Quad/ATV manure dump cart

[Angela_Freda]

Who moves their manure with an atv?
Do you have a dump cart to move it to your pile or container?
What’s the volume of the cart/dump trailer and how’s that working for you?

We have 30 stalls that we clean and put the manure into a large Tractor trailer size container. Which is above ground so we take the wheelbarrows or muck tubs* uphill to dump into it.
It can be a bear in decent weather. If we got a foot of snow… Yikes.

So what quad dump trailer would hold a volume that makes it more time efficient* to use?

*we use dozens of muck tubs into the quad trailer, hauling up to the container, for two trips, times two workers per trip, to do one barn.
That’s a whole lotta time, times two workers, that imo could be way more efficient if we had a dump trailer for the quad to do both barns

With the wheelbarrows, the guys take one trip to the container every two stalls.
I take two trips per stall.
The aisle is the length of a dressage arena + about 40 feet, so its quite a distance.
Its a huge time=money suck.

[LCDR]

Trying to understand the setup. You already have an ATV or two that you would like to put to use hauling manure, rather than starting from new with a hydraulic dump UTV or a tractor front end loader and bucket?

And, there is a ramp leading up to the top of a container the size of a trailer for a semi, which would make ihe container approximately 50 feet long, 8+ feet wide and about 13-14 feet high? How is the dumping ramp set up to allow manure to be distributed the full length of the container? I am picturing a ramp at one end of a 50 foot long, 13 feet high, dumping platform? A posted picture would sure be helpful.

If you have never posted a picture before, click on that up-pointing arrow with a broad bar on the arrow bottom (8th symbol from the left on the menu bar), and follow the directions.

If I am picturing the setup correctly, backing a trailer with an ATV up the ramp would be difficult, if not dangerous. With the ATV short wheelbase and the short trailer tongue, it wouldn’t take much of a mistake to put a trailer wheel over the edge.

[goodhors]

Are you lifting each tub to empty into the dumpster? How big is the trailer you haul the tubs in?

Something I have seen, here in the north, is a system of raising the wheelbarrows, tubs, above the side of spreader or dumpster. One friend has a lean-to on the side of her barn, with floor level 5ft lower than barn floor. They just roll loads to door above spreader, tip manure in. She moves spreader forward to fill the length, as each area under door gets filled. A second friend has a similar set-up, but with a wooden ramp from wide barn door to spreader, to allow wheelbarrows to fill the spreader from front to back before emptying it.

Do you have any low spots to put container in that truck can easily get in and out of? Building a ramp at that low location where you could drive up on ramp with the quad and present trailer, to dump tubs across into container.

Ramp would need to be VERY solid under the weight and vibration of machinery on the ramp. If this is going to be a long term stabling project, you might want to consult a farm builder, who could make a cement pit-style place to put the container, with a cement ramp alongside to dump off of. It would need an incline on both ends to do ALL forward driving. Up the ramp, stop to dump, drive forward and down other end ramp to get off at the other end.

No backing up, EVER.

Unless you have a tractor with a bucket, the dumping trailer contents would need to be dumped beside container, then hand shoveled into the container. Still time consuming, needing to people handle manure twice.

I am just guessing at your set up, my mind picture could be way off reality. No idea of budget to work with for constructing a ramp of heavy wood or rconcrete.

My two friends with the lean-to sheds, have concrete walls alongside the spreaders, very solid. Invariably there will be “incidents” where spreader bumps into the ramp wall. But spreader is covered in all weathers, short distance from stalls to push loads to empty into spreader. For our various weathers, ice, snow, workers are not slipping or getting wet as they work to clean stalls.

I have a 12ft aisle to drive thru our barn with spreader to clean stalls in all weathers, stay dry. Your set up sounds left over from the days when help was cheap, not efficient. 30 horses daily sounds exhausting!! Sometimes I think I am being killed cleaning 8-9 stalls a day, in a very efficient setup! Just whining, not really that hard here.

[Angela_Freda]

The container is above ground with a solid, earthen ramp.
You can drive on it with anything, just like any of the driveways on the property.
Imo, if it had instead been installed with the top edge ground level, like a “pit”, it would take so much less effort and time (= money).*
Its about 15 trips total with a wheelbarrow, up that long steep ramp to do barn 1.

For barn 2, which is farther away, two workers take the quad, load its wagon with a dozen beyond-full muck tubs, tow them up to the container and hand dump each one into the container. Twice.
So yes, each muck tub is lifted twice: once to put it into the ATV trailer, then up at the container to dump. They are too heavy for me to lift at all. I stay at the barn cleaning while the guy or guys go do that part.
.
When there’s only one guy on, plus me, I feel horrible for him.
I try to treat him to a Dunkin order on those days.
.

• it would also make hiring easier.
  Instead of needing strong, young guys (who get paid more), we could hire more workers like me.

[LCDR]

Your setup sounds way too labor intensive to me. Do you perhaps have a tractor with a loader bucket that will fit in your barn aisle?

[Angela_Freda]

Not an option, because the aisle is rubber pavers that won’t hold up to a tractor and spreader.

[walkinthewalk]

I have a John Deere 17 cuFt. TILT dump cart that I have been overfilling with manure/shavings since 2005. It’s a miracle I haven’t broke the axle but the old girl is like the Energizer bunny and worth every penny I paid for it all those years ago:). I have a piece of clothes line tied to the lifting mechanism so I don’t have to bend over and wrestle with the tilt mechanism.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/John-Deere-1-000-lb-17-cu-ft-Tow-Behind-Poly-Utility-Cart-PCT-17JD/100324117?source=shoppingads&locale=en-US&&mtc=SHOPPING-BF-CDP-GGL-D28I-028_034_RIDERS-NA-NA-NA-SMART-NA-NA-NA-NA-NBR-NA-NA-NA-SMART_SHP&cm_mmc=SHOPPING-BF-CDP-GGL-D28I-028_034_RIDERS-NA-NA-NA-SMART-NA-NA-NA-NA-NBR-NA-NA-NA-SMART_SHP-71700000090520797-58700007648833826-92700069166032930&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIkufcrpb3_AIVd8mUCR0BEweZEAQYByABEgLNavD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Depending how long the tongue is on your ATV, you could either easily back it up the dirt ramp or be swearing like a sailer by the time you get it up there:)

Our Kawasaki has a longer tongue and is automatic, making backing up less grief.

