How Dump Trailers are Made | Inside Look in an Amish Trailer Factory

Folks, today on the Sony Ridge Bar channel, we're having fun. Made in America, baby. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey guys, we're at Belmont Trailers. Welcome back to the Stony Ridge Farm channel. Guys, we don't have a gooseeneck trailer on the farm. I've been doing my research and I reached out to these guys at Belmont Trailers here in Lancaster. Yep. Not Lancaster. That evidently is in the UK. Don't say that when you come up here. Uh in Pennsylvania, these are handmade trailers. This is an Amishowned business. And this is the cream of the crop. The cream that rises to the top. We've got two trailers we're going to be picking up today. And we're going to take a factory tour and show you guys how real American people are building real American products here in America. And Jonathan is our expert, our resident expert on these trailers. So, we're going to walk around each trailer real quick before we load them up and haul them back to North Carolina. What is this trailer called, man? Behind me here is the GNX trailer. It is our engineered, fully engineered frame and gooseeneck uh trailer. So, up front here, you can obviously see the engineered neck. We've got a 2 and 516 coupler engineered frame uh utilizes a multitude of materials. The flanges top and bottom are out of 100 ksi steel and the web in between is out of 80 ksi steel. Mild steel comes in a range of 36 to 50 ksi. And what that is is the pressure that the steel can take without permanently deflecting or bending. Got so this will flex but it takes way more force to actually bend the material permanently. And this is 80 ksi. 80 and 100. 80 and 100. So typical trailers, what are they made out of? Yeah. So, like a typical I-beam trailer will have about 50 ksi material in it. So, we're talking nearly double throughout this trailer. Um, when we were designing this trailer, we were trying to figure out how can we make the front area more usable. So, we actually enclosed the entire gooseeneck, gave you a rollup door just like you'd find on a firet truck that allows you to organize and store tools, equipment in here, um, however you see fit. Again, the pegboard system allows you to move things around, add to it. Um, chains and binders and straps can all be organized in there, as well as tools and other things. Awesome. Behind this guard, uh, we house the hydraulic pumps, air compressors, and batteries. Okay. Um, this just tucks it underneath the deck. Keeps it out of the way. Again, allows you to have that floor space for more equipment. So, tell me about this. There's a push that button. Everybody likes the button. Don't hit the red button. Don't hit the red button. Check that out, guys. So, hydraulic driven jacks, correct? And they settle via gravity via air. Is that right? Or that is correct. So these jacks here um have an air return on them or gravity return. So there's actually air pressure on the top side of the cylinder. So when you extend it, you're actually compressing air that allows the jack to lift the foot without using a hydraulic pressure. Nice. Nice. How does that shut? Is it really easy to shut? Oh yeah. So fully securable. Awesome. Correct. Lockable. Um, so keeps all your tools and straps and binders safe behind a door. What What kind of warranty do these trailers have? Yeah, so all of Belmont's steel trailers have a 5-year manufacturers's warranty on the frame, the structure of the trailer. So again, if you have any issues, you know, you reach out to us, our warranty department, and we help, you know, the guys out, the dealers or the customers find a solution. 30 foot that includes the dovetail on the end. So it it is 30 ft total. So you have 25 of flat deck and then a 5ft beaver tail on the back. Okay. Um, if we're looking down the side here, you get a side profile of this trailer. You can actually see the camber to the frame. So, again, it's a fully engineered frame. So, it's a 16-in tall beam. We make it here inhouse. Um, so we laser cut the parts and then weld them all together to create the frame. Nice. So, you don't order a beam. No, you make a beam. On the GNX and GXD series, they we make the beams for those trailers. Awesome. Um, so you'll get a chance to check out that when you do the tour inside. Uh, but it allows us to have a arch to the frame so that when you load this thing up, you never get a sag. You will never get a belly in this trailer. You see those guys loaded down and they have squatting and bouncing. Yep. Squatting and bouncing. You will never have that with these frames. Awesome. Now, you've got a ladder right here. Yep. So, just a retractable side step allows you to hop up on the deck. Um, above the gooseseneck, I forgot to mention there's a storage box. So, again, if you're storing chains and binders. Yeah. So, tell me about that. It's lockable, too. Correct. Premium lockable. Correct. It's got two trigger latches. Um, with that space, we often