Vents in chip truck dump box

C

cory

Branched out member
Anybody out there have experience with them? I've never chipped into a truck with them and never felt like they would do much overall good. Plus, they are a weak spot fwiw, and seems like they might start rusting before the rest of the body.

But never having used them, I was wondering what you folks thought.

Thx.
 
Haven't noticed a difference between my old truck that had them an my new one that doesn't. That's using a 80hp 200xp to fill a forestry lift, same trucks just the new one is, well, newer. What seems to make a difference is how long the tongue on the chipper is. Bigger problem of material bouncing out not blowing out.
 
I talked with a buddy who worked on HVAC systems and was familiar with moving air efficiently. After talking with him about the value of vents in the chip box he chuckled and said they were almost useless.

Think of the huge volume of air that the chipper is creating and pumping into the five sided box. How, think of how much air might be able to 'leak' out of those small openings that are restricted with screening. There aren't enough leaks to bleed off the volume of air. That means the extra air is going to just blow back out of the chip box like a fully enclosed box.

He acknowledged that they would do some good but not very significantly.

If you're working above the snow belt you now have another way for rain/snow to leak into the chips. Then, after that water freezes you have a larger blob of chips to chop out of the box.
 
Tom Dunlap said:
I talked with a buddy who worked on HVAC systems and was familiar with moving air efficiently. After talking with him about the value of vents in the chip box he chuckled and said they were almost useless.

Think of the huge volume of air that the chipper is creating and pumping into the five sided box. How, think of how much air might be able to 'leak' out of those small openings that are restricted with screening. There aren't enough leaks to bleed off the volume of air. That means the extra air is going to just blow back out of the chip box like a fully enclosed box.

He acknowledged that they would do some good but not very significantly.

If you're working above the snow belt you now have another way for rain/snow to leak into the chips. Then, after that water freezes you have a larger blob of chips to chop out of the box.
Click to expand...
So without the holes in the box does the load freeze into a blob any less?

If it's winter and you're dragging through knee deep snow moisture(snow) will blow into your box never mind the little hole leakage.
 
Tom Dunlap said:
I talked with a buddy who worked on HVAC systems and was familiar with moving air efficiently. After talking with him about the value of vents in the chip box he chuckled and said they were almost useless.

Think of the huge volume of air that the chipper is creating and pumping into the five sided box. How, think of how much air might be able to 'leak' out of those small openings that are restricted with screening. There aren't enough leaks to bleed off the volume of air. That means the extra air is going to just blow back out of the chip box like a fully enclosed box.

He acknowledged that they would do some good but not very significantly.

If you're working above the snow belt you now have another way for rain/snow to leak into the chips. Then, after that water freezes you have a larger blob of chips to chop out of the box.
Click to expand...


Yup, that makes sense to me, too.

Plus, think of it, when the vents get blocked due to the box being, say, 3/5ths full, the air/dust etc is blowing back out of the box the same way it would if there were no vents at all. When the truck is getting nearly full, that is when blow back is strongest. If the box has lots of capacity still open, yes, vents are presumably working but a non vented truck has essentially no blowback at that point in the filling process, so, where is the gain?
 
Always dump the chips at the end of the day so, there's no chance of freezing into the box. The venting isn't going to allow that much moisture into the box beyond what's already present.
 
The vents are more for the dumping process than the filling process. My father was in the logging industry for my entire childhood. We used to chip into 45' box trailers for biomass. It was pretty impressive to see the tipping process at the power plant. Without the vents in these chipboxs the material would creat a vacume and suck the walls of the box to self destruction.
 
TimberJack said:
The vents are more for the dumping process than the filling process. My father was in the logging industry for my entire childhood. We used to chip into 45' box trailers for biomass. It was pretty impressive to see the tipping process at the power plant. Without the vents in these chipboxs the material would creat a vacume and suck the walls of the box to self destruction.
Click to expand...

Interesting idea, TJ, and I'm sure that is the case if you say so for the large trailers. But for a 14' box, implosion is definitely not a possibility, it dumps easily and uneventfully every day.
 
Timberjack is correct. I used to haul chips from a sawmill to a paper mill in 48' box trailers. One winter day the wet snow and sleet coming down managed to freeze over the vent openings while on the freeway. When all 48' of those chips let loose and slid as one big mass out of the trailer, the suction collapsed the trailer roof 2 - 3' for most of the trailer length.

That having been said, I've never heard of or seen anything like that with the usual 12' to 16' chip boxes we in the tree industry use. Probably not long enough to create enough suction.

Bigwood, we used to throw a little diesel in the chip blower when we'd start a new trailer. Put a nice oily sheen on the inside of the box and kept the chips from freezing to the box.
 
Jeff said:
Bigwood, we used to throw a little diesel in the chip blower when we'd start a new trailer. Put a nice oily sheen on the inside of the box and kept the chips from freezing to the box.
Click to expand...

Nice idea on how to apply a sheen quickly!
 
So far the only thing the vents are good for is making a mess on the ground on either side by the front of the chip box. Don't like em and don't want them there.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New threads New posts

Kask Stihl NORTHEASTERN Arborists Wesspur TreeStuff.com Teufelberger Westminster X-Rigging Teufelberger
Back
Top Bottom