Been alot of talk about fuel price, which has made me curious how much you guys with dump trucks are using (fuel) hourly or daily.
No more idling... LOL
The tractor trailers were doing $500-$650 a day depending on how far they were hauling.
Any break in price for fueling using a bulk tank or on site fueler like burke or tayler?
well our Pete 10wheeler averages 3.6 MPG...you do the math if we run her for 9 hour days we are filling the tank every other day
nope...sometimes it is even more expensive then at the pump to get get it delivered...usually its around the same price for us as you would pay on the road somewhere
I always get a better price when I have fuel delivered. On the average .30 less then gas stations and I only have a 500 and 275 tank
Can't do the math without knowing how many miles. How big is your tank? The reason for my curiosity is I have been hearing around 50 gallons a day. Which in of itself aint so bad. But then you figuire fuel is around $5 a gallon. Just for ease say 10 hours a day thats 5 gallons a hour, thats 25 an hr just for fuel. I just wonder how anyone is making ends meet, let alone make any money. Around here dumps are getting like $70-$75 hr. If your putting 25+ of that in tank it doesn't leave much for matianace, payments, insurance, to name a few. :beatsme
Just was going to check out your website and saw that the link didn't work. didn't know if you knew or not.
Same thing for me... TCP error.
It all depends on the job. Luckily I have been on a road job Milling, in 3 days I burned 38 gal of fuel and working 12 to 14 hours a day. Then you have the days that you burn 60 gal of fuel. As with anything you have to take the good with the bad. In my area there aren't to many guys putting drivers in their trucks. They are either parking the trucks or they start running as an owner operator. I don't know how any one could put a driver in a truck anymore. Thank god the roads are so ..itty in VT, gonna mean alot of road work over the next couple of years. I've got my foot in the door with a couple of good companies.
Dumptrucker that 38 gallons is more like it. I understand you need to take the good with the bad. But from what I been hearing theres more bad than good. :beatsme I have thought about getting a dump truck, but not real sure it is worth it.
I am suprised you guys have not found a way to add something to or filter out the dye of that liquid gold so it is clear
You would have to be one hell of a alchimist to seperate a dye from a liguid. Maybe you can start with something simple like the coffee from water, or lemon from lemonade.
maybe not some things are simple and stumbled upon while looking for something else,like grinding wheels carborrundum[?] was made while a guy named ACHESON , was trying to make diamonds in the early 1900s . I know his grandson.
to tell you the honest truth i dont think i could tell you the daily miles...bu its a 100 gallon tank
If I wasn't already in business I would have to think twice about owning a truck. Don't get me wrong you can make money ,but you have to do 90 percent of your own repairs, not a big payment on truck , and finding someone good to sign on with.
dirt digger, I know what you mean about keeping track of miles... hours... all that stuff. This is a screen shot of the gps I use in our dozer. I'm not good with cameras, got some glare from the flash, but it's readable and you could probably use a cell phone. You can then put it in your computer for a record... it really does work quite good. You can reset it any time, and change the read outs. I have a different style that I use in our truck/belly dump, and I actually use it for "chargeable hours". Might work for you too... I don't know. OCR
Those I know that are just in the trucking business are having a tough time with the fuel prices. Fortunately for me, I generate almost all of my trucking work. I mostly haul dirt from one job to another and haul my equipment to and from jobs (for which I charge). This works out well for me. I don't need to take marginal trucking jobs just to keep some income coming in. I keep track of how the dumptruck does by logging $/mile. I also track revenue generated by my other pieces of equipment. It is simple to do and gives an instant snapshot of what is profitable and by how much. So far this year, the dumptruck has generated $4.22/mile gross. MPG has varied from 4.1 mpg (two day of very short trips off road where highest gear used was 4th) to 7.8 mpg (two days of hauling horse manure on 80 mile round trip on flat ground). Overall average is about 6 mpg.
Thanks Bob!!
Logging miles and hours: Screen shot of GPS in our truck. Bottom right of top pic. is total time... hours customer will be charged. I started this unwanted job on December 26 2007. Talk about being drug out... Product was decent pit run gravel for a road I had built him, about 1 mile long. Also around corrals and loading chute. Haul road was about half wash board gravel and half wash board black top... 17 miles round trip... up hill both ways... one strait section at least a quarter mile long. The only good thing about haul was that I could set up to top load with our 312 ex. into our 3 axle Trail King belly dump. It took about 5 to 7 minutes to load. I wasn't sure what the top speed of our truck was, so I maxed it out on some good road to the job site... 81.1 MPH. I don't why the bottom picture got in. It's just the GPS booting up. I took photo about 3 and a half hours ago... time is to right of date, 2'nd row down.
