Worst Part of pulling End-Dumps

I've seen the bull line of a D6 cat(7/8) cable snap bent the roll cage on the dozed and cut an 8 in slice in the hood of my 1976 KW conv. Log truck.

 

And here I was thinking pulling an end dump was just pulling a lever and flipping a switch.

 

Not only do you have to worry about keeping the shiny side up but in MA we run 104,000 lbs so you have to deal with weight to.

 

Happiness is a good dump

 

No, you do not have to stop. You can work 24 hours or more if you want. You have 14 hours (soon to be 13 1/2 hours) to drive a maximum of 11 hours. You can not drive again, until you take a 10 hour break, providing you have hours in your 60/70 available.

 

This isn't intended as a slap to anyone, but as someone who has pulled little else other than end dumps since 1975 there are a few things I could add to this old post. First, drivers wanting to quit running over the road often want to jump into a truck pulling an end up, because after all any idiot can haul a load of dirt right? I have hired drivers with forty years experience, who I doubt will ever be competent to pull a dump trailer, and I have trained kids who by the time they are 25 can dump a trailer safely on a severe grade and never have a problem. In forty years of hauling all kinds of material to some pretty iffy locations I have never turned over a trailer and rarely have I refused to dump on a location, even though that has happened. Yes a bed liner is always preferable to not having one, but with virtually every type material there is a way to haul it without a liner.

The problem with a bed not raising high enough, is unlikely to be that the unit is low of fluid. I have people constantly complaining that they are low of hydraulic and their bed will not raise all the way up. There is absolutely no arguing with this, and if you argue this point you are an idiot and need to do something else. If a trailer will raise all the way up empty, the problem isn't lack of fluid. If it raises empty, and not loaded, your pump isn't strong enough to raise the load. Fluids do not compress, and therefore it makes no difference if you are loaded or empty, it takes exactly the same amount to raise a trailer. You can either turn your pump up, buy a new or stronger one, or haul a lighter load, but adding fluid is never going to help. Also one gallon of hydraulic fluid added to a system for say a 35 ft trailer will raise the trailer, maybe another 6 inches even if you are low of fluid.

Even in quarries where you have inexperienced or poorly paid loader operators that doesn't prevent you from buddying up to the loader operator. Even if the boss doesn't heap praise on them, pay them well, or give them good equipment, if you bring them a doughnut in the morning, maybe a burger every now and then for lunch, or a Dr Pepper in the afternoon. There is a skill to loading trucks, but the biggest trait needed to load a truck properly is giving a ####, and if you do things that makes the loader man like you, five bucks a day is a bargain. Talk to them as well, and treat them like a human, and you will be amazed how operators you thought were idiots, get smart really fast.

If you are forty years old and have never pulled an end dump trailer, you can become competent to pull one, but you will never be an excellent end dump operator. Just like people who decide they want to learn to drive a big rig at 45 will never have the skills someone who learned to drive one at 18 has. Having to shovel out loads that stick, freeze, or won't come out for some reason, pretty much goes with the territory. You are getting paid to deliver a load, and until it's dumped it isn't delivered. From what I read about the load you were having such a time with, it sounded to me like the load may have been one there can be problems with, but lack of experience contributed as much as anything. The fact you thought a gallon of fluid would have made a difference tells me that. It isn't a personal shot at anyone, because I recently hired a 42 yr old friend to drive for me, and I had to go out to a job site because he couldn't get the load dumped and went and bought ten gallons of fluid even though I told him fluid wasn't the problem. Oddly enough the trailer he was pulling didn't have a liner in it temporarily. It took me twenty minutes and he was gone. The next day he pulled off onto ground that he shouldn't have pulled onto. I'll be glad to pay him for the two hours he lost when the load wouldn't, if he pays the $500 it cost me to get him winched out.

Operating an end dump isn't something you just pick up over night. It can be frustrating, dangerous, and even deadly. When you said the trailer began to lean badly and you shoved the lever down. Since I wasn't there I can't say for certain, but it is highly unlikely if the trailer was about to turn over, that you saved it by dropping the bed rapidly. In most cases if a trailer is on the edge of going over, slamming it down will finish it off, because most trailers aren't built with enough lateral strength, and the box will fall straight down which if it's not centered over the truck is the wrong place for it to go. There is nothing but experience and having a feel for it, that can help anyone dump a trailer safely, and I am amazed there aren't more people killed because of lack of experience, which is more than just raising up a load. Flat tires, sticking tail gate latches, and just knowing how a trailer should act all come with experience, and the safety guides sent out by the government don't and can not cover half the problems you can run into.

All in all if you are wanting to get off the road and decide to drive a truck and pull an end dump, you better get a job hauling washed rock to dump on a concrete surface or you're going to have problems eventually. There's more to it on both a skills level than most people think, and can be far more to it on a physical level. Sure there are companies who provide better equipment than others, but figuring out which one those are is part of your learning curve. I don't know what kind of a company you were working for, but I'm willing to bet they would be willing to pay you for shoveling out a load, if you are willing to make up any money that you cost them while on the job. You might say you cost them nothing, and that could be true, but I'm willing to bet you do.

 

That just depends on what you are hauling, where you are dumping and the kind of equipment you are using. Generally that's correct, but if the ground you are dumping on is soft, at times you may need to pull the trailer to you. It's that experience thing. Just pay attention and you'll learn it.

 

I've NEVER pulled the trailer towards me. I find a different spot.

 

Wow sounds like ur boss is related to my boss

 

Only time I pull a trailer towards me is on hard ground, I will not move the trailer in a landfill until it is all the way up and the nose is clear