My old Honda has a short tongue and a clutch, making backing up very swear worthy — especially since my neck no longer swivels like it did in the old days.

17 cuFt is not much when you have so many stalls to clean, even when it’s over loaded. I think JD makes a bigger tilt dump cart but jockeying all that weight on wet or icy days may be less than ideal:)

[luvmyhackney]

Since I’m looking at putting pavers in my barn… why won’t they hold up under a tractor? My rep says a tractor will be fine on them.

[walkinthewalk]

I had to hunt, but here is my dump cart. My 4-wheeler won’t fit in the aisle way, I am able to wheel it down the aisle myself, even when it is over full. I am 75 BTW, so it’s good exerci, lollol

[Angela_Freda]

I was just told a manure spreader and tractor in the aisle was a no go.
Its not my barn, and I wasn’t there for that decision making, so I’m not really sure of the reason behind the concern.

[LCDR]

Is there enough space on your manure container ramp to be able to use a UTV like a Kawasaki Mule or Deere Gator with a hydraulic dump bed? I am thinking loading its bed directly from the stall, drive up the ramp, back the tailgate over the container, and flip the dump switch. Like the tractor and bucket, but significantly lighter and kinder on the aisle rubber pavers.

And going back to the ATV theme, it will take some searching, but there are ATV/UTV side dumping trailers. That would allow loading manure and bedding directly from stalls and then staying parallel to the container to dump, with no muck buckets needed.

[endlessclimb]

God help your barn should a horse pass away in a stall, without being able to drive a tractor down the aisle!

I had a dump cart for my lawn tractor and got rid of it. It was impossible to back, and without being able to do that, was entirely useless to me. Will you have to back it to get it where you need it?

[luvmyhackney]

I use a dump cart for moving firewood. Got it from Harbour Freight for a couple hundred. It would work for manure but that’s so much labor!

Could you find a trailer builder in your area and have them build you one? Looking at the commercial ATV trailers on google and they are pricey.

[lenapesadie]

I have a wee dump cart I pull with my gas powered golf cart. The cart came from tractor supply company. It was $230 and is 15 cubic feet.

[awaywego]

How far away is the manure container? Can’t even think about how many trips 30 stalls will take with a small garden cart sized dump trailer

[Pico_Banana]

I use a gorilla cart that I pull with a side by side. Leave the regular handle on the cart so I can back it into stalls to fill. I can easily fit two stalls worth in the cart. When ready to dump, pop the handle over the ball hitch on the side by side and pull to manure pile. The only thing I would like to improve is that it’s pretty heavy to lift it to dump it.

This would at least save you some trips.

[Angela_Freda]

@endlessclimb

God help your barn should a horse pass away in a stall, without being able to drive a tractor down the aisle!

I think an infrequent trip isn’t a problem.
The concern is repeated, daily traffic.

[SusanO]

Gah!! Why do people design barns to be so labor intensive? Have they not spent enough of their own time mucking in the heat and/or the cold??? I am getting older and my goal in life is to automate everything I can because I am my own barn help. AND I have spent decades taking care of my horses at various barns I did not own and I know what NOT to do. Now I will admit I do not have 30 horses and never wish to have that many.

I made sure I had concrete floors in the barn aisles and they were 16 feet wide so I could just back in the spreader and muck directly into it. No muck tubs or wheelbarrows involved. I know you can’t do that because you can’t change how the barn is constructed.

I had to get the manure spreader refurbished and fixed so it was out of commission all summer. I found that with horses in/out for 12 hours I could do all the stalls(3) (and I am FUSSY about clean stalls) by using 2 muck tubs and the tractor bucket (four foot bucket). I was able to get all the manure in the bucket and cram 2 muck tubs with wet spot shavings into the bucket and make one trip out to the back of the pasture to my new compost heap. I did not lift the muck tubs. I slid them down the hallway and crammed them into the lowered tractor bucket, raised the bucket and off I went. No way was I lifting buckets or pushing wheelbarrows up a ramp. That is slave labor and I am not going to do it.

I have used my riding mower/garden tractor and pulled a dump cart behind it. It isn’t as efficient or as easy as the tractor bucket idea. And I had a wiring problem in my mower so that was a no go this time. The tractor worked better anyway.

[LCDR]

Here is a link to information about a Kubota ATV trailer. The container swivels to the side 60 degrees either way for loading or dumping.

Kubota RTV Poly Swivel Dump Trailer by Moose

This was just one example of small side dumping trailers I found in a short search. I had no idea there were so many out there. Some, like the one pictured below are marketed to cemetaries where access is limited. But it looks like it would move and dump manure great.

[DMK]

Is there any way you could make that ramp higher so the bin is level, then add a down ramp as well? Then if you had a side dump cart it’s just drive up dump, keep driving down, no muck buckets, no backing.
Many years ago I was at a barn where they couldn’t bring the FEL tractor in. It was parked outside the aisle, we dumped muck buckets in the bucket which then headed off to the pile. But it was a proper tractor, too big for the barn aisle, so the corresponding bucket was also quite large. Still if you have a FEL that might be an option. More trips, less back breaking.