DUMP TRAILER

DUMP TRAILER

Trailers for passenger cars that turn them into small trucks are especially popular among rural residents and owners of country houses. And that’s quite natural — they make it much easier to transport a variety of loads such as sand and peat, cement and manure, bricks and gravel. The only downside is that loading and unloading them usually has to be done manually — with a shovel.

I’d like to present to readers a dump trailer with a tilting body. Building one like this for yourself can completely eliminate the hassle of unloading.

There’s probably no need to describe the structure in too much detail — it’s quite traditional, and similar designs have been featured many times in the pages of “Modelist-Konstruktor.” Still, to start off, here are a few words about the trailer’s design.

Trailer with tilting body
Trailer with tilting body:
1 — coupling device, 2 — spare wheel, 3 — lock, 4, 7, 10 — body sides, 5 — mudguard, 6 — signal light, 8 — latch, 9 — tie rod, 11 — wheel, 12 — body longitudinal beam, 13 — lifting device fitting, 14 — spare wheel mount, 15 — trailer frame, 16 — body hinge.
Lifting mechanism
Lifting mechanism (A — body in transport position, B — body position during unloading):
1 — connecting hose, 2 — lifting device fitting, 3 — support plate, 4 — rings, 5 — pneumatic chambers, 6 — cover.

The frame is welded from square steel pipes with a 40×40 mm section, and the axle comes from an SZD motor cart, using spring-hydraulic shock absorbers from a Ural motorcycle. The axle is attached to the frame with struts, also welded from square tubes.

The trailer is equipped with a standard ball coupling device designed for use with a 50 mm diameter ball.

Pneumatic chamber connection diagram
Pneumatic chamber connection diagram:
1 — chambers, 2 — threaded pipe, 3 — nuts, 4 — washers.
Lifting device fitting attachment diagram
Lifting device fitting attachment diagram:
1 — cover, 2 — pneumatic chamber, 3 — corner ring, 4 — nuts, 5 — washer, 6 — support plate, 7 — lifting device fitting, 8 — connecting hose, 9 — clamp.

The body is assembled from panels, each with a frame made of 30×30 mm steel angles and sheathed with 12 mm thick plywood fastened with M6 bolts and nuts. Two longitudinal beams made of wooden bars with a 120×30 mm section are attached to the bottom. The body is mounted to the frame with a hinge — its mating parts are welded to the frame and bolted to the beams; in the front part, there’s a lock similar to a regular latch that prevents the body from tilting while driving.

Trailer chassis
Trailer chassis:
1 — coupling device, 2 — frame longitudinal beam (steel tube 40×40), 3 — fixing eyelet, 4 — body hinge, 5 — rear strut, 6 — front strut, 7 — wheel, 8 — rear cross member, 9 — torsion axle suspension, 10 — front cross member, 11 — bolts, nuts and washers for front strut mount, 12 — bolts, nuts and washers for axle mount, 13, 14 — connecting clamps.

Now to the main point — the design of the lifting device. It’s pneumatic, powered by the vehicle’s exhaust system. Under the body floor, between the longitudinal beams, are three car inner tubes enclosed in a strong fabric cover — made of canvas or synthetic sailcloth — fastened with M5 screws to steel angle rings on the body floor and the frame. All the chambers are connected with threaded pipes, nuts, gaskets, and washers, and a fitting bent in an “L” shape is attached to the lower one, onto which a rubber hose is fitted. To lift the body, the other end of the hose must be slipped onto the towing car’s exhaust pipe and the engine revved up. After two or three minutes, the body will rise. To lower it, simply remove the hose from the exhaust pipe.

I. KHOROSHEVSKY, engineer

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