Truck and belly dump... truck is 1987, 9370... In Here... ... I mean IH. PS: If anyone is interested in the money part... I'll post what kind of deal was made. OCR
Thanks for posting OCR
You're welcome, sir. OCR
I've thought about this quite a bit. For example.... How could someone with a road legal H2O truck or dump truck run red (off road) fuel while working off road then legally drive that truck over the road to the next job, yard, or where ever? You need to carry both red and clear fuel and be able to switch between the two without contaminating the clear fuel. In theory, this should be easy to do as long as you follow a simple sequence of opening and closing supply and return fuel lines. Screw up the sequence and you turn your more expensive clear fuel into red fuel. Off of the top of my head, here's some of the parts/mods that you might need to do. For this scenario, I'm using a street legal H2O truck running off road a few days a week then being driven to the next job or to the yard. 1... 2 separate fuel tanks. One for red fuel and one for clear fuel. 2... A total of four 1" ball valves to be used for isolating the clear fuel from the red fuel. 3... Enough extra fuel hose, clamps and fittings to put everything together. Everyone still with me? So far, we've spent maybe a few hundred bucks on parts. Depending on how much you pay for fuel and how much time you spend off road, you can do the math to find out if this would even be worth it. How this should work.... Driving down the highway in your beater H20 truck you would be using only clear fuel unless you like living on the edge. The ball valves to the clear fuel supply and return lines would both be open. Once on the job, you would first open the return line to the red tank THEN close off the clear return line. Next you would open the red fuel supply then close off the clear fuel supply line. You should now be running on cheaper red fuel. To switch back to clear fuel you would do this (pay attention). With both the red supply and return lines open, First open up the clear supply line THEN close the red supply line. You will need to run this way for an undetermined amount of time (maybe 15-20 mins) to flush out any red fuel. Last, after the fuel in the return line has cleared up, open up the clear return line THEN close off the red return line. If I've confused you, then I suggest that you totally disregard this post. If and when I get around to putting something like this together in kit form, you'd be better off paying me or someone like me for the complete package. Parts and detailed instructions included. If you understand what I'm talking about, this might be a way for someone to save a buck in these hard times. We all know that every little bit helps and every penny counts.
Pete, I'm not sure it would work because when they test you, they dip the tanks. I don't know if they would buy that you only run clear on the road and the red is just for offroad. If you have a tank with red in it, you get fined. I do know of a guy that uses his auxilary tank for red fuel and has a pump on it for filling his equipment. He would be OK because the tank isn't hooked up to the truck engine and it is easy to tell it is only pumped off to other equipment.
Yeah...but you also have a clear tank. Thats whats supplying the the fuel so thats the one to check. If in doubt, you could drain some fuel from the filter. As long as clear fuel comes out, why wouldnt it fly?
I'd be curious to know know what the rules are today. Years ago, in Illinois, if you had a trip recorder - I can't remember what they were called, had a round paper graph that showed time, miles, etc. - and a fuel meter you could mark your off road time and the state would rebate the tax money from highway fuel used for that time. This would be easy to do today as all the electronics are already there in the newer trucks.
Would that be the filter you also switch back to? Becuase the red dye will dye the filter to.
Kpmatsu 150, they were called Tachographs , I remember as a kid all the school buses had them.
The switch would be before the filter. Both fuel lines T'd together at or before the filter housing. So yeah, the filter would have red fuel in it. It doesnt take long to clear it up. Maybe 10 gallons or a few min's of running time.
Thanks I Just could not make that word come out of my brain. After doing some googling the following quote: "In some situations, it is not practicable for dyed diesel fuel to be used for off-road purposes. In that case, clear (undyed) diesel fuel may be purchased tax-paid for off-road use, but the purchaser must apply to the Department for a refund of the tax. Section 13 of the Motor Fuel Tax Law sets forth the situations in which the tax paid for clear diesel fuel may be reimbursed. The Department’s regulations at 86 Ill. Adm. Code 500.235 and 500.265 explain how claims for credit or refund may be made" There is a form to fill out at http://tax.illinois.gov/taxforms/misc/mft/RMFT11A.pdf
Oh you can't claim fuel used while idling and boaters are screwed, no rebate for on water use.
diesel is rough
Do you mean that " were" as in past tense? Dont your trucks have them anymore? I've read several posts on here and " log books " have been in use but I assumed ( never assume ) that the poster was using an older generation truck that was tacho excempt. In UK we now have Digital Tacho's in the trucks 12months old and newer.
The company is still producing them, but they are pretty much obsolete now. Modern versions are all electronic and store data to be downloaded at the end of the run. I recognized the specific one Komatsu 150 was describing as the Tachograph, I drove a truck in the early 80s with one, but I haven't seen them since.