[buckeye]

Any one ever pull hopper bottoms/grain trailers. I'm looking into a local gig thats only out one night per week. Just curious about the details of the loads and such. Thanks

[Jackrabbit379]

You didnt ask them? :P :lol:


You might haul just about anything type of grain. The hardest thing, is rolling the tarp. :P

There might be some times that you haul junk from the elevator. When they clean out those grain bins, they usually have some old grain, that can be rotted. That can be a hoot, cleaning out a hopperbottom after hauling that. :P


Loads are pretty heavy. Sure, you can run legal, but why? :P Go ahead, and filler up. :lol: You dont want to fill up a 42' hopperbottom plumb full :shock: :? That would be bad.
If you are running elevator, to elevator, it's pretty simple. Run across the scale, and pull under the load-out spouts. They load ya, and you run across the scale, and gone. Wahlah! Kinda sorta. :P

[Jackrabbit379]

Like, right now, a lot of guys are haulin cotton seed. They pick em up at the gin, and they run to the millers, to make cotton seed oil, and whatever else..
(not that you would haul cotton seed)
A lot of your loads may be that you might be running from an elevator to a miller, etc..

[Jumbo]

I pulled one about 10 times as a favor. The second hardest thing is rolling the tarp. The first for me was getting into some of the places they wanted you to deliver. the one I remember most was where when you pulled onto the off-loading grates the tractor blocked one whole lane of traffic. Good thing it was a small town.

[Rev.Vassago]

I never had a problem tarping my hopper bottom, even hauling cottonseed (which can sit upwards of 2' above the top of the trailer after it's first loaded).

Other than being extremely messy, I really enjoyed pulling hoppers. Sometimes it was a major challenge unloading certain products, but if the money in that segment were better, I'd go back to doing that.

[redsfan]

I'll agree with Rev, if the money were better I'd be there still also.

The best part was when you would get a nice, hot, sticky load of distillers or better yet, blood meal. When the load would require a little unloading assistance from you and a shovel or broom.

I never hauled cottonseed, but I hauled soybean hulls on several occasions and they would tend to require a little smoothing out before you could roll the tarp also. Of course, there were times I had to smooth out loads of beans and corn before rolling the tarp. I wasn't complaining about rolling the tarp though. After flatbedding I was thrilled to get a tarp with a handle.

If you're pulling a hopper somewhat local, here's the advise I'll give you. If you have routes that don't require you to cross a scale, be ready to haul quite a few heavy loads. You'll be overweight more than you'll be under. In most cases, pulling a hopper locally, the owner of the truck will be paid by the bushel. Most will trade the cost of the occasional overweight ticket for the added revenue of pulling more weight when they don't get caught.

Good luck.

[Jackrabbit379]

Yeah, cotton seed weighs around 32-33 lbs. per bushel. About like Oats. Those high sided hopper bottoms help.

Those roll tarps are nice aint they?! :P
I do part time farm work for an outfit here. They have 2 bobtail grain trucks. (R Model Macks) Neither one has a roll tarp. The good ole fashion way of climbing on the side boards, and tarp, and then hook all the bungee staps on the side boards. Fun stuff. :P

On harvest, we were careful on how loaded we were in South Dakota. They are really strict up there. Here at home, and Oklahoma, Kansas, aint too bad on over weight. South Dakota wants to put you under the jail. :P

I used to haul sunflowers in South Dakota. They are like Oats, and you could be plumb full, and it felt like you were running empty. :lol: