OT Can We Talk Dump Trucks

[Anonymous-0]

I'm wanting to buy a dump truck and eventually go into Hauling full time. Here's my question.

I see alot of huge 3 and 4 axle trucks as well as the 2 axle rigs but what's the trade off?

Is there a ready market for the single axle trucks? I have know people that needed gravel or topsoil but did not need 13 yds.

Just looking for advise.

 

[old]

Well there are a lot of things to know when talking about dump trucks. The ones with a lot of axles do that so they can haul a bigger load and be legal. The ones with say just the front and 2 rear axles can not haul as big a load because of what they call bridgeing out. I retired from driveing dump truck and did it for years till my doctor found out what I was doing. Single rear axle trucks are a lot less common because it hard to make a $$ with them because of just being able to haul small loads. Feel free to e-mail me if you want more info and if you want when you do e-mail if you do I'll give you my phone number so you could call me and talk about them.
Hobby farm

 

[Iowa_tire_guy]

We have a local man who runs a cute baby Mack with a single drive axle who hauls small loads mostly in town. He does okay (for himself) with it because he charges as much for a trip as does a big truck. But since most people in town don't want 20 tons at a time they pay. It is a niche market that might take years to develop.

 

[jmixigo]

Keep in mind you can haul a little bitty load in a great big truck. You cannot haul a great big load in a little bitty truck.

 

[noncompos]

Old is the one to talk to; only someone who"s BTDT knows what it"s really like. All I"m going to add is that a lot depends on your location: what"s the competition, what"s your projected clientel, how many oddjobbers are around to underbid you, and will this be a sideline, partial or whole income.
On trucks, remember everything"s more expensive on a bigger truck-EVERYTHING-from insurance to maintenance to tires; it"s fine if you can keep it busy...Starting out, without a heavy-haul contract or agreement, a smaller truck is not only cheaper to own and run but more flexible, and won"t freak nearly as many people when you back into their hopefully solid concrete driveway, poured for a car and not a loaded 3-axle rig....

 

[Tim Shultz]

I work for a small trucking company, and sa you say, there is a LOT of people out there looking for around 6 ton or less of topsoil, gravel, stone, or whatever.. we run a LOT of loads with an F-450 with a dump bed.. it can only handle around 6 ton, (had 7 on it before.. WOW) but since most calls we get are for 5 ton, it"s great.. anything under 15 ton we use that (small and easy too get around town) anything over 15 we have a tri axle from the "70"s (the brand I can"t remember at this time) but the 450 gets a LOT more use then the bigger dump, just my input, Tim

 

[Anonymous-0]

Wife and FIL was in the trucking business for 50+ yrs. Run several semi's,10 wheelers etc and one single axel small dump truck. FIL said he made more money from the single axle than any other truck. Many want one ton of this or that,so we charge accordingly. Have a flink fantail spreader for it and we spread a lot of driveways. So far not very much competition. It's a c60 chevy, couldn't be very much bigger or couldn't get in the places we have to. Cab protecter cut off the bed for more clearance under wires. FIL recently passed away. He didn't believe in new equipment. If it was paid for,it was better than new. I'm looking for a little newer. Spreader drives by a chain that you put on a sproket on the wheel.

 

[Anonymous-0]

I think you have the best of both worlds on opinion's here. Say for hauling to residential customers, if you have the sales of a material that people want, it can be lucrative, there is a plethora of used single axles out there ranging from 5-30 years old. You can get a single axle very reasonably and they are handy for tight areas, smaller loads etc. I don't like the smaller one tons like what they used to call a masons dump, prefer just a little more truck, like a S/A, matter of preference I suppose.

When you get into the tandems, tri-axles etc. you need to find steady work for it, either your own work like excavation, or selling a material you make or quarry etc, or you'll need to hook up with a construction company needing trucks for their jobs to keep it busy. You'll need to find some steady hauling for it, no matter what it is, has to be one that pays, these big ones are not cheap to run or fix, the work has to pay for the truck, maintenance and your salary + a little extra. I used to run singles, tandems and triaxles, while employed by site work contractors, early in my career, was good learning experience, I did not like being in a truck most of the day though, preferred running equipment on a site. ALways found that a versatile single axle was very handy.

I have an old single axle dump, was a grain truck and I use it to haul a compost material that I make, it works well, truck is not too bad to keep up on and the material sells for over $25 a yard, 10 yds = $250 per load, homeowners buy the material, so it does provide some extra $$.

 

[Leland]

If you really are serious look for a tamdem + a pup trailer this way you can do both jobs tamdem work and with the pup you can haul as much as semis this is handy when doing stock piling best of both worlds