have a winch. There's a light in here, too. Correct. Is that right? Ah, so this light up here. So, we have a directional light on the side. So, you loosen it up. The light can be turned and pointed in any direction. Tighten back down. Nice. Uh, what I like to say is guys that are, you know, loading up early in the morning or late at night, they can shine this over in the area they're picking stuff up from and then they can just transport it over here to the deck. Again, just allows for that visibility around your work area. So, for the overachiever, that's the overachiever light. That's what I'm going to call that. The guy that works until dark because he's got to get the job done. Clearance light on this trailer have been upgraded. Um, so what's really cool about these clearance lights is they actually have a down light as well. So again, early morning, late at night, you flip the switch inside the gooseseneck and there will be a white light around both sides of the trailer, just giving you that visibility so you're not running in or stumbling around the trailer. Now, I saw the straps are built in over there, kind of like a semi-truck on the other side. So, this trailer has sliding winch track down the length of the trailer. Again, just for ease of strapping things down, you don't have to always get your straps out. You can just roll those over, hook them, and tighten it down. This here is our full width wedge ramps. So, a lot of holes cut in this just to lightweight it. Um, the material that makes this up is actually the same as what's in the engineered beam. So, this is 80 ksi steel in here. Again, it can take the abuse. It can bend, but it won't permanently bend. It always comes back to the shape. But, it's really nice. They're spring assisted. We're tucked up against the wall here, but they'll stand straight up and then they'll lay over. So, it's spring assisted. Again, just keeps it nice and easy. You don't have to fight it to get it up and down. Underneath all of Belmont's trailers are Dexter axles. So, this trailer here is equipped with a Dexter 12K tandem setup. U, basically, the trailer has a 24,000lb GVWR. Trailer itself, empty, weighs about 7,000 lbs. So, you got a good bit of payload on this trailer for the equipment material that you're hauling. That's a stout trailer right there. What makes life so much easier is having that hydraulic setup. Now, will that hydraulic setup, the battery, is it set up to charge while you tow? Correct. Okay. And you can run a extension cord. Absolutely. Yeah. There's an onboard charger at the front. Um so if you're again using the jacks hard, we wouldn't necessarily run into an issue with the jacks. But our other trailer, the GXD, has a hydraulic dovetail. So that has more hydraulic cylinders. You're running it more. But here's the onboard charger. You just plug your extension cord in when you're at your shop and that'll charge up the battery overnight. But yes, you are correct. The seven pin plugged into the truck will charge up the battery while you're driving. Awesome. And all of these slide. Is that right? That is correct. All except for the one in between the wheels. That one is welded in place. Oh, gotcha. I see it. And again, if you had a longer trailer, this winch track at the back would be longer. Awesome. That is way cool. Let's go check out the dump trailer. Man, this one's cool. The dump trailer is even cooler. This thing's awesome. Yeah. Behind me here is our new dump, the DLX series dump. Um, this has a structural 8 in I-beam underneath, but then the dump bed on top is more of a unibody design. Um, so less crossmembers than you would find in our traditional trailers. And it also has thinner gauge walls and floors. Now, I say thinner and you get worried. Most of the industry is going to a seven gauge, a thicker floor. And we've actually reached out to a company that makes higher grade steels. Again, something like you'd find in our engineered frame on the gooseseneck. This floor here is made of 180 ksi material. So, it takes dents and rocks and whatever else. And sorry, I shouldn't say it takes dents. It It prevents dents. So the material again just absorbs the impact, distributes it out, and makes it a more dentresistant floor. The material is actually called hardox. You can look it up. It's really cool what they're doing with this material. Cool. Now, I could use this to haul gravel, dirt, whatever, anything, machinery, everything that I need. Uh there are a lot of laws dictating that you got to have your load covered up. I like how it has the built-in uh ramp. Show us the uh the ram here. This is something different. So, I I see a lot of dump trailers out there and they have a scissor system underneath. Uh this has the gigantic cylinder. Correct. Look at that. Looks like it's off of a a track loader. So, when we were designing our front telescopic dump, a lot of the industry uses a three-stage cylinder. And what that means is the cylinder is going to have to stick out the top of the trailer. And we said, what what can we do to improve the look and even the function of the trailer? What we ended up with is a fivestage hydraulic cylinder. Uh we call it the lowprofile cylinder. What that means is it doesn't stick up above the front of the dump. So, you know, when you're loading this thing with your skid loader and you're swinging around, you don't accidentally hit the cylinder. Oh, wow. On the trailer. You think that's it? We have a whole another cylinder here. Oh, another one. Oh, yeah. Wow. Holy cow. Look at this thing. This Wow. That's awesome, man. That is awesome. Uh, so tell me about that cylinder again. That is a five stage cylinder. This is a fivestage cylinder manufactured by Stillwell. We reached out to them about a year ago and said, "Hey, what can we do? What are our options?" We were actually exploring a four stage, but it's still stuck up above the front wall by about 10 to 12 in. And we say, if we're going this far, let's go all the way, sink that cylinder below the front wall, again, preventing you from running into it with your booms or your skid loaders or whatever it might be. Nice. We got a ramp system here that pulls out from the back. We've got jacks on each corner, so if you're loading equipment, you don't pick up the back of your truck. Ask me how I know that happens sometimes. It does. I loaded up a piece of equipment one time, my truck just start rolling down the hill. I was like, ah. Yep. Yeah. So, the rear stabilizer jacks again allow you to plant the rear of the trailer. heavy duty steps on here with with uh grips. I mean, it looks like you guys have thought of everything. You've got tool storage under here also. Uh tell me about this tool storage area. Yeah, so all of our dump trailers have always had an underbody tray again to keep shovels, even the spare tire, things like that. Yeah. Um and what we were trying to do with this series trailer was create a tray that was more that was safer. Gotcha. So guys were lifting it up about four or five inches and then reaching underneath to grab their shovel. and we said, "What can we do to help them use the safety prop as as it was intended, right?" Um, so this safety prop here has the bar across um just to kind of encourage customers or people to use it, reach in, grab their shovel, but again with the safety prop underneath. Gotcha. And we're bringing it down. I'm over here bringing it down right now so you guys can see how this is designed. Now, if it had weight in it, it would go down a whole lot faster. We've got points right here. Um, and this is for safety. So, your guys aren't under here working or yourself climbing up underneath this thing without a safety prop, which is awesome. And that'll hold that up no problem. Correct. Yeah. Very cool. Same kind of I-beam construction. You guys build these beams custom in house? We actually don't. So, this is a structural beam. We built a machine that actually forms. It's a single beam that we actually bend in house. Nice. Nice. Uh, super heavy duty uh uh hookup right here. I guess you could switch that out for a panel hitch if you wanted to. anything you want. Uh, same hook design that was on the other trailer. Just super heavyduty, overbuilt. I mean, in my mind, it's just overbuilt. Now, let's go back to the back of it because I thought that was a pretty cool curiosity. Uh, tell me about the uh the different configurations we can do here in the rear. Yeah. So, the rear here is set up with a three-way gate. So, that's your traditional barn doors. The clasp here in the center allows you to swing the two doors out. You have a tailgate function. So, releasing the hooks on both sides allows the tailgate. And then the spread gate, the lever here, release the lock and you can spread open the spread gate. This also has the hydraulic jack point right here, guys. So, you're not standing here going. So, it makes a lot of sense, too. Um, onboard charger. Same thing as what's on the gooseseneck there. Nice lockable storage here for binders, all that stuff that you need. Selector valve allows you to switch between the hydraulic jack and the dump. So, it's one pump, one remote with a selector valve in there. There's a super premium paint situation going on here. Tell me about this paint. This is really heavyduty stuff. Correct. So, Belmont uses a two coat polyurethane paint. So, it's all wet paint. We do not powder coat anywhere in this shop. So, all of our trailers that we put out are using a polyurethane paint. Why paint versus powder coat? So, in our experience with paint, uh, it scratches and you can touch it up. With powder coat, it tends to once you chip it or scratch it, it'll peel. Man, that's a sharp looking trailer. What color is this? So, this is our sandstone color. Gotcha. All right. Here's a full-on demo. Release that. That's your spread gate. The chains here allow you to adjust the uh the amount it opens. Gotcha. Spread gravel with this spread material. Locks up top are for