I have a customer whose driveway is too steep. Last year I declined to lay down more road base on it, because I figure it will just washout again and hurt my business rep. We agreed on a plan to bring in a dozer guy and build a proper switchback about 60 yards to the side to climb that hill slowly. I gave them my proposal. And waited...months. They finally got back to me. The poor guy has cancer, skinny as heck, and his wife just left him, to fight cancer alone. So the nice new driveway with a switchback is off. He has to polish up their place and sell it, so the karen can get her share. I agreed to fill the ruts in that steep driveway and compact some good road base on top. Now that I have a tri-axle (aka tandem) dump truck, I believe that I can safely dump loads on that slope. But I'm not real experienced at doing that. I'm looking for one of you who has dumped a lot of loads to recommend whether I back up and dump downhill, or do it the other way. My hunch is to back up then dump going down (no chains on the tailgate though). Then park the truck, jump in my maintainer and blade the piles smooth. Rinse and repeat till the hill is done. So what would you experienced dump truck drivers recommend? I want to help this poor guy out. He's 16 years younger than me but looks older what with the cancer and his wretched, unfaithful wife dumping him.
It will be safer to drive down the hill and dump but you'll lose some of the pitch on the body. If you try to dump and spread driving up the hill and the load shifts you'll go over in a heartbeat, Be very certain there is a minimum of side to side pitch, that will take you over too.
It's going to be down to traction, no matter what your desires are. Backing a loaded truck up the hill is no fun, some wheel hop and spin and you can break something fast. If you have enough traction to drive up it, and a place to turn around you could do that and dump coming down the hill as Steve suggested. Since you are not hanging any chains, you might do yourself a solid and grade it with your maintainer ( I have no idea what this piece of equipment is ), drive the maintainer up there, get the truck up and turned around, and just dump some piles. You can raise the bed and dump a little out, then let the bed down and move forward slowly, and repeat. That way you are not moving with a raised bed in a situation you are not comfortable with. I know it is extra money but a roller would be a huge help in firming it all up.
I should specify that my WB is 18' and the bed is short, only 12' long. The big quarry loaders have to spill off the back to avoid damaging my tarp roller. So that short bed is safer when dumping, regarding pitching over. I will stay as level as possible side to side, thanks for the reminder. The only place to turn around up top would be on the guy's lawn. His realtor would kill me. Dumping a few piles is my plan, then blade them. A maintainer is what Texans call a smaller grader. Mine weighs 7 tons and has a 10' blade, bucket up front, rippers in back, 4w hst and a Cummins 4BT. There's another guy here @cuttin edge who runs the same machine. They're pretty rare. Yes I do plan to put a 7t roller/vibrator in my bid.
OK. That helps. I have that same short bed thing going for me, I have to clean the tailgate most times.
I'm not sure if he's referring to the same machine but in the 70s and 80s there was a machine called a "Maintainer" that was popular with small paving companies in my area. I can't remember the manufacturer's name but it was a stretched commercial tractor with a front bucket, center mounted grader blade on a turntable and York rake out back. They used them to dress driveways before paving. Used to see them quite often but now that it's been mentioned here I can't remember the last time I saw one.
we have huber graders out west, but they never have a bucket on them. You stand on them. I ran one briefly for a paving outfit.
I didn't see one of those for sale except old and beat up, but that would have trouble grading a smooth road with that short WB. It already takes constant attention with mine, which is shorter than a dedicated grader WB. This pic is from before I "unfixed" the rippers. Somebody had welded bar steel across them to use it as a mini-blade in back.
Found one! Huber was the name, and while looking they seem to have been available with different attachments
never saw one with a bucket out here. Or that cab!
The machine you have is the same concept but on a longer chassis and might explain why we don't see the Maintainer much anymore
If only there were still any in that condition !!!
I have trouble remembering back that far anymore but I seem to remember they were bought out by Ingersol Rand which is when the color went from construction yellow to the white you see here.
There is one of those around here used by a small paving contractor. Pretty rough and it pulled something apart for the grader blade on a job a couple of years back and I welded it back so it could be loaded back onto a trailer. There was no bucket out front but hell for stout hydraulic scarifier teeth. Trying to remember the name and think it was Schram but not certain. I know that name was air compressors for sure.
They call them a maintainer here as well. Our 88 was built by Puckett Bros, then a 99 Alitec, then your PSI, and now Mauldin. I think there might have been some incarnations in between. If you back down and dump, keep it in gear. I see guys that put their truck in neutral and hold the brakes. I'm a big believer in having as much control as possible.
This is not the one I was referencing but just like it: https://www.auctiontime.com/listings/farm-equipment/auctions/online/195201803/1985-schramm-ht300b
Years ago, the guys I work for had 3 asphalt plants in different areas. One area, the town of Dalhousie, is know for steep roads. They were paving one of these hills. Back then it was single axle gas jobs loaded heavy. The trucks had to pick a driveway to pull into, and then back into the spreader. If they tried backing all the way down the hill, the front wheels would come up when they hit the brakes. They couldn't pave facing down hill because the asphalt wouldn't come out of the box, and the old hydraulic brakes wouldn't keep the truck in the spreader.
