A truck and trailer thread.

[McMXi]

I'm heading to the firewood processing place tomorrow morning to pick up the first of two trailer loads of wood. The place sells wood by weight so you drive on a scale, then get under the conveyor, get back on the scale and pay based on how much wood was loaded. There's a choice between hard and soft wood, and it's cut to length and split (mostly) and I typically get 7,500 lb to 8,000 lb in a load. I usually end up splitting a bunch of it into smaller sections. In preparation for picking up the wood I needed to do some maintenance on the 16 ft dump trailer yesterday.

Yesterday afternoon I replaced one wheel/tire with the spare since one of the tires was severely damaged. I think it happened when I was pulling the trailer with a tractor and rotated the trailer about the axles without moving forward so the shearing force on the tread was excessive.

I also greased all four bearings (wheels off the ground and spinning the wheel while pumping grease in with the DeWalt), replaced the torn and tatty rubber end cap plugs, topped off the hydraulic tank and finally hosed the trailer clean, inside and out. When I bought the trailer new in August of 2019 I ordered the 2ft extensions which were well worth the $1k or so. The front extension is a single piece and it's bolted to the side extensions, but the rear of the side extensions and the rear extensions aren't connected so that the gates can swing open. I was thinking of doing something more elaborate to prevent the wood from pushing the rear extensions outward which is what typically happens, but figured I'd try a strap first. If that works well enough I might look at welding on some hooks or similar and using a chain or something.

The empty trailer weighs around 5,000 lb and fully loaded with wood it's up around 13,000 lb. The '02 F-250 pulls it well enough but does struggle on hills, but the F-450 is going to be so much better.

 

[armylifer]

I have seen that same thing happen to my trailer tires before. They were C rated. I changed to an E rated tire and never had another problem.

According to the weight of the wood you are getting, it should be roughly about 3 cords. How much are you paying for that?

 

[McMXi]

Speaking of the F-450, I've had it for a little over 7 months and around 5,000 miles and I'm completely smitten with it. It is a phenomenal truck in every way. So far there's only one small annoyance and that's the DEF warning system. The truck thinks it's DEFCON 2 when the DEF is at 50% and it'll continue to hassle me with constant warnings telling me that all hell is just around the corner and I'm a really bad person if I let the tank volume drop to 30%.

I haven't figured out if I can change the DEF level warning settings but I sure would like to. The only other small thing is that despite providing a boost gauge in the display, as well as an exhaust brake gauge, DPF gauge, DEF gauge, transmission temp gauge, oil temp gauge, oil pressure gauge, water temp gauge etc., there's no EGT gauge and I wish there were. EGTs are handled seamlessly but I'd like to see what's going on.

I have no intentions of trying to get more power out of this truck since it is nothing short of amazing as it is, but I would like to be able to monitor EGTs. There are lots of EGT sensors on the truck from the factory so I'm loathe to drill a hole and add a thermocouple with a gauge. I've done this on two other trucks, but I'm hoping that I can find some electronic device that plugs into the OBD II port and can access this information and display it.

My good friend up here just pulled a trailer back from Texas for his brother. He has a '23 Chevy with the Duramax and Allison combination and was lamenting that not only does he not have an EGT gauge, he has no boost gauge either. He's a pilot, and manifold vacuum and EGTs are critical parameters in his world.

All in all though I absolutely love this F-450 and it's the best vehicle I've ever owned with second place going to a couple of Audi Allroad 2.7L with twin turbos that I had. Those were by far the best cars I ever owned.

 

[McMXi]

I have seen that same thing happen to my trailer tires before. They were C rated. I changed to an E rated tire and never had another problem.

According to the weight of the wood you are getting, it should be roughly about 3 cords. How much are you paying for that?

I'm not sure of the rating of the tires but I would expect them to be 10-ply.

Here's the receipt from last year when I paid $0.07/lb for soft wood. In theory, the 16 ft dump trailer has a volume of 16 ft x 8 ft x 4 ft which is 4 cords. The wood is split and I tend to heap it up a bit so I bet it's close to 4 cords.

 

[Old Machinist]

I just put 5 new tires on my little 18' car trailer. I bought the last set mounted off Amazon and never looked at the date codes until I removed them to have the new tires mounted. Damn things must have been 7 years old when I bought them. I put them on in 2015 and they had a 08 date code. I made sure the new tires had a 2025 date code.

My spare had never been on the ground but at 17 years old I figured it was due. I don't use it near as much as I use to but I do keep tire covers on all 5 when not in use. Makes a big difference in longevity.

 

[L35]

Cheapo Chinese tires will do that after a few years. Campers get tore up pretty bad when the tread separates. Known as China bombs in the camping world.

 

[McMXi]

I just put 5 new tires on my little 18' car trailer. I bought the last set mounted off Amazon and never looked at the date codes until I removed them to have the new tires mounted. Damn things must have been 7 years old when I bought them. I put them on in 2015 and they had a 08 date code. I made sure the new tires had a 2025 date code.

My spare had never been on the ground but at 17 years old I figured it was due. I don't use it near as much as I use to but I do keep tire covers on all 5 when not in use. Makes a big difference in longevity.

