What’s Your SMALLER Equipment Setup?

[27RMT0N]

I'm not looking to buy, but I'm also curious about your light-weight dump insert, evo.

 

[evo]

Evo, I will need to get another pickup dump insert some day. Is one like yours available for sale? I live near the ocean and have 1/8 sheet metal rusting through all over mine.

It might be, I keep going back and fourth on selling it. But have no current plans to do so. It wouldn’t be hard to copy and have one made up.

 

[evo]

I’ll take some photos and if someone is very interested measurements, and pros vs cons

 

[TCtreeswinger]

They're fairly common from truck accessories builders. Swenson trukcraft buyers etc. May be hard to find one exactly how you want it though

 

[Merle Nelson]

It might be, I keep going back and fourth on selling it. But have no current plans to do so. It wouldn’t be hard to copy and have one made up.

Just wondering if there was one like yours commercially available. Thank you.

When I bought one in steel almost twenty years ago it paid to do a lot of research as quality and capability varied so much. Even the one I bought needed to be beefed up to handle max loads doing tree service work.

The one thing I missed is I should have at least gone with stainless or preferably aluminum.

As far as the original post goes - even though I have a medium size truck, a Ram 5500 with 10 and 11 foot boxes for logs and chips, I'll always want a dump insert on a single wheel one ton pickup for difficult access jobs.

 

[RyanCafferky]

EZ-DUMPER® - The Original Dump Insert: An Olympic Steel Company

For more than 45 years, EZ-Dumper® has designed and manufactured durable, dependable hydraulic dump inserts that have helped teams save time, reduce costs, and improve productivity and jobsite efficiency.

ez-dumper.com

One company I work for has one of these on a Dodge 3500 chassis. Great little unit. He built an aluminum chip box that two guys can put on the truck and clamp to the bed.

 

[southsoundtree]

Yes once in a while, but more often people want specifically alder chips around here.

Mushroom cultivation calls for wood, no leaf.


Composted Maple chips plus cow manure or other organic matter makes a good amendment for vegetable gardening.

 

[Tree-Taylor]

A friend of mine has a Tacoma and tows a trailer carrying a small chipper, a mini skid and large recycling bins. Mini skid tows the chipper into the backyard and chipping is done right there into the bins. I've never seen it but he loves the setup. I've looked into them but I don't know if I could handle working with a 3" chipper. I looked into them this spring. There are a couple that are half decent.

I like that sprinter van idea. I wonder how they secure the chipper while driving? I only arb 2-3 days a week so I'm very interested in small scale setups like these. Right now I trailer everything but I'd love to save that trip to the dump at the end of the day. Especially if the client would use the mulch.

 

[Barc Buster]

Just wondering if there was one like yours commercially available. Thank you.

When I bought one in steel almost twenty years ago it paid to do a lot of research as quality and capability varied so much. Even the one I bought needed to be beefed up to handle max loads doing tree service work.

The one thing I missed is I should have at least gone with stainless or preferably aluminum.

As far as the original post goes - even though I have a medium size truck, a Ram 5500 with 10 and 11 foot boxes for logs and chips, I'll always want a dump insert on a single wheel one ton pickup for difficult access jobs.

I've been pretty happy with the ez-dumper in stainless steel. Plan on building some sort of a clamp on roof

 

[Merle Nelson]

Nice. I tried viewing their website on my phone. Couldn't get specs - I'll look on computer later.

What is max dump capacity in your experience?

 

[Barc Buster]

Nice. I tried viewing their website on my phone. Couldn't get specs - I'll look on computer later.

What is max dump capacity in your experience?

There was roughly 5 yards of wet green norway spruce chips in that first pic and it dumped it no problem. Ive also dumped around a full cord of seasoned ash with it. Their website says 6k # payload. I think it will dump more than I'll ever be able to stuff in it.

 

[27RMT0N]

I imagine that bar across the back is fixed in place to keep the sides stable, does it ever get in the way of dumping?

 

[Barc Buster]

Nice. I tried viewing their website on my phone. Couldn't get specs - I'll look on computer later.

What is max dump capacity in your experience?

Another thing I should mention when I was looking around for these not all of the brands are double action like this one. Which is to say power up and power down.

I imagine that bar across the back is fixed in place to keep the sides stable, does it ever get in the way of dumping?

Yeah where it is now it's been in the way a few times. I'll relocate it when I put the top on it.

 

[Merle Nelson]

Even if intending to never have a top on it that bar would be easy to make removable for when not needed.

I have about three foot tall sides and most commonly run a flat tarp made out of trampoline fabric. That stuff is hearty, lets lots of air through, and rolls up to have open top for wood loading.

 

[Reach]

There’s a guy local to here who has one with 4’ wooden sides in the bed of his 2500 Chevy. He uses it as a chip truck, fills it full every day. I’m not sure the truck or DOT likes it, but it must be able to dump all that because he keeps doing it.

 

[Barc Buster]

Even if intending to never have a top on it that bar would be easy to make removable for when not needed.

I have about three foot tall sides and most commonly run a flat tarp made out of trampoline fabric. That stuff is hearty, lets lots of air through, and rolls up to have open top for wood loading.

It's pretty easy to remove now. It's only held on with 4 bolts.

 

[Merle Nelson]

Good to know. You've probably seen the lumber racks that keep the back bar stored conveniently on one side, then you just put it crossways in place and pin it when needed for support.

 

[evo]

Ok here it is.
What I love is how light it is. And I can just pull a few pins and remove it by my self leaving the bolt ons. It’s a pain but more than do able.
The spreader style tailgate is stupid, and I have to take it off for every dump. Which really isn’t hard at all, just lift it off. I lost the pins what hold the tailgate closed, hence the rope. Also the pivot had worn so the pin holes don’t line up anymore.
I love it’s not a scissor hoist, and only sits about 3” off the bed.
The truck it was built for was a older ford with the deeper groves on the bed, so I had to shim it with plywood, but all the bolt holes lined up. Take out 4 stock bolts that hold the factory bed down, get longer bolts and it lined right up.
A heavy load that puts pressure on the sides make the tailgate hard to remove to dump. Also dumping a heavy load, and the insert slightly tacos.
I thought about installing return springs as it is a little slow to come back down, more so when dumping with the truck facing up hill.
Only thing that I would recommend different is a better design on the tailgate and some stiffener gussets (which I’ve been meaning to do for years now). That lack of motivation is really mostly “if it ain’t broke...”

I keep thinking about ditching this truck. It’s not small enough for a commuter, and needs another seatbelt for the full family, it’s not big enough for heavy loads, or full time work. I’ve had plans to take the dump insert off and put it either on a small flatbed for a side dump/mini hauler/and slap a air compressor on for the airspade. Basically a all in one for airspade jobs/small pruning, and preservation

 

[southsoundtree]

A small ratchet strap would hold the sides while removing the gate without resistance.

 

[lumberjackson]

I took the bed off my F-250, put some air helper springs on the rear axle, built a (too big) chip box for the back, and pull a bandit 150XP most days. I'm around 14k empty including the chipper and scared to know what I weigh loaded. I'll only fill the box all the way full if I can dump on site or if there's a chipdrop really close by and I don't have to pull my chipper to the dump site. It's awesome for squeezing in tight driveways, but I wish the chassis had more weight capacity so I could drive with a load on a main road if I needed to and put some belly boxes under the box for more storage.