Can you drive up to the top of the driveway and turn around so you can dump going down ?
He said that no, there is only a lawn up there to destroy
I know the type. My mother in law asked if I could not tear the grass up when removing unwanted shrubs from around the house with my skid steer.....
I just can't fathom a home design without a decent turn around on it, myself. I see people backing out onto busy streets and just SMH.
Does the material you are putting down spread good out of a tailgate? If so I would spread uphill, sounds like a good place for you to practice. Set the chains for about a 6" gap, put the box up 1/4 of the way, start up in 1st. When you see or hear the rock slowing down put the box up to 1/2 way and if it is as steep as you say that's all you will need to empty the box. We have rocked hills as steep as 33 percent, that was steep enough that you back down when empty because you needed to keep the weight on the drivers for brakes. The trucks with ABS could come down head first on the fresh spread of rock but the ones that didn't would slide on down the hill the first time they tried it. After that they backed down! Backing up a steep hill loaded is a good place to take out a rear end also like was previously mentioned, if you go that route don't spin out!
We're seeing folks move in here to rural TX within a hour of the burbs and drop big money on a few acres. I could not afford to buy my own place anymore with the recent price run-up. They are desperate to get out of urban areas and commie states. Same for businesses. Lots of dirt work to do, and I see corners cut often. Us local guys are booked up. Big city companies drive in from an hour away, bid low, work quick, then disappear. One guy called me for a bid, then never responded. I saw a big city company start up the job. They trucked in unwashed 1" decomposed marble gravel and filled a wide highway apron (65 mph, and on a curve?) over an undersized new culvert with that gravel. Wide road side ditches we call bar ditches here in Texas. They used no road base, so the fines are not classed as binder. Lots of young guys running the machines, a passel of shiny new leased pickups parked, no local dump truck guys hired, they brought in big city drivers who don't even wave. No road base at all trucked in. Just that gravel, which happens to be the cheapest aggregate at local quarries. It packs pretty well but breaks down under heavy use, as is clear from the slush at that quarry when it rains. It also is subject to erosion. At a quarry they have plenty of machines to maintain that slop. I'm waiting for the next big Texas gully washer we get after a good long rain has soaked everything so the small culvert overflows. That gravel will rut up and run out down the highway bar ditch. Oh, that new business is a new wine and hard drinks bar. Not the kind of businesses we need around here anyway. I'm VFD and have seen too many drunks wrecking out after closing time. Chances are good it will fail after a year, starting up any business is hard.
Lots of city people moving into my area for the slower pace. Lots of work, but it's driving prices up like crazy. Here, there is no job done for city or province without inspectors, and if it's not done to spec, you don't get paid. The province also requires you to hire local trucks to do work for them. I think we can move 25% of the materials for the job, so they just mix a few company trucks into the mix, so someone has a radio. There is also a minimum government rate that has to be paid to hires trucks for these projects, as well as a protection system to keep contractors from not paying trucks, or subbed out machines. I know you guys don't like government regs a lot, but it makes sure the owner operators get some work, and everyone gets paid. When you bid the job, all the rates are in the package. If you are going to take the job cheap, you still have to pay the hourly, or ton mile rates for any hired trucks or outside equipment. You are free to use all your own machinery. I think there is even a clause for flaggers. There are a lot of companies that make their flaggers stay on the road all day. I think with provincial work, they need to have a breaker. Ours always have breakers anyway, and it's up to them how often they spell each other off.
We have a sneakernet here. The guys who don't pay, the word gets out. They pretty much have to move to another area. One site I had, two very long driveways back to luxo houses, one builder had walked away from one of the houses roofed and framed but not even sheetrocked yet. I told my neighbor, who builds houses, and he knew the guy's name already "nobody will work with him now but the big corporations" So the sneakernet system corrects itself. We set our own rates based on how much we want work. I'm older now so don't bid cheap. But I do good work and will come back if needed. I'd rather build up a group of customers who pay well and are happy, then tell their neighbors. That beats a government system. France controls stuff even more than Canada. I lived there for 18 years, had my belly full of government rules. You get fined and literally can go to jail if you work on somebody's yard without a Gardener license. The French prez is calling any intact person a non-citizen now, forcing folks to take the experimental shot. All public gun ranges are closed down now too. All my LE buds back there are depressed as heck. Several retired early. Cop suicides are going up. That's what big government get you.
Word spreads pretty fast here to. Bad word spreads faster than good unfortunately. Company I work for has a good reputation for quality work, and paying bills on time. The government control only goes for their own contracts, they really could care less about anything else. I've seen guys take jobs cheap, walk away, and not pay anyone. A water and sewer job in a local Indian reserve. One of their own people took the job, put a couple man holes in the ground, no pipe connecting them. Sold the pipe, took the money and spent it. And he still does work for the community.