Dumps

WHY

 

Totally depends on you, and what you plan to do with it.
Tri axle, steel, end dump, full frame is the only thing I use, besides actual dump trucks, usually on a tri drive, and pulling a tri axle pony pup. I don't waste my time with tandem drive trucks, gravel is heavy, tri drives haul more weight, and when lockers are engaged have incredible traction. Doepker builds some great quality trailers, and with 7 axles you can haul some good weight. For road building they do good fly spreads once you the driver learns how to do them. Fly spreading is something you have to be taught and practice, and materials all spread different, so once you figure out what works for one material lock it into your memory forever. If you haul stuff that you have to tarp, make sure you get a power tarper, manual tarpers suck. If you load yourself learn what works for your truck and trailer for different materials, and never ever forget that either. I was down at the pit yesterday and today for a few hours loading trucks, and moving materials from the crusher belts to the piles. With this loader and 2" minus run, I put bucket 1 right up front, and I overlap just slightly with each next bucket as I work back to the rear of the trailer, do that for 5 really full buckets with the 950, bucket 6 i don't try and get it very full, maybe 1/2 of a bucket, and dump it right in the center, before I have backed up 5 feet, my driver's already know bucket 6 means go, and they are starting to pull away. To the loader operators eyes the trailer looks like it has diddly squat on it, but at 2900 pounds a yard it adds up quickly.

 

Not to hijack thread but why in Iowa and Nebraska they only use pups , side dumps and belly dumps you don’t see any end dumps like that ?

 

Sorry I can't help you with an answer.
Here you will rarely if ever see a belly or side dump.
Pony pups, and end dumps are popular, see a few quad wagons on occasion, some just body job only dump trucks that I never see pulling a trailer, but belly dumps especially are too limited in the scope of work they can do to be of any use here.

 

I see belly dumps here but never on any job sites.

I know they use them for milling up old asphalt but we don’t other than that I have no idea what they use them for besides breaking windshields.

I run a quad dump truck and use it for a ton of different stuff. That’s why we don’t run end dumps. Can’t haul that much more and aren’t as veratile. I might haul rip rap one load and bump up to a paver the next. Plus I can pull a flatbed while I haul stuff.

 

You're loading with a 950? Those are good little loaders if you're not in a hurry and they're sure easy on fuel.
We ran 950s when our pit was first opening up but to get any work done...and trucks loaded in a timely manner...we finally went to 980s. We use a 988 to feed the crusher and to stockpile.

 

I have seven almost brand new Caterpillar 950s, four older 966s, three fairly new 980s. The 950s are so agile, and versatile, they can do basically anything, and are great machines. They can carry a large Larue blower in winter, or a blade to plow, or fit them with a big snow bucket for cleaning up, grapples for logs, forks to move whatever, and throw on a 4.9 yard gravel bucket and its multi purpose from loading trucks to stock piling to stumping. The trucks pull up near the product in my pits, so not carrying it far. I bought just one 950 in 2016 to see how well it would work and if it was reliable, last spring I got six more because it is so good, and i sold off all but four of the old 966s. These new 950s will out work my older 966s.
If i need to move them somewhere I can license them and just drive them down the road, or for longer moves just drive them onto a low bed, no permits required, and go, even in spring with the road bans on limiting me to 70% axle weights as the frost comes out of the ground, when I can't haul lots of equipment for a month, i can still haul a 950 to anywhere it needs to be. Best machine I ever used in winter for snow clearing by far. Hook a larue D60 to it and efficiently blow snow all day long. Because snow is light we put 12 yard snow buckets on them in winter or 10.5 foot wide blades we angle on the roads so they are under 10 wide, and we can run down the roads. I put a grapple on one the other day to clean up a logging truck crash, handled it all great, even picking up the trailers and bunks to put them on a low bed, then drag the tractor through the ditch, pick up the back and load it, chain the rear of the truck to the lowbed so it would not slip off, use the grapple under the front and picked it up no problem to load it on the lowbed as well. These new 950s are a dream in my humble opinion. They are also bulletproof reliable, and use half the fuel of the 966s they replaced, while actually getting more work done. I do not own anything as big as a 988, but move them and larger for others regularly. I also like how whatever tool is on it stays level as you lift and lower it instead of changing angle like the old loaders.

 

Running through Michigan this week and amazed at the different set ups they run up here.