We Ordered 4 Tons of Dirt. Our Dump Trailer Disagreed.

The job was an RV parking pad in Milton. The plan was to deliver the dirt on Friday and finish the pad on Saturday. Everything changed real quick.

We knew we had more in the trailer than we asked for. We had no idea how much more until we tried to unload it. I've carried and dumped 5 tons of rock in that trailer with no problem. This time the hydraulics screamed at the weight and didn't budge an inch.

Looking back, the signs were there on the drive. My old Dodge worked its butt off pulling that trailer to the customer's home. I've never pulled that much weight with that truck, and it had never struggled like that before. Thank God the axles didn't bend and the brakes did great.

When it came time to unload, the trailer just wasn't interested. The load was so heavy it bent the piston inside the hydraulic cylinder that lifts the bed. You can hear it in the video: "It was so loaded, this frame was bending."

For the record, that Iron Bull trailer held way more than the manufacturer recommends, and the axles and frame came through it with no damage. I will never own another brand of trailer.

Thankfully Hunter was home near the Kubota, so he brought it to the job site to help. My childhood friend Kyle was with me helping haul material.

With the cylinder out of commission, we used the Kubota to help lift the trailer bed. It took a lot of careful back-and-forth: inching the machine forward, backing up, adjusting, and working the bed up a little at a time until we got it past the tipping point. Once it got over that hump, the dirt finally came out.

Was there a better way to do it? I'm certain there was. The only other real option was to shovel it out by hand until the bed was light enough to lift. We had one shovel, and we'd have been shoveling out about 2 tons or more. That was not a realistic option for me. LOL!

Once the dirt was out, my trailer was down. So a friend helped me get 8 tons of #57 limestone rock to the site, and we ended up finishing the job early, that same day instead of Saturday. The RV pad turned out exactly as we had hoped. The only casualty was the dump trailer.

Small jobs usually run on thin margins, and with the trailer mishap we lost money on this one. Welcome to business ownership. When you're the owner, there's no boss to call and ask to cover it. You figure it out yourself.

"A day as a business owner that's a bad day is still better than a great day clocking in and working for someone else."Zac, Dad Bod Tractor

Need a pad for an RV, boat, shed or pool? See how we build them on the pads and site prep page.

We pulled the cylinder off that evening when we got home, and I took it to Pensacola Rubber & Gasket on Palafox Street. They told me it couldn't be repaired at a realistic price and I was better off buying a new one. The good news: the axles and frame had no damage at all.

I reached out to the manufacturer about a warranty claim, but it was taking too long to get an answer, and I needed a dump trailer. Our area had just been through a hurricane and I wanted to be out helping my community recover.

So I called Mr. Noor, the owner of TTE Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, where I bought the trailer. He knew what our area had just gone through, gave me a tremendous trade-in price, and got me into a traditional dump trailer. And this one screams freedom!

What I do differently now: where I get my dirt there's no scale. But I know what a full front-end loader bucket of dirt will do to a dump trailer, so I make sure he only gives me half a bucket.

Owning your own business has its perks, but there will be very tough, expensive days. It's still worth it. Going back to work for someone else is not an option for me.

More real jobs, the good, the bad and the "how are we getting out of this one?", are on our job stories page and on YouTube. Working in Milton? See everything we do on the Milton page.