Sliding roof chip bin?

[Hodad]

Greetings from Australia, just thought I'd see if I could get some thoughts on designing my new chip bin, particularly from those that use loaders in the course of their work.

 

I have one of these:

 

I run a 9 inch chipper and at the moment have a hastily constructed bin made of timber and roofing iron. Looks terrible, and is too small for my needs. I will be upgrading to a 12 inch in the next 12 months.

 

I want to make a bin by installing (welding) what are effectively greedy boards with some sort of channel/clutch set-up on the tops of the boards, and then install 3 folded sections of galvanised sheet or aluminium that can slide under each other.

 

I am trying to minimise weight (the greedy boards will be steel for durability as I sometimes carry a fair bit of wood) and, more importantly, allow top loading of logs and firewood with minimum effort - ie nothing to remove or unbolt.

 

To give me space for 10 meters of chip (which would max the capacity of the truck), the top of the greedy boards would end up around 2.3m off the ground.

 

So I am asking for any comment on the sliding roof idea, and if I would be ruling out using (hiring) small loaders/bobcats given the height.

 

Any help much appreciated.

Ian

[Stephen Blair]

Either a waterproof sheet, made to measure on bunji chord, can be slow to take on and off and will sag in the middle with rain unless you put crossbars.

You could put a roller shutter door on the roof for a sliding roof, cost more, more chance of crud getting stuck in the rails, but better made.

[Daniël Bos]

Make the front and back have a high point in the middle, have a fitted tarp then take a stiff tube slightly longer than your box fitted in the middle of the tarp.

Use a cranking handle to turn the tube and roll the tarp off all at once, use a tugstring to unroll and re-cover the whole thing again.

 

a bit like this:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPZWJhnpVpo]How to operate the Roll Over Sheet on a Larrington Majestic Agricultural Trailer - YouTube[/ame]

[Hodad]

Thanks for that Stephen, I had considered those options, but the roof panels I had in mind would be folds with sides around 400 or 500mm high, so the heavier walls need not be full height. As for the crud, well that's inevitable, but the functionality and weight saving would - I hope - outweigh having to occasionally clean the channels out. Oh, and thats the groundies job anyway...

 

Thats a cool idea Rover, but dunno if the tarp would survive being smashed with chips and being driven under the occasional low branch

Edited April 27, 2013 by Hodad