Dump tailgate.

[Hobert62]

I'm curently I'm the process of building my new dump trailer from the remains of a commercial leaf vac and a pj gooseneck frame.   I'm looking if anyone has ideas for a 3 way tailgate.   I want it to lay down like a pickup truck, be able to spread with it hinged at the top, and I want it to be a barn door and swing to the driverside.   I built one that works on my old trailer but I have to pound pins out with a hammer whenever I open it.   This makes it hard with a few ton of coal, scrap, or stone pushing agsinst it.    Pictures would be great!

[gxbxc]

to dump from the bottom or swing open you just need to copy any commerically built trailer with that feature,the lay down pick truck feature was always a bitch to get the pins out. so two out of three aint bad.

[Hobert62]

My problem is I know what I want and that's how I got my other trailer setup, but after 15 years its shot and time to update.   I know there's a lot of different styles out there just looking to see what people have and like.    I do know I do not want a split gate with 2 barn doors. 

[gxbxc]

The only problem i see in what you with what you want to do is there are 5 hinge points and when wear gets in there, the things go out of line ,then it is tapered pin and hammer time ,

[Rob]

Are you wanting to manually unlatch the end gate or do it with hydraulic pressure?

[Hobert62]

Manually operated.  

I'm thinking of making a set of bottom jaws like on a regular dump bed with a rod running to a handle in the front of the bed.  My top left hinge will be double acting to spred and swing.  That way I would only have to move 1 pin from the top right hinge to the lower left barn door hinge.    Going this way it won't work as a fold down pickup style gate.   I can live with this.    My old trailer uses 6 diffrent pins.  1 at each corner an 2 in a seperate set of hinges when using it as a swing the gate.  What I have is simple and works fine, but I would like to simplify it a little.   

As for wear causing issues I only use this for my own use and it could sit for weeks at a time between use.  

[Rob]

15 minutes ago, Hobert62 said:

Manually operated.  

I'm thinking of making a set of bottom jaws like on a regular dump bed with a rod running to a handle in the front of the bed.  My top left hinge will be double acting to spred and swing.  That way I would only have to move 1 pin from the top right hinge to the lower left barn door hinge.    Going this way it won't work as a fold down pickup style gate.   I can live with this.    My old trailer uses 6 diffrent pins.  1 at each corner an 2 in a seperate set of hinges when using it as a swing the gate.  What I have is simple and works fine, but I would like to simplify it a little.   

As for wear causing issues I only use this for my own use and it could sit for weeks at a time between use.  

It's the fold down part I'm trying to fashion a way to make easy to work and yet not let the gate bow as so many do. Easy enough to make a retractable tongue to rise up and support the center lower rear of the gate but you would need to lower it to operate the gate in any fashion.

[Hobert62]

When folding it down it will be more of a convenience thing.  Maybe back into a bank and load lawnmower instead of using ramps.   My old gate is made of 1" schedule 40 pipe and skinned with 14 gauge.     I built it about 15 yrs ago and is still mostly straight.     

I pull the top 2 pins and the gate folds down.     I pull the bottom 2 and its ready to spread.      I pull the top and bottom pins on the left and put them in the hinges on the end of the gate and remove the 2 on the right it will swing around  to the left.     Old trailer box is 10'6" x 4'6" with 4 ton of stone loaded its full.    New box is 14' x 8' with only 12" sides and setup to instal 12" side boards.     The new trailer won't have near the pressure against the gate when loaded do to the load having much more room.   The pins like I have now will work, but like I said just looking for ideas.   

[Rob]

Pretty certain emulating what you have on the new build is going to be best and stay cost effective.

[Hobert62]

Your right, but I like to see other options before I do it.     I'm going to pull this with the mack sometimes so I want it to look good.    I've built a few trailers over the  years and I take the extra effort to not make them look like I made them.   

[Hobert62]

Here’s what I came up with.  It works very nice  2 out of the 3 ways I wanted, so I’m skipping the lay down function.  I remove 1 pin from the drivers side lower barn door hinge and put it in the passenger side top hinge to spread.  The gate opens all the way around and hooks open with a welded D-ring to stay open.  I added s turn buckle type latch on the top of the passenger side to keep the gate secured when closed in barn door mode.  

 

 

Well I updated to a newer phone from my iPhone 4 to a 8. Now I’m part of the people that apparently can’t post pictures. I had some in this reply and they failed to upload.  

Edited April 6, 2019 by Hobert62

[Hobert62]