught up here around the farm. Have some DC beans to harvest, but waiting for them to dry a bit more. Son tells me we need some new drive tires on Pete, before he does much winter hauling. We spend more time on gravel roads than highway. What do you guys use, and/or recommend?
thanks,
Jim

 

I bought some DR 444 Goodrich and they seem to be doing well. I have 6,000 miles on them now and have shown little wear. Were your beans good? Seems like I've been hauling beans forever.

 

I hauled DAP, MAP, red potash, urea, treated limestone, and diammonium sulfate in my hoppers. They all come out just fine - when they're kept dry.

The only thing that tore them up some was diammonium sulfate, and that took the finish off the bolts and turned them orange within a couple days.

Potash is a pain to haul in a leaky trailer - turns into the stickiest mud you've ever seen in your life. Had to shovel a ton of that mess out of the corners once after lofting the trailer over a speedbump as much as I could. Also found out just how slippery a wet hopper is (without climbing ropes) on that trip - had to climb the center wall to get myself out!

 

My early planted beans(May 1-10), were not very good, just as I expected, anywhere from 14-16. The later planted(last week of May through first of June) were not too bad, anywhere from 25 up to 29. With the 3-4 weeks we had with 103 plus temps, I can't complain. Plus, the $11.00 bu beans, makes anything very helpful!

What did you pay for your tires? And where did you get them?
thanks,
jim

 

Around $400 a tire. I got them at Sun Valley Trucking here in Hutch. They sell tires at a fairly good price.