Help Wiring up Belly Dump

[Glen1978]

Picked up a 2013 Dakota belly dump yesterday to help us keep rock more readily available. Hooking to a 2003 Freightliner Columbia day cab. Anyway it has single clam bottom. Has a Fabco air solenoid with looks like spool on open and spool on close side. They are wired to front of trailer with 3 wires going to a round 4 prong plug. Assume an open, a close, and ground. Trailer wiring is all factory and not been monkeyed with. What is the best/safest way to wire this up in truck? I suck at electrical if we are being honest. Thanks in advance!

 

[Junkyard]

Pull that loom off and see if a wire from each solenoid doesn’t come to a splice there close. Those would be grounds. Then it’s a matter of a switch to supply power to each solenoid separately. There’s multiple ways you could approach that. I will say wire in some sort of kill to the switch power so you can’t accidentally hit open when loaded. You could also have some sort of safety cover that won’t let a switch go to open, kind of like with switch on a table saw if that makes sense.

Also, if Dakota is still in business they can probably tell you what their factory pin out is for the connector. Hope that helps

 

[Glen1978]

Yes best I can tell they come together and grounded right there at back of frame and carries forward to front plug as well. The other two wires will be power to each circuit. One to open spool and one to close spool. So Id need two switches correct? One for open and one to close? Heres a couple questions I have.
1.) If I hit the open switch does it just stay throwed until Im ready to close? Then turn off open and hit close switch till clam is closed then turn it off?
2.) Does close switch need to stay throwed to keep it closed?

 

[Junkyard]

One switch would do it. Single pole double throw. Center would be off, one way open and the other closed. I’d assume power would have to stay on to the valve in whatever way you wanted it to operate.

Based on a little research that’s a Fabco Air FVEC 2220. It has a return spring to center the spool. Assuming you don’t have any major air leaks between valve and cylinder it wouldn’t necessarily have to be continually powered in the desired direction. Info I found said there’s no damage done by continually powering the solenoid. That trailer may have a safety pin or chain slots to prevent unplanned opening.

 

[Glen1978]

OK. Thank you! It has pins on each clam. Kinda a pain to get pins out sometimes. Thought about just putting a chain on one side and hook on other side. Wouldnt open anymore than a chain links width.

 

[JaredV]

That seems like a complicated way to do it. We have 4 different belly dumps and they all came to us with a valve that takes power to open and cutting it off to close. One wire, uses the center pin in the 7 round plug. We don't have any trailers new enough to have ABS. Works just fine.

 

[Glen1978]

Ive got a 13 model with abs. My valve on my trailer has two coils so I assume it gona have to be powered to open and powered to close