We primarily do dirt and gravel work for home owners and builders. Things like gravel driveways, site prep, top soil, etc. We have a 16' gooseneck dump trailer. It works but is small on the capacity side and difficult to get into some places. Yesterday we needed 6 tons of gravel for a driveway and rather than have to make two trips we hauled it in one. It worked but I know we were overloaded. Today we hauled 75 yards of top soil to a guy and need to take 75 more tomorrow. Luckily it is only about 4 miles as it took 15 trailer loads. On top of that it was too tricky to back the trailer where we needed it so the skid steer was constantly shuttling it. If I had a dump truck it would have greatly reduced the effort involved and not by just reducing trips. I am all but convinced I need a dump truck but I am unsure of the size. I have a DOT number and all that jazz for some other equipment we have so getting something over 26k is not out of the question but I am not sure if I want to stay under or go over based on the hassle factor of needing CDL drivers, and all that goes with it. How light of a truck do they make with the 26k GVWR? Do they have them around 10k so I could haul 8 tons of gravel or dirt? If I decide to go into CDL territory what is a good size to get? I see a lot of trucks around 33k GVWR and that seems odd to me as it is only 3.5 tons more than a non CDL truck but you have all the CDL stuff to contend with. Seems like if I go over 26k I should go way over to make it worth the hassle and be able to haul a lot at once.
A lot of guys take a 30 - 33k gvwr rig and license it at 25,999 so its supposedly under cdl, then what it actually hauls is their biz. I have a ford f-800 diesel with a 10' box, 24" steel sides and I usually run boards atop that. Loading height is a factor when considering the bigger dumps. Especially if you like to load with skidloaders or mini hoes. My 800 has a shorter turning radius than my f-350 reg cab pickup, its only maybe a foot wider which makes it handy getting into tight spots. My suggestion, hire both for a day and see which truck will suit your needs better. I think your going to want a short side, 16' boxed tandem, but that's just a guess.
I would say for sure you do need a truck and I'm going to say a tandem or tri axle with a 15 or 16ft bed, But I may be off on that. Where are you located? And what are you wanting to spend on a truck? I'm just asking to get a idea of what kind of truck to tell you to look at.
And no, your not going to find a 10000lb truck that you want to haul 8 ton on. My 2007 dodge dually weighs just under 10k. My t450 kenworth tri axle dump with a 16ft bed weighs 27k. It's been a while since I've been over a scale in a small single axle dump truck, but I'm thinking something like a f800 or f700 with a 9 or 10 ft bed will be around 13 or 14000lbs, but that's going off my memory that ain't to sharp.
I am in Texas near Amarillo. Price wise I would like to keep it under 30k if possible. I found this one fairly close to me and around budget but it only has a ten foot bed. Heck if I could haul 7-8 yards of top soil or 5-6 yards of gravel at a time that would be better than what I am doing now. http://www.truckpaper.com/listingsdetail/detail.aspx?OHID=5493735 As far as loading goes we have a Deere 322 CTL and a Kubota M59 backhoe. Definitely not large equipment but should be able to go high enough. Since I posted this I lined up two more jobs. After we finish hauling the 75 yds of top soil we have to deliver 25-35 yards of gravel about 30 miles away from the gravel pit and then deliver a spread 5 yds of top soil on a yard. Quite honestly the 150 yd job is big for what we normally do and if it wasn't so close I probably would have just subbed out an end dump. Most stuff is small jobs. We like to get the small jobs that the bigger guys don't want. A bigger dump would be great at times but the guy helping me now and driving our dump trailer around doesn't have a CDL. He could probably get one but that ain't gonna happen next week and we have work piling up. Not ruling out a bigger truck but sure thinking about the smaller one.
Why not just get a cdl? I haul 10 tons legally on my single axle all day and the best part is a larger truck handles the work better stops better turns just as good if not better than a pickup can haul equipment around easier over all the cdl is a small hurdle to over come considering all the benefits of have a real truck to do the work