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Dump Box Pickup or Trailer Kit
A dumping insert is useless on anything but a big truck, heavy 3/4 ton or bigger, the dump insert itself weighs ~750 pounds.
A 'standard' 1/2 ton 2wd p/u with an 8' box weighs has a curb weight of about 4,800 pounds and GVWR of about 6,650 pounds, that leaves a max. payload of 1,850 pounds, if you back out the 750 pounds of dump insert you have a useable load limit of about 1,000 pounds.
When it comes to things you might want a dump box for, firewood, dirt, gravel, etc., 1,000 pounds doesn't go very far quantity-wise.
On the other hand, that same 1/2 ton will easily tow a 7,000 pound trailer, dump or otherwise, with a very inexpensive tow package on it.
Now having said that, there's lots of times that a single truck is a bunch handier than pulling a trailer around, but overall the trailer is more useful IMHO.
Best of luck.
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Dump Box Pickup or Trailer Kit
I would like to make a couple of clarifications here.
First off, I think there needs to be better warnings on sites like the one linked to, I've seen several people with these "make your regular box a dumper" kind of setups, I've never seen one yet where the box didn't end up mangled from it either. A p/u box is light duty sheet metal, it is NOT designed, nor will it, take the kind of torsion forces a dump is subjected to.
I also think the "do not exceed your GVWR" needs to be in letters big enough to fill the whole first page of the website.
Finally, I read with humour the part about "This unit will lift bed to a 45 degree angle..." A dump box should go up to to at LEAST 60°, 75° is best.
I have many dumps, both trailers and trucks, one of the dump trailers (because of a 14' long box) can only go up to 45°. My employees rarely use it, and in fact call it the "armstrong trailer" because if you put almost any bulk material such as sand, mulch, scrap insulation, wet drywall scraps, etc. in it you are almost guaranteed to have to climb up in with a shovel and clean it out because the load stuck to the box. Add to that the fact that a p/u box has wheelwells as obstacles and it's a recipe for a giant PITA.
As for adding a dump mechanism to a box an existing trailer, that would seem problematic to say the least. For a dump to spill it's contents it needs to be at the back, that means either making a dump smaller than the bed in order to achieve adequate dump angles, or making it much shorter than the trailer bed is, that would lead to a VERY unbalanced trailer, it would have very little tongue weight, if not a negative tongue weight!!
As an example, to tip a box as short as 14' long up to just 45° (which is not nearly enough) you would need an 11' tall cylinder in the middle of the headboard, or two really 5'6" ones mounted midway down the sides. In order to use the undermounted cylinders though you would be dramatically raising the load required to be lifted to dump the box too. I think the cylinders alone to accomplish this would be pretty spendy to say the least, never mind the rest of the hydraulics.
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Dump Box Pickup or Trailer Kit
Joel, the stands would indeed support the tail of the dump, but wouldn't affect the weight & balance issue in the slightest while rolling down the road of course.
However, the jack stands would create a problem for dumping. Rarely is the load in the dump small enough to be able to dump it out without having to pull forward. With a trailer which is 2' or more closer to the ground, the problem is several fold worse. On our "armstrong trailer" (the 14 footer) it is not uncommon to have to pull forward 10' or more to get the load completely out of the box so it can lowered.
With jack stands supporting the weight of the upright box (and now partially shifted) load on them you would be well & truly stuck, unable to either move forward to empty the box, or get them out from under the load to pull ahead and release the rest of the load from the box.
That's where yours would become an "armstrong trailer" too.
Best of luck.
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Dump Box Pickup or Trailer Kit
As EW mentioned, there are many people out there who are just looking for a reason to sue or make an insurance claim.
Pretty much everywhere now there is a basic principle of law that is pretty hard to argue, that is if something were "properly" made it would not fall apart, period. So if it does break or fall apart it could not have been from misuse or abuse, it must just be shoddy materials and or workmanship.
It's sort of like an accident, it doesn't matter what happened, if somebody gets rear-ended, the last guy that couldn't stop in time is automatically guilty, if only of following to close.
My company fabricates a lot of our own equipment and because of that we have a special, separate, insurance rider just to cover the potential liability for an additional $10 million, just so that the insurance company can't say "we didn't know you built it, you're not covered".
Best of luck.
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