the tailgate function. Same chains will limit the amount that opens. Awesome. So, very cool. [Music] And then the barn door function here opens up. What's really nice about this, the hold back is actually built into the hinge here. Okay. Um, so traditionally we have a holdback that's usually on the back side here, but it's actually just inside the hinge. Nice. Release that. A lot of people break a tailgate like this by not pinning it back like it should be when they dump. Can a guy break his tailgate and call you up and get a new one sent to him? Well, hey, you use and abuse, I don't know. But we do try and take care of our customers. Again, if you had something that breaks, we want to help you out and get you back on the road. All right, Jonathan, thank you so much for taking us around. Uh we're going to get with Brian and we're going to go through the factory and show you guys. And then we're going to load these up. We're going to be double stacking trailers to haul back to North Carolina. It's going to be a challenge to get this thing off once I get it home. Be scratching my head a bit. Guys, this is Brian with Belmont Trailers and we're going to walk through this factory. Thanks, man. Thank you so much. It was awesome to be able to come through here. Glad to have you. And show people how things are made. Our manufacturing facility is set up very much in a lean manufacturing process. What that means is that we've laid out the factory to be as efficient as possible. So the way the factory is laid out, you'll start at the front of our facility here. We have our what we call our saw line or our cut line. All of our trailers, when we put an order into our system for a trailer, a production sheet is generated for that specific trailer model. And every trailer model that we have has a cut list or a saw list uh for that particular model where our guys will precut all of the structural steel that is needed for that particular model. And the parts will be pre-cut. They'll be put on these carts that you see here specific to that trailer model. And then those carts will then be taken to the specific line that that trailer is being manufactured on. So we have five lines here. a custom line. We have our utility landscape line. We have our equipment line and we have our dump line. Cool. So, the carts will be staged at the front of every line in order to be able to start the fabrication process. So, each one of our lines, you'll notice um we have what's called a fixture table uh or a jig specific to that trailer model. So, what that allows us to do is for repeatability, for consistency, and for efficiency, all the pre-cut parts will be placed into that fixture table, our guys in Fab will weld them up. They'll be able to pick that subframe up, flip it over, weld the other side, and continue on down the process in manufacturing the trailers. Once the trailers are manufactured, again, all of our trailers are steel. We paint all of our trailers with a two-part polyurethane primer and a top coat. And before the trailers are painted, they go through a phosphoric acid wash bay, which is what you see here. So there's no trailer in there at the moment, but very much like a car wash. The trailers will get washed down with that phosphoric acid wash. Then in addition to the wash bay for the actual trailer subframes, we also have a conveyorized paint system and wash bay. So, this system here allows us to hang all of our small parts, things like ramps, gates, uh, toolboxes, things like that that are going to be mated up with the subframe later. They can be put onto this conveyorized system. They'll go through an automatic wash bay. They'll go through a dryer, and then they'll go into the paint booth to be painted, and then they'll meet up with the trailer when we get to the other side in in assembly. Nice. Now, you got something really special over here. Yeah. We talked about yesterday. Yeah. So, one of the trailers that you're picking up, Josh, is one of our GNX uh gooseeneck trailers. Those trailers feature an engineered beam. This uh piece of equipment here is a beam welder. So, we fabricate our own engineered beams using our top and bottom plate and our web. And this machine will weld that beam up for us. And we're able to do up to 44 ft in length with this beam welder. Wow. Uh so here you can see a subframe assembly in process very much like the like the subframe on the trailer that you're getting. So this is an example of the engineered beam. Uh you can see here the quality of our beam welder and the consistency of the weld. Cool. Uh we use a torque tube uh what we call cross tube torque control uh on our heavy duty gooseeneck trailers to help with stability when pulling heavy loads. So this trailer, if it were just two beams, could twist. Is that right? That's right. That's right. So typically, tell me, you were telling me yesterday, typically these uh trailers have torque tubes that run uh hard uh what do you call it? Yeah. Parallel. Yeah. Yeah.…