I removed the spares from the Kaufman gooseneck and PJ 10 ft single axle dump trailer yesterday. I don't like to leave spares on trailers so I keep them in the garage and only put them on the trailer or in the bed of the truck when I'm actually using the trailer.

 

[GrumpyFarmer]

I'm heading to the firewood processing place tomorrow morning to pick up the first of two trailer loads of wood. The place sells wood by weight so you drive on a scale, then get under the conveyor, get back on the scale and pay based on how much wood was loaded. There's a choice between hard and soft wood, and it's cut to length and split (mostly) and I typically get 7,500 lb to 8,000 lb in a load. I usually end up splitting a bunch of it into smaller sections. In preparation for picking up the wood I needed to do some maintenance on the 16 ft dump trailer yesterday.

Yesterday afternoon I replaced one wheel/tire with the spare since one of the tires was severely damaged. I think it happened when I was pulling the trailer with a tractor and rotated the trailer about the axles without moving forward so the shearing force on the tread was excessive.

I also greased all four bearings (wheels off the ground and spinning the wheel while pumping grease in with the DeWalt), replaced the torn and tatty rubber end cap plugs, topped off the hydraulic tank and finally hosed the trailer clean, inside and out. When I bought the trailer new in August of 2019 I ordered the 2ft extensions which were well worth the $1k or so. The front extension is a single piece and it's bolted to the side extensions, but the rear of the side extensions and the rear extensions aren't connected so that the gates can swing open. I was thinking of doing something more elaborate to prevent the wood from pushing the rear extensions outward which is what typically happens, but figured I'd try a strap first. If that works well enough I might look at welding on some hooks or similar and using a chain or something.

The empty trailer weighs around 5,000 lb and fully loaded with wood it's up around 13,000 lb. The '02 F-250 pulls it well enough but does struggle on hills, but the F-450 is going to be so much better.

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Good lord that is an awesome combination…I’m drooling’.

How old are your tires? If you have not already checked the born on mold date, I would do that before getting too happy with the throttle. (I’d check that and the speed ratings on the tires, including your spare…ounce of prevention)

I’m not aware of a good visual to predict tire construction/ remaining life in the carcass vs heat cycles they’ve been thru.

Definitely one hell of a set up you have

 

[McMXi]

Good lord that is an awesome combination…I’m drooling’.

How old are your tires? If you have not already checked the born on mold date, I would do that before getting too happy with the throttle. (I’d check that and the speed ratings on the tires, including your spare…ounce of prevention)

I’m not aware of a good visual to predict tire construction/ remaining life in the carcass vs heat cycles they’ve been thru.

Definitely one hell of a set up you have

I bought the trailer on 8/8/19 and all the tires are dated 1/4/19 and appear to be in good condition. They are 10-ply with an E load rating. Can't say that I'm familiar with Goodride, but given the kind of work that the trailer has done over the past six years with a fair amount not on pavement, I think that the tires have done well.

I forgot to mention that part of yesterday's maintenance was making sure all tires were at 80 psi cold and that all the lug nuts were properly torqued.

 

[L35]

Just fyi, 1419 date code is the 14th week of 2019

 

[armylifer]

Wow, I have never seen an E rated tire do that.

 

[McMXi]

Just fyi, 1419 date code is the 14th week of 2019

Thanks for the correction! So they were made in mid April of 2019.

 

[McMXi]

Wow, I have never seen an E rated tire do that.

Yeah, the trailer was loaded with firewood and I remember using the tractor to back it up, and then the tread came off. I was on grass at the time.

I made a post about this trailer and how my friend trashed it when he used it to pick up boulders for a project. Maybe the tire was damaged at that time due to the trailer being overloaded. I'm not sure and will never know. It's all water under the bridge these days.

I've thought about selling this dump trailer and buying another Kaufman in the form of a gooseneck dump trailer with two 10k axles like my 30 ft Kaufman. The downside is that the dump trailers aren't available from the Nebraska facility so it would mean a much longer drive or having it delivered. Probably better to keep this one and fix the floor and call it good.

 

[armylifer]

Yeah, the trailer was loaded with firewood and I remember using the tractor to back it up, and then the tread came off. I was on grass at the time.

I made a post about this trailer and how my friend trashed it when he used it to pick up boulders for a project. Maybe the tire was damaged at that time due to the trailer being overloaded. I'm not sure and will never know. It's all water under the bridge these days.

I've thought about selling this dump trailer and buying another Kaufman in the form of a gooseneck dump trailer with two 10k axles like my 30 ft Kaufman. The downside is that the dump trailers aren't available from the Nebraska facility so it would mean a much longer drive or having it delivered. Probably better to keep this one and fix the floor and call it good.

I am not sure if we are closer to you than Nebraska or not but maybe you want to check out this place? They have all kinds of trailers. I don't know if they have what you are looking for but they have a lot of trailers.

Trailer Boss of Rochester · 5732 Ivan Way SW, Rochester, WA 98579

★★★★★ · Trailer dealer

www.google.com