What is it like running a hopper?

Man, that is amazing. Every once are all you get to do something off the beaten path that is really a nice experience.

 

That was probably just a photo shoot for 10–4 magazine. So this is what my truck looks like hooked to a van. This is what my truck looks like hooked to a hopper. You know it was all about the truck.

 

LOL

First time I ever saw him he had the red 359 and a hopper behind him. It was almost like seeing Elvis.

 

Don't forget Prime Inc they are a special bunch too.

 

Former member here used to do that trip just about every round. Was the foundation for his freight triangle.

Got kinda snippy when the boat would shut down for winter and he had to drive around the lake.

 

Somewhere maybe in the where are you #4 thread there’s pics of one em hooked to a stainless spread motor wagon. Tail board lit up like a cow bus of course. I’d love to find them cause I don’t have them anymore. I have done my fair share of hopper work too. @Tall Mike can bear witness he caught me rolling into Green Forest Arkansas running across 412.


For the uninformed or curious I would like to clear up any and all uncertainty. There is some fun stuff in hopper work. Nothing like loading corn to the bows outta the field and the race to the elevator or feed mill trying not to let the man get you. Especially going to Tyson knowing they gonna throw you out for being too heavy so it’s off to Wayne farms with 110k gross on 5 axles. (For the record no one was coerced into doing it. I just like it) when it’s not harvest a lot of stuff you get to do is pet food. They think that #### is plutonium. They hate their life so you’re gonna hate yours. Any and all trans loading places suck donkey balls. Just facts. I had a pretty easy time staying away from those places. However hauling Bran, mill feed, cotton seed meal loaded hot or DDG especially from O’bion Tennessee with make you evaluate your life choices. That dust gets all over you. It’s a hot m’fer or cold m’fer on the dump. No in between. Most every where you go they run the drag slow cause if they don’t it ####s #### up. And I ain’t even talked about the fish meal outta port Arthur. Or backing in the dumps here in rice country cause they are all under 12’


So to surmise even though there is a small dash of fun and excitement the dose of Ho ### #### doesn’t make the gain worth the pain. However I do keep an old rickety Timpte around in case. You can’t live smack center of the Delta and not do it

 

I had a black Wilson later on that I thought looked better with it. Certainly wasn’t 10-4 mag material. It was sweet as a speckled pup. You could load it like rail car it never complain.

 

We had a custom hauler transfering sulphate of potash (very high density fertilizer) from a storage facility to our blending facility. The drivers were required to load themselves over the side with a large wheel loader. Nit realizing how heavy that product was he loaded his hopper train it like regular potash. When he got backbin his truck the pressure guage for his airbags was wrapped all the way around to the backside of the zero pin. He crept the 20 miles to the blending facility to unload. When he crossed my our scale he was 185k gross! He almost passed out when he saw the scale ticket... Lol. We ended up showing it as if he had hauled it in 2 loads so his records didnt show that much weight.