If you haul heavy materials like sand, gravel or soil, you’ll want a special kind of vehicle for the job and a dump truck in Texas is one of the best tools to have. However, did you every stop and wonder where these handy vehicles came from? To better appreciate this truck, let’s go back in time a bit to check out its origins.
Wagons
In the late 19the Century, early dumping vehicles were horse drawn wagons. They were dumped with the use of lever. In fact, the entire top slid back and dumped and this included the seat for the driver. This was not very efficient but with limited power, it was all that was available. At this time, you would not see an actual dump truck in Texas for a few years.
Internal Combustion Engines
Not long after automobiles came into existence, man decided to use this great invention for hauling and trucks were first developed, soon followed by dumping trucks. In fact, tipper trucks were basically flatbed trucks which had been modified. A tipper was operated manually with a pulley and rope system and some tippers utilized gravity. By shifting the load backwards, the bed would dump.
The First World War provided a huge need for dump trucks and several companies sprang up to meet the increased demand. Not long after the war ended, Fruehauf was making hydraulically operated dumping trailers, yet the first true hydraulic dump trailer (Robertson Steam Wagon) was operated by steam power.
Modern Trucks
Once hydraulics entered the picture, dump trucks everywhere saw rapid development. This made it possible to handle many tons of material with no human power required. You can buy a dump truck in Texas today with several axles and rated for an enormous capacity. However, even though modern trucks are more beautiful and efficient, the basic principle and design has changed very little.
