| After all of my talk about building a dump cart to help make trackbuilding easier, I finally built one. I designed a cart that could dump to the side as I needed to increase the width of the base of my high fill so as to reduce the amount of erosion, and, to be able to make the top of the fill a little wider for safety. I got the idea for the side unloading cart while at work while watching a self dumping scrap metal bin dump itself into a larger container. I used the same theory that, when empty, most of the weight is below the rolling center of gravity, thus forcing the bin to upright itself. When full, most of the weight is above the rolling center of gravity, making the bin top heavy and with a little shove to one side or another, the bin "self dumps". Once the contents are out of the bin, it automatically rights itself again. On my cart, I used two chains connected from the frame to the upper lip of the bin to hold the bin in the upright position while loading and transporting. I simply pull a pin opposite the side that I want to dump towards and give the bin a light push. The contents emties and the bin rights itself. I used two more chains connected to the base of the bin and the frame to keep the bin from going over the bank with the load. I added an electric wire fence tensioner to each of these chains to lessen the shock of the bin reaching the full dump position. I keep the rolling portion on the bin on the frame rail with the addition of small pins on the round "wheel" componant on the bin which correspond with holes in the rail componant on the frame. This acts like a simple gear and rack to keep the bin "timed" with the frame. Now the dumping process is quite efficient and moving the last of the dirt shoule be easy. The bin holds about 1/3 of a yard when full which weighs about 1000 pounds. Dumping the dirt to the side is MUCH easier than shoveling it from the old end dump wagon. |
