Hopper, Dump O/O's & Drivers

One of those tarps is the regular tarp that we all have, and the other one is known as an "EPA Tarp." It is just like a regular tarp, but it has two holes, one over each hopper. It's for loading limestone and calcium. When you load those kinds of commodities, it's like squeezing a bottle of baby powder. Ultra fine dust goes EVERYWHERE. So, what you do is roll your EPA tarp over, the loader lowers his loading tube into the hole, and you get loaded without fine dust going everywhere. Calcium and limestone is so heavy that you'll never even get close to filling a hopper, so seeing how full the hopper is getting isn't an issue. I had the chance to bid on 2 weekly loads from Cleburne, TX to the northern TX panhandle. It would have been a sweet deal, except it would have required I had 2 weekly loads down to DFW from Wichita every week to get me down there, and I would have had to equip 2 of my trailers with EPA tarps, because the shipper wouldn't load me if I didn't have one. It just wasn't going to be worth the hassle, so I turned it down.

 

Anyone have or have seen a hopper with air cylinders to open the gates? I've seen hydraulic motors on the passenger side of the shaft, the overpriced/slow electric openers but I haven't seen any with air. I owned a bottom dump gravel trailer which was air so I know they're more than capable, just didn't know if anyone had them.

 

That's nice. Bounce you all the way out there and then leave you hanging. I wonder how well he would have taken it if you committed to loads and then just not show up? Gotta love those merchandisers. They are the definition of two-faced.

 

Most of the time with EPA traps on a tarp, they're just covered with a triangle shaped flap and secured by a rope. Two different tarp handles is a setup I haven't seen yet either.

Always wondered how much fun it would be to try and position under a fixed chute with nothing more than a 10" opening to shoot for.....