Hopper, Dump O/O's & Drivers

Ok I know what you are talking about now I've seen them before too.

 

Hillbilly, the trailer should be set up to use a drag tarp which is hung on the front wall and draped down along the floor, make sure you use it or you will be shoveling a inch of loose feed off the floor everytime you unload. If you decide to move the load to get the axle weight right, just be careful that you dont blow the front wall or doors off. Other than that, a walking floor is pretty easy.

 

Thanks. I was told to move the floor you have to open the door or tarp one or the other so you wouldn't do that. Gonna get a little training with one Monday or Tuesday before they turn me loose with it.

 

Well wheat harvest is not so great here. Test weight is around 60 but they are only getting about 20 bushel per acre and their is still a lot of wheat to be cut. The only trucks running steady are the farmers and custom harvesters with just a few local trucks. Those custom cutters seem to be getting bigger and bigger and seen some with big fancy Pete's and three axle hoppers. Man when we did we had old ex-Roadway Whites with no A/C.

Maybe that is where the money is. I should get some combines and head north, if I could just get Highside to partner with me.

 

Around here the farmers that get into trucking don't last long, they either sell or go broke. The farmers here just have semis for farm use only except for two that I know of, one farmer has a hired hand that he keeps busy hauling grain and cattle and another has three trucks that he runs year round left over from his custom cutting business. Most of the farm semi's are old and only used during harvest. I think a lot of them here just don't want the BS with drivers and other issues. Their was one farmer that got into trucking and he ended up losing the farm and then he tried to hang onto the trucks (all seven of them) and lost them next. Him and his wife are both working regular jobs and living in town after the bankruptcy.

 

You can move the load a little. If your doing the loading, try and not load heavy against the front wall or doors, that way you have a little room to move it. You dont want to open the doors unless your ready to unload or just feel like a little exercise n the form of shoveling the load back in. If your lucky, the tractor and trailer will have air ride with a suspension gauge on both. Makes it alot easier for getting the load close to legal, especially if you have to load on a farm.

 

There is money in custom harvesting. I was working with a guy that had two combines, three petes, two tractors, and two grain wagons. Even with the bigger outfits running right along with us, there was more work than we could get done running from before dawn to midnight or later every day.

He'd just bought the combines, one of the trucks, a tractor, and a grain wagon. He ran them for one season and JD made him a good enough deal that he traded the combines back in for new ones and got a bigger grain wagon. Combines are $250k each, though. That doesn't include the head, which is another $30-40k or more and you need at least two different ones for each combine. Plus the trailers to transport them. Easy to work on them, surprisingly.

They'll also sign trucks on to haul for them. Steady work all season long, barring bad weather. We would haul for the elevators when we couldn't harvest, locally. That was just extra cash till it dried out again. And they follow the work, they don't like sitting.

 

Yeah I heard some headers run 80k each plus header trailer. You would need a million dollars just to get started and then would need more to pull out of the yard to go south. I have a good banker but not that good. I ran harvest custom cutting from Texas to Montana then down to Mississippi back in '87 then again in '90, '91, '92 for a local guy that had a nice looking operation. I didn't see the big outfits you do today like Olsen and Fredrick. If I was going to get in the business you would see a couple of old Gleaner L2's going down the road and an old 1972 Ford F250 pickup pulling a single axle bunk house from the same era, that would be all I could afford. I guess I could call it "Retro Harvesting" I have always liked that kinda work and have a lot of respect for the guys that do it. We left the middle of may each year and got back home just in time for Thanksgiving.