Thread: Gravity Tilt

What do you intend to use the trailer for?
Some of the Tilt Plant trailers I have seen require the load to hold the tray in the level position. As these trailers are almost always carrying the machine they are designed to cart they will stay in the tilted position until the machine is again loaded. Usually standing on the tray will level out the tray.
I have seen some use shock absorbers to reduce the bang when tilting.

Originally Posted by Burner

What do you intend to use the trailer for?

Mainly garden waste. Could be anything from tree branches to leaf litter, but not really lawn clippings. Currently I lay a pair of snatch straps in the bottom of the 6x4 before loading, and to unload I stand behind the trailer, pull on the straps and hopefully roll out a nice block of rubbish. Sometimes it works better than others, but there's always quite a bit of grunting and farting at the start. I'm convinced that tilting the load 20 or 30 degrees would reduce that initial effort - and injury risk. I'll be 50 next month and need to work smarter.

I borrowed a tilt trailer once to cart some gravel. I found that in the tilt position there was no where near enough angle to get it to slide off. In your case you will still need to use the snatch straps to get it to move. The other option that may work better is to build the trailer as a flat top, ie use an old ute tray and put the wheels under the tray. That way when the trailer tilts it will have more room under the rear of the tray to get a steeper angle. Downside is you will have to lift everything higher to load it. Heaps of trailers use hydraulic rams or even a vertical post with a handwinch to lift the front of the trailer away from the drawbar. My preference would be to use a ute tray but have the tilt on a pivot at the rear much like atip truck. Then use the vertical post with either a hand or 12 volt winch.
Good luck!
Sean

Originally Posted by seanjfitz

I found that in the tilt position there was no where near enough angle to get it to slide off. In your case you will still need to use the snatch straps to get it to move.

Yes I'm ok with that. I can be driving out the gate while the guy next to me is still cranking his winch.

A couple of things to consider with self tilting trays.

If the tray tilts on the axle, reasonably central ...remember regulations require the axle to be rear of centre.......the tray may tilt with little effort

in a drive on drive off situation the weight of the ramps may be sufficinent to keep the tray tilted.

think, that if the trailer has manually operable brakes ..... locating the drawbar attachment to advantage...you may be able to use the vehicle to tilt the trailer, by pushng and pulling.

shock absorbers would be wise.

Another option is to use an exhaust operated 4wd recovery bag as a tilting mechanism. there are commercially built utes and trailers operating on this principle.

If you expect the load to just slide out, you will need to tilt past 45 deg, most tip trucks tilt way past 45.

But even if tipping 30 or so deg.... it will make unloading way easier.

cheers

Originally Posted by soundman

...remember regulations require the axle to be rear of centre

Originally Posted by VSB1

Rear overhang must not exceed the lesser of 3.7 metres or the front load space.

At the risk of nitpicking, I read that to mean centre is ok, but not forward. And neutral balance might be the ideal in terms of tipping. You could have some adjustable ballast on the drawbar. A toolbox with some bricks, say.

shock absorbers would be wise.

Do you mean on the tilt or the suspension?

PM sent
Kryn

Originally Posted by Bryan

At the risk of nitpicking, I read that to mean centre is ok, but not forward. And neutral balance might be the ideal in terms of tipping. You could have some adjustable ballast on the drawbar. A toolbox with some bricks, say.



Do you mean on the tilt or the suspension?

If the axle cant be forward of centre it has to be rear of centre ...if you want to be picky ... centre is an infinitesimal point.

Shock absorbers on the tilt mechanism would be a good idea.

Shock absorbers on the suspension wont do any harm either.

cheers

Originally Posted by seanjfitz

The other option that may work better is to build the trailer as a flat top, ie use an old ute tray and put the wheels under the tray. That way when the trailer tilts it will have more room under the rear of the tray to get a steeper angle. ........ My preference would be to use a ute tray but have the tilt on a pivot at the rear much like atip truck. Then use the vertical post with either a hand or 12 volt winch.

A few years ago I started to build exactly that - a winch tipper based on half a Hilux traytop. The project stalled for various reasons and still sits abandoned. But for a lazy tilt the extra height makes a lot of sense. I decided I should ditch the Hilux chassis and axle and use a proper trailer axle and custom chassis. Even so, I worry about stability because of the height. I figured the conventional narrow format was safer and I didn't need six feet of width.

Does anyone have experience with high bed trailers and are my concerns justified?

One of the major concerns for tipper drivers ( that is properly fabricated tip trucks) is stability when tipping.

It is a very real risk, that tip trucks can and will fall over sideways or turn turtle flipping backward without due care ....... and those are rigid trucks where the payload is not much more than the unladen weight.

cheers

Originally Posted by soundman

One of the major concerns for tipper drivers ( that is properly fabricated tip trucks) is stability when tipping.

Never thought about it but I can see how that could happen. Nasty.

But it was towing stability I had in mind. I might drag the project out and get some pics to post.

Originally Posted by soundman

One of the major concerns for tipper drivers ( that is properly fabricated tip trucks) is stability when tipping.

It is a very real risk, that tip trucks can and will fall over sideways or turn turtle flipping backward without due care ....... and those are rigid trucks where the payload is not much more than the unladen weight.

cheers

This can and does happen with the semi tippers, happened to a mate of mine, 3/4 of the way up and the ground gave way on one side, OOPs. Sometimes with clay type soils, it sticks in a top corner and another OOPs.
I don't think it would be a problem for an 1800 long trailer, much more stable.
Kryn

Originally Posted by Bryan

I'm thinking about building a tilt trailer, and want to clarify the physics. The way I see it the location of the drawbar pivot doesn't matter much because the true pivot point is the axle. Usually the axle is behind centre, therefore - other things being equal - the body will be front heavy. But you often see photos of trailers in the tilted position, as though they sit that way naturally. And it seems better to me that it would tilt under gravity and require a shove to return to level. If it's front-heavy you need to apply force to tilt - including the load - and when empty it would come down with a bang. I feel like I'm missing something....

Hi guys,
Back in the 80’s in Melbourne I use to work for a company(ABC Metal Craft) that manufactured tipping trailers single and double axle. They made a hydra tipping trailer, a manual 1 ton tipper (6x4') and a small 5'x4' economy range 500 kg.
The draw bar, springs & axle are a separate chassis, with the tipping body axle forward of the trailer axle (weight distribution for rego requirements). The axle for the body was 25mm rearward of the body centre line so the body drops close. The body had a lifting handle that extended up to the hitch with locking pin, safety chain and an optional support bar and pin to lock the body in a raised position if required. On the chassis the side rails stopped just after the rear spring hanger so when the body tipped there was no cross rails to restrict the tipper body as it tipped, a bit of a carefully shuffled load just before tipping to shift some weight to the rear of the body pop the tailgate and away it would go. With the optional support bar when used, pop tailgate, lift body lock handle slowly drive off with a bit of a jerk load would go.
The best thing was having the trailer loaded to the max and watching the faces as you drove.
Hope this helps in some way
Cheers
Tony

Hi Tony and thanks for breaking your 2.5 year silence on my little thread. What you're describing is pretty much how I thought it would work, and some kind of latch or prop in the up position seems like a sensible idea.

I'm still perplexed by the photos you see of tilted trailers with no obvious means of support. Here is an example.

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And here is a link to the gumtree ad, showing other views. I guess there could be a sandbag in the back.
http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/morph...495/1055516503