About the least expensive dump trailer you will find is a 6’×10’×18” low profile dump trailer. They cost around $7,000 or a bit less if you shop hard. It has a pretty good load capacity, often 6,000-7,000 pounds. But by volume, it’s only about 3.3 cubic yards. Our 7’×14’×24” Magic Trailer is about 7.3 yards—more than twice the volume for similar money. If the only thing you’re hauling is straight gravel or other very dense loads, The Magic Trailer offers little advantage. 

But if you’re hauling bulky loads like mulch, hay, straw, compost, brush, grass clippings, etc., that volume is suddenly a big advantage. It’s rated for 2.5 tons or 5,000 pounds, but I have hauled 6,000 pounds and it handled it fine. Certainly, it will haul and unload dense materials like gravel, sand, stone and topsoil with no problems. 

Bottom line, compared to a dump trailer, you get double the volume for about the same money with The Magic Trailer.

You run into the opposite problem with a hydraulic dump trailer with the same capacity by volume. It has a tremendous weight capacity at 6-8 tons or more, but that’s a far more expensive and heavy trailer. It will almost certainly require a ¾-ton pickup to tow it (or bigger). That puts it out of reach for a lot of hobby farmers, small landscaping companies and so on. A big truck and trailer can also put you over the weight limit in some states like Michigan, and somebody on your crew needs a commercial license to drive the thing.

Bottom line, a hydraulic dump trailer gets you the same volume as the base Magic Trailer, but at almost double the money, and it’s big and heavy and needs a bigger truck.

The Magic Trailer can also do things that a hydraulic dump trailer can’t. You can very precisely dump a little bit here, and then a little bit over there and so on rather than just one big pile. This also allows you to dump a load evenly over a large area so it takes a lot less work and machine time to spread it out into a very even layer.

In some situations, The Magic Trailer is safer. For example, if there are overhead wires or trees with low branches that the customer doesn’t want damaged, that can be difficult or impossible with a conventional dump trailer. Since The Magic Trailer doesn’t have to tilt to dump the load, overhead obstructions are a thing of the past.

Dumping a hydraulic dump trailer is generally fast and easy. But once in a while, not everything wants to come out, even at maximum elevation. Common examples are wet sticky loads like mud with a lot of clay and a tangled up mess of branches from trimming or felling trees. Do you want to crawl up in the bed and yank those branches loose? Or shovel that sticky muddy mess out to get it started?

I have never had a load that The Magic Trailer could not completely unload.

The key issue that allows The Magic Trailer to compete favorably against hydraulic dump trailers is weight. Dump trailers must have two big strong frames. One for the axles and suspension that holds everything, and a second one that makes the box itself and the hydraulic system strong enough to pick up the entire loaded box for dumping. So for any given weight capacity, The Magic Trailer will always be lighter, shorter and a lower center of gravity because it only needs one strong frame.

This translates to a small but meaningful increase in fuel economy and reduced wear and tear on all tow vehicles. It also provides more flexibility for a company’s trucks. Any truck, even the half-ton pickups can tow The Magic Trailer. No waiting for “the big truck” to be available to bring a load of mulch to a customer, or haul a load of brush and limbs from a tree job.