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Reference Section: Home-Built ATV/UTV Dump Trailer - How To Build Your Own

 
My home-built ATV/UTV dump trailer, for use while being towed by my ATV. It is still unfinished, and someday when I get the time I will finish it so that all of my hard work won't go to waste. The hydraulic lift cylinder didn't work out so well; it is for an engine hoist and is very S-L-O-W to operate...I ended up either dumping the bed manually or just offloading items by hand. Someday I'll add a 12-volt hydraulic pump and scissor hoist to dump the bed.

This dump trailer was primarily built from salvaged & scavenged pieces and parts from my Grandfather's old farm in northern California, while I was cleaning it up in order to sell the property; I needed to build this dump trailer to expedite the cleanup. His farm was more than 500 miles from where I live in southern Nevada, and was an extremely time-consuming and difficult cleanup; fuel costs alone cost me $400 roundtrip and food/lodging were significantly more each trip. I was averaging 2 trips per month there on my days off from work to clean up 68 years' worth of junk and garbage, adding up to about 2500 miles per MONTH for my truck, my trailer, and my equipment. So, I needed to be able to bring my own compact equipment with me to immediately start cleaning & organizing, as I didn't have the time nor the money to rent equipment (can only pick it up at certain times, must bring it back by a certain time, must be clean, must be topped off with fuel, etc; I tried this at first and it didn't work out at all). This little dump trailer paid for itself many times over, as I was able to move more than 7 tons of scrap metal and much more garbage which greatly helped to expedite the cleanup and maximize my time on site.

I didn't get many photos of the very beginning of construction, but I don't think that they were really necessary anyway. Here we can see the unpainted lower frame chassis, the suspension bogie with trailer hubs, and the beginning of the upper frame for the dump body (underneath the chassis). The chassis frame (foreground) is made up entirely of salvaged steel pieces: C-channel, rectangular tubing, angle steel, an old receiver hitch, and even an old step-bumper ball-mount for a pickup truck (just behind the drawbar receiver, with two holes drilled into it, welded to the main chassis frame). The pivot points on the suspension for the bogie (bogie can be seen in the background, with the trailer hubs mounted on it) are made from 1/2-inch galvanized pipe, with flat stock welded against it for reinforcement, and drilled centers to accept 5/8-inch receiver pins for the bogie to pivot on. On the suspension bogie in the background, it is almost entirely made of 2-inch square 0.250-inch thick steel tubing, with some flat stock I drilled 5/8-inch holes in for the pivot mounting, rectangular tubing for the bracing, and 2 pairs of boat trailer hubs I also recovered from the old farm. The upper frame for the dump body (seen underneath the main frame) was constructed almost entirely out of salvaged galvanized angle steel, as well as other scrap bits. When you compare these chassis parts to the car hauler trailer they are sitting on, you can see just how big this dump trailer will be! It is also quite heavy, and very rugged.
 
 
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Protect Your Family Silver State Specialties was created in 1999 to offer quality resin accessories, replacement parts and conversion kits, suitable for many 1/25-scale plastic model kits.  SSS specializes in accessories and parts for plastic model pickup, SUV, 4x4, and heavy truck & trailer kits.  1/32-scale and 1/35-scale parts and accessories will be available in the future for model truck kits, such as the 1/32 Monogram Snap-Tite and ERTL snap-together kits, as well as 1/35-scale Revell, Italeri, AFV Club, Trumpeter, Airfix, Heller, Tamiya, and other military model truck kits.  Some of these smaller scale model kits are quite well detailed, and a wide variety of photo-etched, resin, and other accessories are widely available for most of these military truck model kits. What's even more exciting is the line of 1/24th & 1/25th-scale military model kits and conversions we are in the early stages of developing, to nicely compliment your ERTL, AMT, Italeri, Revell, and other brands of truck models.

Silver State Specialties is working on resin accessories and complete kits for G- gauge outdoor garden railway trains ("Large Scale") in 1/24th-scale. Some patterns have been completed, and many more are under construction. These kits and accessories will include complete Beyer-Garratt style of locomotives and Narrow Gauge ore hopper cars, as well as 24-inch & 30-inch gauge industrial equipment in this same scale.

SSS also has master patterns partially completed for many 1/16-scale model truck accessories and conversion kits, mainly for the Monogram-Revell 1/16-scale model truck kits.  Some projected accessories for these 1/16-scale kits are front drive axles, different wheels and tires, air cleaner accessories, pusher and tag axles, oil filters and engine accessories, and possibly different engines.  Cab & hood conversion kits remain a possibility for these monsters as well, but are still years away from being offered as there are more pressing projects to push forward with first.  But someday they should be available!

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