Phelps Industries, Inc. is a unique company in that our focus is specifically on truck dumpers/tippers. We have been manufacturing our own telescopic cylinders designed specifically for truck dumpers since 1980.
Our philosophy is to build a dumper that is designed to lift the load, as if no product is emptying from the trailer. This means that the dumper is raising its lifting capacity throughout the tilt cycle. Therefore, the supplied motor horsepower, pump output, and cylinders are sized with that service factor taken into consideration. This philosophy leads to a unit with a longer life span and better safety rating, and safety factor.
Our engineering guidelines lead us to use the proper platform construction, larger diameter cylinder sizing and related pivot radius (the distance between the pivot point of the platform and the cylinders attachment points). The pivot radius is an important factor in design because it directly relates to the fatigue rating of the platform. Because we manufacture our own large telescopic cylinders we can set the pivot radius to achieve the desired lifting capacity (weight that a dumping platform can raise) and design life of the dumper. We state this point, because other manufacturers in the market, tend to mention only the platform construction, as though that is the only factor to consider in the entire dumper design. We believe that the longer this pivot radius, along with proper dumper construction, will lower the pressures seen on the hydraulic system and give you platform with less bending moment/better rigidity.