Upgrade from ute/trailer to light truck

[Dronelayer]

Hey guys/girls

What's everyone's thoughts on taking the jump to say an 5/8 tonne truck, from using ute and trailers ,makes sense spring/autumn but utes take a beating pulling honey over summer pro/cons?? contemplating buying a Isuzu Nseries and planning to move onto pallets in the future just trying to justify a truck sitting around half the year only getting used for moving hives/harvesting honey any positive feedback welcome

 

[tristan]

we have looked at this many times.
it really comes down to the size of the operation and what your sites and traveling distance is like.

trucks are very very expensive to buy and expensive to maintain. plus the need for HT license. also lifting gear because truck decks are so much higher. hand loading trucks sucks.
huge amount of capital tied up doing nothing. i know some crowds that have other businesses and can share the trucks.
also trucks are slow, most of the small 4wd trucks are made for other countries where they don't go fast and don't need the power.

utes are fine when used within their limits. the no1 problem is idiot staff who thrash the crap out of them. 2nd problem is poorly setup. cheap corner cutting trailers, poorly designed decks and then very commonly overloaded and driven hard.

 

[Alastair]

How to get at the old forum? There was a very good "show your truck" thread

 

[Bron]

Pros & Cons of this have been looked at over the years by us too. We still run 2 or 3 4WD as they just make sense. The deck height, the deck length, do you really want to load that much honey?(We now have a wee lifter, so not so much of a big deal anymore.) WOF not COF. Tyres. Wet paddocks, farm tracks.

 

[Dronelayer]

Pros & Cons of this have been looked at over the years by us too. We still run 2 or 3 4WD as they just make sense. The deck height, the deck length, do you really want to load that much honey?(We now have a wee lifter, so not so much of a big deal anymore.) WOF not COF. Tyres. Wet paddocks, farm tracks.

Yea im hearing you on the utes and trailers. I've recently bought a loader and it's abit to much for the utes, this season has been particularly hard on gear just with box weights being above average might be time for a triple axle trailer and a cruiser

 

[Dronelayer]

we have looked at this many times.
it really comes down to the size of the operation and what your sites and traveling distance is like.

trucks are very very expensive to buy and expensive to maintain. plus the need for HT license. also lifting gear because truck decks are so much higher. hand loading trucks sucks.
huge amount of capital tied up doing nothing. i know some crowds that have other businesses and can share the trucks.
also trucks are slow, most of the small 4wd trucks are made for other countries where they don't go fast and don't need the power.

utes are fine when used within their limits. the no1 problem is idiot staff who thrash the crap out of them. 2nd problem is poorly setup. cheap corner cutting trailers, poorly designed decks and then very commonly overloaded and driven hard.

Yea I'm thinking I could get away with something older but like you said maintenence and 6month cofs just trying to weigh up the next step

 

[tristan]

Yea im hearing you on the utes and trailers. I've recently bought a loader and it's abit to much for the utes, this season has been particularly hard on gear just with box weights being above average might be time for a triple axle trailer and a cruiser

how many FD boxes to a pallet?
triple axle or cruiser doesn't really help a lot. you can buy 2 utes for one cruiser and they both have the same load capacity. you can get 3.5 ton trailers with dual axles. tho legally full ute + 3.5ton trailer is overloading the gvm. your limited legally to 3 ton trailer on most utes.

with good seasons you just have to manage the loads.
a big truck is good for loads but really bad at getting into to tight sites. which means you might loose sites because it can't get in.

what loader did you get?

 

[Dronelayer]

24/30 box pallets some 30 box pallets were over a tonne, Iv bought a small john deere tractor 26hp and mounted a small fork mast on it mainly for moving hives and as a yard machine not for lifting honey pallets way cheaper than a avant etc

 

[tristan]

24/30 box pallets some 30 box pallets were over a tonne, Iv bought a small john deere tractor 26hp and mounted a small fork mast on it mainly for moving hives and as a yard machine not for lifting honey pallets way cheaper than a avant etc

we run 4 way honey pallets. 16 boxes per pallet, 2 pallets per ute (ie 32 boxes per ute), giving 1 ton load. 4 pallets for the trailer, 2 ton load on 2.5 ton trailer.
we have run that config for ~20 years now without too many issues.
we could run 3 ton trailer, but trailer cost goes way up (requires breakaway brakes) and then your into electric brakes etc, making it harder to swap trailers between vehicle.

 

[John B]

we got by for years using nothing but two wheel drive trucks (with a Detroit locker) that could take 120 full depth boxes of honey or 80 hives. Nowadays as I am pretty much retired I just use a Ute . Personally I would much rather drive a small truck than a loaded Ute with a loaded trailer and as for access I just don't put bees anywhere unless I can get into them the vast majority of the time. While I was working full-time a Ute might have been useful sometimes but not often and it's hard to get enough gear on a Ute to do a decent day's work for two people.
There must be a lot of good secondhand beekeeping trucks available at the moment.

 

[Bron]

24/30 box pallets some 30 box pallets were over a tonne, Iv bought a small john deere tractor 26hp and mounted a small fork mast on it mainly for moving hives and as a yard machine not for lifting honey pallets way cheaper than a avant etc

We harvest with 2 utes. Bang in all the clearers with 1 Ute, after inspecting then start pulling honey.
The lifter is on one & we only put 2 pallets of 12 on it. The other Ute takes 2 pallets of 12 & eight on the deck for stability. We are a 2 person band thou, either Himself & I or Daley. Can do 2x2 loads a day if the yards are closer to the honey house. We don’t aim to sprint through harvest. We aim to do it once to the best of our ability and in the bees best interest.
Mind you we do a bit of wintering down when we harvest too, just in case. Each apiary is different.
We looked at getting a trailer, but it wouldn’t work in 50% of our yards. Once apon a time we were a long way from any other bees but our own. Hopefully, we might get some room to breathe soon.

 

[Jessej]

Trucks a d utes…. Its a matter of scale… you need the size of operation to be able to cover the costs of a truck…. But once you’ve got one you’ll never go back…. A truck with a decent crane will save you manpower… one man job shifting palletised bees…. a dream taking honey off because you load the pallet on the ground and let the hydraulics do the lifting…. and you’ve got deck space for a days worth of gear….