My first Pintle hitch trailer

[smifwal]

Like the title says I got a new to me, Pintle hitch trailer it came with a blower/vacuum,a power washer with on board water and a dumping spoil tank and it also came with 3 skid buckets of Oklahoma red clay Lol . Blower was seized up, filled it with tranny and Diesel,the dump ground wire wasn't hooked , the read door was stuck shut, and the 800 gal tank was half full of dirt.

2012 vemeer LP855DT, I did just want to share but might as well use this opportunity to ask about the cylinder for the rear hatch, the door is supposed to open all the way like the YouTube screenshot ( the video is from the year the trailer was built 2012 only difference is the size of the diesel engine) but it stops what I feel like is waaaayy short of that. So I am not sure if they replaced the cylinder with whatever they had on the shelf in the shop or if it stuck. The hydraulics won't push it any farther, I put a ratcheting cargo bar on the ground and tried to push it up it moved a smidge but when I retracted the bar it shot back down to its previous height

Also I can't get it to idle up or down. There is a momentary toggle switch up one way down the other. The pull the 2 wires on the actuator and hooked them straight to a battery and it moved, I did notice that one of the studs on the ignition where the wires for the actuator and several others was spinning freely so I went and got another one but the mosquitos were starting to swarm and I was working by headlamp so I called it a night

 

[smifwal]

I got the throttle figured out , the limit switches and the wiring ran through a PC board that apparently was fried and not sending the correct signals.

As for the door, I believe that they swapped cylinders with one that was shorter than the one that is supposed to be on there. I assume they had one on the shelf and it got them back up and running, I have order another one and it will be here Thursday ( furthering my suspicion that they used what they had handy, given that I can't find one locally and the dealer didn't have one in stock either.

I was going to sand blast everything but the metal is pretty pitted so I just hit it with a wire brush and the turbo nozzle on the power washer. I put a fresh coat of enamel on the tank, and painted the stuff that hangs down red, I hit my head a couple of times so figured I would make that stuff more visable. some dust got in there over night plan to blow that out and hit it with another coat

 

[smifwal]

I replaced the cylinder with the correct one and now the door opens all the way. But I blew the o-ring in the top port when I was trying to bleed the cylinder,Oops and the door opens faster, before it was slow as molasses, I thought the hydraulic pump was bad but the tank itself moved as fast as my dump bed or my dovetail. I am pretty sure they had air in the cylinder

 

[CM1995]

So assuming you are getting into the hydro-excavation business?

 

[smifwal]

I suppose I am . I will do it for hire, I have a friend that hires a guy quite a bit but I'm also looking forward to using on my own jobs.

 

[AzIron]

My experience with a trailer is if you do boring there awesome and on the occasional need for your own stuff there wise they are dangerous as hell

They do just enough to get you into trouble all the time then it takes a vac truck to come get the job finished cause its to deep to many rocks or just no productivity

You can really only use trailers for pot holing they just don't do enough to hydro dig

I had to get a truck out 3 times in 30 days to finish jobs and was getting it broke off in my rear on price from bager I bought a truck that was 3 years ago never touched the trailer again sold it last month finally

Good on you and give it hell

 

[smifwal]

Thanks for the information and insight. Primary focus of my excavation business is underground power, I offer turn key, we provide it all and don't ask for anything from the electricians. My boring guy( who now is a friend)has been using me on jobs, digging entry/exit pits, breaking out concrete/asphalt and hauling off. That in turn has lead to work from the electricians that see me on their jobs. All commercial. I do not love running a shovel, so I figure I can use it to pot hole for myself. My boring guy hires a guy about 20x a year at $3k/day or $1250/ for a show up fee. He will be using me from here on out. If I am busy I told him I would drop it off or I will do it in advance and put a plug in the ground.

The truck would be nice so I can haul my machine and the vac in one trip but not quite there yet (baby steps lol)

 

[AzIron]

Thanks for the information and insight. Primary focus of my excavation business is underground power, I offer turn key, we provide it all and don't ask for anything from the electricians. My boring guy( who now is a friend)has been using me on jobs, digging entry/exit pits, breaking out concrete/asphalt and hauling off. That in turn has lead to work from the electricians that see me on their jobs. All commercial. I do not love running a shovel, so I figure I can use it to pot hole for myself. My boring guy hires a guy about 20x a year at $3k/day or $1250/ for a show up fee. He will be using me from here on out. If I am busy I told him I would drop it off or I will do it in advance and put a plug in the ground.

The truck would be nice so I can haul my machine and the vac in one trip but not quite there yet (baby steps lol)

That's awesome and more power to you good tips are a must and knowing when your tip is wore out is important also if you have lots of rocks that want to plug up the suction put a 2 inch long quarter in bolt in near the bottom of your suction hose so when a rock that would get tuck hits that bolt its right there and not in a cam fitting or 90 or in the hose saves a bunch of time

Those things love there maintenance especially cleaning filter and cyclone

Vac trucks typically don't pull trailers they have a harf enough time scaling as it is most would probably get a weight ticket

The vac buissness is kinda tough its kind like owning dump trucks its OK to own one take care of your needs and have control of your schedule but if you want to make money hiring out you need 3 or 4 cause one will always be down for repair

I will never not own a vac truck but I think we will build our next one I have 13 payments left on mine so we will see what happens

 

[smifwal]

Keep the the tips trench and advice coming, this will seem outlandish but I have never ran one and don't know much about the components as a whole, I am familiar with hydraulics, and the power washing portion. I have done a bunch of research on the blower even found a rebuild PDF. While I hate buying things I don't know all about and that, I (some people would have just got everything working and went on down the road and got to sucking spitting dumping and blowing)everything seems very simple to troubleshoot. I touched the whole thing, rewire lights, new trailer plug, changed out the strobe and lights for brighter ones, new battery,fuel gauge, ignition changed the fuel filter and added some diesel kleen to the fuel, the tanks is full. And I am working building the boom they call the strong arm and think I have everything sorted out. I have to deliver some materials in the morning and I plan to run it tomorrow and see have I have done fixing it up

 

[smifwal]

I have 2 house on my property connected by a breezeway and they ran new water lines through the breezeway roof. Lots of funny business in this house that was flipped, I gutted the main house and ran water through the yard from one house to the other, but I was running in to resistance at the foundation wall, so what better place to test my new to me vactron, it worked great, It was definitely easier than running a shovel, and I am looking forward running it on jobs. I still have more to clear out obviously, just wanted to see if I fixed everything that was wrong with it when I got it