Giant truck dumping ramp - photo

[Jon]

Giant truck dumping ramp. Captioned as dumping sawdust. Is this because sawdust can spontaneously explode? Or is this how some trucks just dump?

Fullsize image: https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/h...p_fullsize.jpg




Previously:

Dump truck hydraulic explosion - GIF
Farmer deals with people dumping illegally on his land - GIF
Train dumping slag - GIF
Rotary train car coal dumping - GIF and video
The 1935 Dempster-Dumpster, the first dumpster - photos and patent
Jackknifing a truck for dumping - GIF

[jimfols]

[QUOTE=Jon;135259]Giant truck dumping ramp. Captioned as dumping sawdust. Is this because sawdust can spontaneously explode? Or is this how some trucks just dump?

Fullsize image: https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/h...p_fullsize.jpg




I have a picture somewhere of my truck on a lift like that unloading grain.
Really cool to watch your truck going up like that.

[greyhoundollie]

Several rice mills in Louisiana have truck/trailer dumps like this. I first saw one when I was in highschool. I'm 64 now.

[ulav8r]

The paper mill at Morrilton, AR had one of those about 1972. Trucks would bring in chips for pulp production, would unload in about 5 minutes. Much faster than unloading logs that were then chipped at the mill.

[Beserkleyboy]

Jon, The trailer looks like maybe an open top 40' container, possibly even on a skel chassis. No lifting capability. The sawdust/grain fires are because of static electricity caused from rapid movement of particles or high friction, not something that would happen (probably) in an open air dumping....and the volume difference per truck movement would be in the order of 6x based on 14 cu yd truck...just my 2 cents, cheers
Jim

[capngeo]

They use them for oranges too

[Frank S]

Not many grain trailers are equipped to be dumps but since the popularity of live floors has come on the scene many grain elevators and other facilities have managed to ramp up their offloading production by having several drop chutes for the trailers to back up to. But the belly dump trailers are by far the fastest they can be unloaded in motion. The driver drives over a trench and begins to open the belly doors by the time he reaches the other end he just closes the doors and drives back across the scales for his weigh out ticket. Weigh in weigh out never even comes to a stop, unless his company is not on the list. One of the largest collection of grain elevators in the country is in Saginaw Tx. back in the late 70s/ early 80's my shop was directly across the road from one of them we could just see the lift raising trucks off in the distance but at times there could be as many as 300 trucks waiting to unload some with live floors some belly dumps and some put up on the lift.

[greyhoundollie]

I bet the view from the cab of the truck would feel something like a Nasa rocket launch if the driver stayed on board through the full cycle.

[Beserkleyboy]

Wow, thanks Frank. I'm never surprised at the knowledge shared here. I have nearly no exposure to grain handling, other than waiting for the VERY slow train as it enters the Manildra starch and ethanol plant near us. Counted 45 hopper wagons at about 5mph.....
filled with wheat chaff. Your 'drive by' deposit depot is amazing. Thanks.
Jim (near Nowra Manildra plant, NSW AUS)

[skibo]

I worked 40 years at Weyehaeuser pulp and paper, they had 4 or 5 ( they were putting a couple more larger ones by the the time I retired. Chip truck dumps were what was called "chip facilities department" on one end of the mill. There was two hog fuel dumps just like them at the other end of the mill, at the hog boilers that burned it the for electricity. On top of that the the pulp chip facilities also had a rail car dump that was neat to watch as they rolled one large chip car over and dumped into the conveyer in the pit! The rail car was secured in a large clamping frame work and just rolled over hydraulically! The chip cars were big, a little more than twice the size of two chip trucks! But as for riding along in the chip truck as it's being dumped, is absolutely illegal! As we have seen a couple hydraulic failure!