How bad is it to leave a dump truck loaded overnight? I can see having situations where i would want to deliver a load without having to wait at the dirt pit or quarry. Is leaving it loaded overnight going to put a lot of additional wear and tear on the truck?
It's a general rule that you dont, not that you can't do it, but I've seen a hoist sent through the frame once due to a load left over night, didn't help we got about an 1-1/2" of rain either........
Have you got any truck pictures yet? Seems like, everytime I leave a truck loaded, overnight, it rains so the customer doesnt want the material, or they claim its too wet and mushy for their projects. I dont like to leave all that weight on the springs, its just me and probrably doesnt hurt a thing
We leave our trucks loaded over night all the time. I have never heard of issues with it. Just make sure you are not parked on some questionable soil especially if it is going to rain.
This is interesting to hear. Do you mind if I ask how old the trucks are in your fleet? The point about soil is a very good one. i had thought of rain but no considered the problem of soil.
Not really to do with loaded over night, but how many of you park truck with the box raised? Stay loaded over night on a rare occassion and never park with box raised. I know a guy that does this all the time. It does not do the seals in the box ram any good and if you get a hell of a wind strom as we do around here it could put your truck on its side. Explain that one to the insurance man.
This thread is getting funnier by the minute ....LOL...... leaving your truck loaded will NEVER be an issue, as far as the truck goes, now as far as the load goes might be another issue.(wouldn't want it glued to the inside of the box) I've left a fully loaded off hwy Logging truck sitting from Friday evening till Monday first thing loaded and those were real heavy loads up to 20 metric tonnes on the drivers...... we used to pre-load all the time and also our truck and pups ..... .....What about the guy who loads freight on Thursday afternoon on the Pacific coast drives 1/2 a day home, stays over night, then has to have aload delivered on the East coast the following week or something like that ....... come on now really .... over night ...... it's a piece of cake ..... wouldn't even blink at it ......
When I was filling in at our quarry, a lot of times the drivers who would be taking stone to the blacktop plants, would get a pre-load the night before. Clean stone is probably more favorable since it won't "soak up" any potential rain fall. I have seen one or two loads get frozen in the beds during the winter months. One was a pre-load and the other, the trailer's tarp broke I believe, and they had a 2 hour haul, the wind blowing over the load was enough to freeze the top of the load.... always fun. Off-road trucks are a different story... Cat anyway, frowns on leaving an off road truck loaded over night... but there's a lot more weight in a 775 than a triaxle I suppose too.
You will do more harm to a truck by driving it hard over rough terrain with a load than having it sit with a load overnight. Far as sticky loads go, you really need a lot of rain to create a problem.
we leave trucks loaded for weeks and have never had an issue from it, perfect example down here is the fire trucks are at full weight constantly and sit there for years on end
As stated this is an absolutely humorous thread. In 43 years of running a fleet of mostly dump trailers that are preloaded nearly every single night for the next day early morning delivery usually over 100 miles away we have NEVER had any damage done to the hoist,springs/air bags or frame. I only run a dozen trailers and two triaxles but my neighbor who has been in business for 20+ years runs well over 20 dump trailers and several roll-offs that are also preloaded with aggregate or scrap every night..........Maybe I should warn him we are about to have a maint, crisis if we don't stop preloading? lol!
As long as you are loaded within the weight limits of the truck it should make no difference. We all know nobody overloads with soil or stone.
So just how did the load being left overnight cause the hoist to go through the frame????????? How is leaving a load overnight any different than loading it up and driving for anything from a few hours to a few days? Sitting overnight is less stress on a truck than driving, with bumps, ruts in the road, and any other stress of movement. The only thing I would worry about is to not park on very rough ground, where the suspension or frame may be in a twist. I preload my lowbed all the time, up to its maximum gross weight, and never a concern one about it. Sitting is much easier on it than driving it.
I suppose it could be argued that springs have a certain amount of life in them and not pre loading might extend the life somewhat but I am no expert in truck suspension.
Must be a regional thing, I've only seen a handful of dump trucks left loaded over night around here. To each their own I guess, I could care less either way. The truck that had the hoist jammed through the frame had tried to dump his rain soaked load off, It was however an old worn out corn binder........
This is an interesting topic. I would think it would be fine. Maybe over 20 years it might sag a mm or two...maybe. There is a septic company around here with about five rigs pulling tag alongs and backhoes and every single night they unchain and unload and reload and chain every morning. It's trailers but, dang what a huge amount of extra work everyday.
Yair . . . Hey Fastdirt or anyone. A bit off topic here but I was surprised to see you post "mm or two". Is that a regional thing? Not trying to be as mart ass but I thought you blokes would post in inches? And what a pain unloading backhoes . . . I think completely opposite. If they wern't on there I would load the suckers the previous night to get a good start in the morning Cheers.
No, I just say mm like a figure of speech being extremely small. We're all standard inches around here, which brings frustrating fractions and decimals.
We park all our dumps on and off road with the bed up so that water doesn't stay in the bed and cause dry dirt to stick the next time it is used. As for preloading we usually don't leave our dumps loaded just because if we take the time to load it mine as well go take it to were it goes and dump it but we leave our lowboy loaded all the time. As a matter of fact our roller is on our trailer right now. Now do you think it helps to save the airbags to dump the air when leaving it loaded over night?
Parked for days loaded. Never had a problem
I just can't understand their thinking on that one. The labor costs alone would eat up any perceived savings over the years, not to mention the added wear and tear on the chains, binders and trailer. It's not like they are demo'ing a house one day and spreading topsoil the next, their installing septic tanks, they already know what they will need the next day...
We leave our dump trucks loaded over night all the time. If it's going to rain over night or going to be below 35* I make sure they get dumped. I have seen a lot of contractors drop the landing gear on trailers over night to take some of the weight off the truck, but could see the $$$ if it was forgotten in the morning. I don't like leaving dump trucks tilled up or leaving trailers loaded with the high winds we get.
Welcome to the Forums gravelwasher!:drinkup
thank you CM1995
On an empty dump i always lift the box up 6-8" just so water dosent collect in the box and create a mess when i pull out. I have left 40 tons on the lowbed hooked the the truck for a week once. never hurt a damn thing.
Yair . . .gotcha Fastdirt, just wondered. Cheers.