My country’s semi-shutdown caused a national cleanup operation, one could almost call it a rage. Folks are cleaning up their houses, garages, sheds, gardens and whatever. Throughout the country, loaded car-trailer combinations keep on lining up for the local recycling and waste transfer stations.
Also, trucks carrying an empty or full open top waste container just keep on trucking like there’s no tomorrow.
The 2017 Volvo FH in motion above has a hook-lift system to put such containers on and off the truck. Don’t ask me what’s underneath the tarp, it can’t be very heavy though: the Volvo’s steering pusher axle is down, but the tag axle is still up.
With 510 DIN-hp, it’s a powerful truck. Plenty of horses available to tow a full trailer like this one, for carrying another container.
Earlier last week, and rather early in the morning too, I noticed the distinctive sound of a working, diesel powered roll loader crane. A full-sizer, blocking the street, was delivering a few pallets of bricks at my neighbor’s place. Getting rid of stuff and renovation jobs often go hand in hand…
The tractor is a Scania G450 of the previous generation. This big rig is a typical brick hauler, I posted a whole collection of them right here.
Oh look, this picture -a view from above- is even worse! All reflections in the bright morning sun, just consider it as an abstract piece of work and we’re good. The truck driver & crane operator, wearing an orange safety jacket, can be seen in the background (at roof height).
Meanwhile, many professional gardeners are fully booked up till at least August (this is a 2019 picture, by the way). On a related note, a horticulturist told me he got the best auction prices ever for his flowers. Thank goodness, it’s not all doom-talk. Keep your feet on the ground and your head up!
Now if you will excuse me, I’ve got a trailer to fill.
You aren’t wrong, it’s the same over here. Or at least for me.
– A week ago filled the pickup with wood from broken branches/trees after a freak 14″ wet snowstorm. Bigger limbs are denuded of branches and still in the backyard waiting for me to chainsaw them into fire-pit friendly chunks.
– Earlier this week filled it twice with rock we (my 13y.o. and I) removed from a house we are renovating. About 3 cubic yards total, even harder to get back out of the truck than to put into it.
– Currently it’s half full with old roofing shingles as we are finishing up a shed re-roof today. Any space left in it will be filled with old doors and assorted other detritus from the same house before it all goes to the dump tomorrow.
The pickup is certainly earning its Covid-19 keep.
Here is the best way to unload that bulk material from your pickup.
https://loadhandler.com/
It is best if you have a hard plastic bed liner, but does work w/o one too.
You would be amazed at how much you can unload so quickly.
For my old pickup I used to have a set of side boards, that slipped into a grove on the bed liner, the first one inside the wheel wells. Well onetime I was helping my friend clean up the branches that had be drug out in the back of his mother’s yard for many years. We’d load up, stomp it down, add more and repeat until we had it ~4′ high. Went to the transfer station dropped the gate and started cranking on the loadhandler. Well it was like a big meat loaf and came out as one big chunk. The problem was that meatloaf weighed over a ton and once it go to the point it was balancing on the tailgate the cables couldn’t handle it and snapped. However scale time was under 15 min for us including waiting for a spot on the floor, un-tarping and waiting in line to get out.
I’ve also used it to unload ~2 tons of rock or dirt a couple of times.
So when are we going to hear some details about this truck?
That thing looks slick but it’s cheaper to pay a 13-year-old. 🙂 We did put a tarp down in the bed and then tried the old “get it up to 40mph or whatever in reverse and slam on the brakes trick” which did absolutely nothing…In the end one person in the bed with a shorty shovel and the other at the tailgate with a rake made it work pretty quick. Having a hard hinged tonneau cover didn’t help except for providing very welcome shade. So I guess it did help after all.
I’ll get around to writing it up in due time…just have to get motivated I guess. It’s coming, one day…
A $20 tow strap works like a charm. Using one for years. Just put one end down on the bed near the tailgate and throw the other end up on the cab while loading. Throw that end over the load when finished loading. Then use another rope with a couple of hooks in it at the dump to hook to a pull-off. Drive forward, and leave the load where it was, but now on the ground. I shudder to think how many hours that’s saved me over the decades.
If the load is real loose, just lay down a big chunk cross-wise at the front of the bed. it will then sweep the bed out on the way. Only some loose debris is ever left, easily broomed out.
I use my trailer behind one of my cars and load it evenly for weight then at the tip simply take the tailgate off lift the drawbar off the towball and tip the trailer up the refuse slides off into the pit, refit everything and drive away.
Unfortunately nothing to tie onto at the transfer stations around here. The county ones have to go into the trailers and the private one that only takes land clearing and construction/demolition debris you just drop it on a slab far away from the edge. Once it builds up to the point where vehicles can’t get under the cover they push it all over the edge.
First time I saw that method was years ago at a recycling center in the cardboard area. They had a big post and an old guy rolled up in his 50’s GM pickup, Dropped the gate connected his rope.
Where it really shines though is bulk materials like top soil, gravel and bark. If you can get the truck where you want it with proper coordination between the driver and cranker you can spread it pretty evenly. For the really tight spaces I break out the Cab Top Scout, sure the 5′ bed limits the amount you can carry, but being able to place it exactly where I want it makes up for the extra trip.
Come to think of it, there’s no place to tie off at our transfer station either. I was thinking of the place where I take yard waste, brush and wood. I do that so often…
But yes, at the transfer station it can be a bit tedious.
