Anybody have suggestions. Bellydump full of hardened asphalt

So I just took over a job managing a yard with a bunch of different trucks and trailers. There is one "special" trailer I need to somehow unload. Apparently someone left asphalt in a bellydump trailer. It has hardened up. It's been it the trailer for at least 1 year. The belly opens up so that's a good thing, however does not close completely so I can't detach the tractor. I was thinking. Back the trailer on a mound of dirt and get a diesel heater and heat that asphalt. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance

saturate it in diesel fuel as well

If you were asking in July, maybe heat it. This time of year, assuming you want to use it before July, get somebody started with a jackhammer on the top to bore into it, or start with heat at the bottom, but the heat is only going open up a channel to let the guy with the jackhammer drop the pieces through. Second thought, pour diesel around the trailer wall, let it soak in few days, repeat a few times. Then build a ramp of sand next to the trailer, roll it over onto it's top, then heat the trailer in sections starting at the bottom and working up each side.

Online auction sold as is (;

Better yet get a powder monkey to thump it.

I've used a propane powered weed burner torch on dump bodies but have never dealt with an asphalt trailer. If you aren't worried about paint and the trailer is single wall, heating the wall and floor will loosen the bond while someone topside digs it out with a drain spade. Once you get the underside warm, it will want to let go.

If it is like what they use on the roads here it is about ready to fall apart anyway.lol

shopguy said: If it is like what they use on the roads here it is about ready to fall apart anyway.lol Click to expand... Are you living in Walla Walla too! lol

Is it a full load, or just a couple ton. Use caution with fuel and fire. I saw a spreader that had asphalt left in the hopper after a breakdown. They soaked it with fuel, as you do, but they went too crazy with the tiger torch and it caught her on fire. If it's a full load, oil around the outside of the load and an excavator, a few tons might require fuel, some heat, and a lot of elbow grease. The same company that lost the spreader, also left a load in a shuttle buggy, and by a load, I mean over 20 metric tonne. That was an excavator racket, and some you're fired action.

Hot asphalt is a "by whatever means necessary" situation. I was on a site when a transfer truck box got off the rollers and I was the guy with the chain and (Big) excavator to get it back on the rails.

Welcome to the Forums Chris! I have family in Odessa, been there several times. Mini-ex with hammer and a spade bit.

post a picture of the belly gates

Should do the trick

CM1995 said: I have family in Odessa, been there several times. Click to expand... It always amazed how dusty that town is. All the time.