Seven or so years ago I built a dump trailer for some buds.
It all started when an old boy had a seventy something chevy one ton frame drug in with an eight by twelve steel flat bed dump on it. He wanted me to put the dump bed on a truck he was yet to buy. He did construction site clean ups.
The old boy learned like most of us that the last people you want to work for are homebuilders. The nature of that beast is the only way to get burnt easier is to work in a smelter in flip flops. He came in a couple of months later and gave me the bed and truck frame for a couple of hundred dollars. He'd learned his lesson and was going to find a real job.
It was about a grand for two Dexter torkflex seven thousand pound axles with brakes and a set of new truck take off ten ply sixteen inch tires and wheels. It was another eight hundred for a factory rebuilt Harsh twelve volt pump and tank to match the Harsh scissor lift.
One of the many considerations in building the trailer was the tailgate. On a demolition trailer it's best to have the fold back tailgates. The downside of fold backs is invariably someone will forget to secure them and they'll get destroyed when the bed is dumped.
A fold down tailgate doesn't work worth a flip if the load is aggregate and it's against the tailgate. The best one for that situation is the one you see on trucks with the top pivot.
Here's a shot of the tailgate latch mechanism in the closed position. Note the handle on the right and bent in holding the tailgate closed.
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