Yeah nothing to tie to here either, this is open country 🙂 Just back it up to the giant pile of other loose/dirty rock and figure out how to get it out. Today I was at the dump, same thing, backed it up to the edge they were using today and start flinging roofing stuff out the back.
Seems like every other person around here has a PJ dump trailer, that’s what the non-hobbyists as opposed to me all seem to use. Back it in, crank it up, and drive off, then lower it again.
I was sort of mentally toying with attaching a rope or strap to the tarp and then putting it under the rear wheels. That would probably work better with the “sweeper” method you talked about above.
Either way, it’s all out of the truck now and I got my workouts in for the week. 🙂
Our local “dump”, run by the city, not a third party contractor, is open only for essential construction-related disposal. And landscaping for cosmetic purposes is not considered an essential business. Home pickup still occurs weekly but bin size limits my labors. Not a bad thing …
I’ve heard of various places around the country where they are having trouble keeping up with the curbside pickup. Filled cans and extra bags are filling the truck up sooner meaning more trips to the dump/transfer station adding time.
I don’t remember who here noted recently that in their area they have stopped curbside recycling to move those trucks to garbage service. I’m not sure exactly how that helps though since that means that much more in the garbage…
We’ve been busy doing clean up around here too and today the plan it to finish loading the pickup for a trip to the dump.
We did go through our closets for those things that don’t fit or we will never wear again. The problem is they aren’t any of the donation places open and the stuff is in good condition and really shouldn’t go to the dump.
I have the same issue Scoutdude, clothes to donate and no place to take them.
We laid off our housekeeper (sounds way more elitist than I meant it to be), but we did call her after cleaning out the closets and she was more than happy to take any and all old clothing, we just packed it in boxes and she swung by to get it. They have a whole network set up, whatever she can’t use for her own extended family they trade with others, nothing goes to waste. Win/win. Or just put an ad on Facebook or Craigslist, someone will get it within an hour. Even if they end up re-selling it, who cares.
Last week, I heard one of our local public works directors say that residential trash quantity is up 20% over usual. Of course, commercial trash must be down considerably, but that’s not handled by the City.
Some municipalities have put curbs on residential trash — right now the only limitations we have is that bulk residential pickup is cancelled, but everything else is still operational… including yard waste pickup, which is a good thing for me, since I’ve been doing a bunch of spring yardwork.
We are at level4 lockdown everything is shut including the local dump we go to level 3 on Tuesday after ANZAC weekend I’m hoping the dump reopens, I have at least a trailer load of rubbish here that needs to go away.
Cool 6 wheel pull trailer Johannes we had one configured like that for beans short drawbar single axle dolly lovely to reverse very manuverable while going backwards compared to the 8 wheel trailers we used for corn in and waste out, Not everyone liked it though and more than one driver got tangled up trying to reverse it.
Such 6-wheel trailers are standard equipment in this line of business. Almost all of them are built by GS Meppel, I can’t even remember seing another brand. Typically, these 6-wheelers are rated at a GVM of 30 metric tons (10 tons axle load for each axle).
The truck’s roll-of system (regardless the type) is also used to put the container on and off the trailer, always from the trailer’s rear side.
Example:
Mostly pull trailers here are 8wheelers 2 axle steering dolly and two axles at the rear, with veges I was doing it just give more cubic capacity theoretically we would have 11 tonnes loaded into the truck and 14-15 into the trailer, a full loasd of beans is lighter which is what our six wheel trailer mainly did, peas are done truck only as its a fairly quick turn around to get back to the harvester, plus some of the places we went to load pes would be seriously difficult to get into pulling a trailer Isuzus only have a single locking drive axle and empty are hopeless off road
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Bruce:
If you have time, I would appreciate what the different levels involve. New Zealand’s CV rates are so low, there must be something to be learned there.
Roughly a class 1 car licence lets you drive something often including a trailer up to 6,000kgs gross but you cannot be paid for it,
class 2 is rigid truck up to 14/15 tonnes gross weight four wheeler and you can be paid,
class 3 means you can tow a trailer behind your class 2 truck some car carriers are set up this way 3 cars on the truck 2 on the trailer
class 4 is heavy rigid truck up to 30 tonnes gross six or eight wheels,
class5 this is what I have is a six or eight wheel combination up to 58 tonnes gross this can be a rigid truck towing a pull trailer or a tractor unit six or eight wheels towing a semi trailer or B train, trailers must be brake coded full air system generally now they have ABS EBS, EBDS and any other safety tricks that have appeared some of which I’m sure are safe on freeways that have gentle hills but are a damn nuisance on twisting two lane black top with 15&20% grades thrown in to challenge your skills, the same with ponderous thinking auto shift transmissions nobody has a shift program that likes our terrain that Ive driven yet I’ll take an 18 speed Eaton manual every time given the choice, oh and a wheel is either single or twin tyred its just a wheel what is called an 18 wheeler is really only a 10 wheel vehicle. We have started counting axles on trailers now that H units are about H or high productivity vehicle(see why they abbreviated it) is often a 5 axle pull trailer or 6 axle Btrain or a 4 axle semi with self steering 4th axle or your combination exceeds 23 metres overall length.
Thank you, Bryce for the answer. My question referred to your previous post about the level 4 lock down, but I like all things about your country so the additional information is appreciated as well.
Apparently the county landfill is open so in a week or so the pickup does its first real job and we kill many birds with one stone by disposing of trash, waste oil and sharps in a single dump run. (need to wait for hazardous waste day)