Recently took advantage of the DoD offering of surplus military trailers and pick this little beauty up for the large sum of $420. Mow I want to make it into a 20 ft dump trailer. Here is what it looks like and the specs; Anyone have any experience with these trailers. Everything about them is massive and overkill by a factor of 4 or more. The depth of the springs is over a foot tall on each wheel. I need to start stripping out all the non needed military stuff to get the weight down because I want to stretch the frame and deck so I can have a 20 ft dump trailer. The only negative is that the deck stands 38" tall. I want to make a scissor dump hoist that can handle the load on the trailer. Thanks again to my Uncle Sam, I picked up 5 hydraulic cylinders for under $400 (7" dia, 3" rod) and will build the hoist around what I have. I want to be able to attain a dump angle of 60 deg because I have seen too many 45 deg max angle dump trailers with material that will not flow. I divorced my shovel, softened my hands and will not go back ..... take a good dump at the dump I say. Been playing around on AutoCad with different concepts for fabricating a dump hoist. Don't recommend I go buy a $2,000 hoist. I'm retired and my hourly wage is $0.00, so I can spend a little time in the shop. Continued on page @2
Here's were I am on the design for the hoist I am not set on the 20 ft bed. Could cut it down to 18 ft by removing a foot from each end of the bed. The brakes are currently air over hydraulic. I don't want to fuss with air because I know I will have $700-$1000 tied up in it when it's said and done. New on the market is an electric over hydraulic unit that will work with your current brake controller and 7 pin RV connector. Cost is about $500. I welcome constructive input and opinions. I've built several twin ram dumps on trucks and trailers and that is still an option for this project. The cylinders are new and I know they will last far longer than I will. Paul
Looks like you are onto a good project. I see no reason why your hoist won't work. Keep in mind you will need to change the lights and reconfigure the wiring to work with civilian models. The brake unit you mention sounds like a good solution, and now you just need a dump body. Maybe someone needs a flatbed and would trade you. Good luck
The one at work we have has twin gen sets mounted to it, it is also like said a heavy duty trailer. It would be a nice portable shop/welding table if the deck was thicker. They would make like your doing a nice dump trailer also.
I had been bidding on the 5 ton trailers and most of the time they go for $700-$1,200. This was the first time I have seen the 7.5 ton come up for bid. The 5 and 7.5 ton trailers look almost the same. The smaller 5 ton has the metal deck on the frame beams and extends over the tongue. All I can say is that a few people were asleep on the BID NOW button. Paul