HarborFreight Cargo Unloader! AMAZING!

This thing is absolutely amazing. For $40 (with coupon) you cannot beat this thing.

For my 2014 Toyotla Tacoma I had to trim the sheet because it was too wide for the bed (burned the cut site with a lighter as well to prevent unthreading of the fibers of the sheet). Also the clamps that hold the rod in place were interfering with the latch mechanism of the tailgate.

I sprayed the bed with silicone lubricant after sweeping it clean. This seemed to work amazingly well.

As you can see in my video, it took no time at all to unload the bed. I was chucking out all my rotted, short, reject pieces that I've collected.

Here's the link to the Harbor Freight Cargo Unloader.

And here's a link to a HF coupon database (amazing site) for the $34.99 COUPON. $44.99 is the reg. price.

I've seen videos on YT with people unloading coal, gravel, dirt, mulch, etc. This thing is a must.

Modding wise I drilled a hole in the crank so I could secure it to the rod when it was not in use using a locking pin. That worked out well as I forgot to detach it and drove home with it dangling there.

I ended up seeing so much good wood I went home, got my chainsaw gear, ppe, etc, 2 spare chains (thank god I did that) and came back to pick up some nice ash (yellow I think?), one round of spruce, and a bunch of norwegian maple as well. That's a good trade right there!

The ash I saw the tell-tale signs of Emerald Ash Borer - squiggly lines between wood and bark and those "D" shaped exit holes. Shame.

Here's the video of the unit in action.

 

Handy. I have one...beat to hell. Still works great though. Xmas gift couple years ago.

 

LordOfTheFlies ....very nice! I've seen those advertised, but wondered if they were somewhat of a gimmick. Thank you for posting the vid. Don't know what the weight/moisture content was of that load...have you used it on heavy wood, like green oak/hickory?

Im guessing there are pieces you have to get out of the truck due to where the slide can lay because of the fender wells. But if it removes say 75% of the load, that is a lot of work saved quickly! Is it easy to remove from the truck if you want/need to?

 

I sold my truck and kept mine thinking to adapt to a trailer which I never had.

Yep, it works! I was moving well over a yard of fill and getting it started with that much is difficult, but possible.

 

A motorized one hooked to an alarm clock for my daughters bed would be nice.

 

Now that there is funny!

 

Nice. I had some loads of horse poop to use in the gardens(mulched and composted of course) but might wanna grab one in the event I do this again. My truck does have those tie-down rails that run down the middle of the bed for anchors and then the rubber sleeves as well. Keep forgetting to put them back in.

 

The mc of the load I took away was 30%. Still very green. The trees had just been cut by the town.

It is very easy to remove as it is held in by straps that go around the tailgate on each side. The clamps have rubber pads.

Here is a second vid showing the material of the mesh more clearly. Also I'm unloading the wood I bucked from the dump....ONE HANDED.

Oh and like I said in the first post that was my first time using it so hence my giddiness!

 

I am wearing shin guards (soft black ones) as well as steel tied boots as well as a really awesome plastic metatarsal guard for the top of my boots. Dropped my 5lb wedge on my foot yesterday and while I definitely felt it I might have broken my foot had I not had the guard on!

 

Would highly recommend it!

 

I will likely get it because I find myself getting a lot of loads that are much more work than necessary. Probably would be easier loading a wheelbarrow this way too.

 

The guy I bought my trailer off of gave me one for the trailer. Worked great. Until one of the brackets broke It handled 3/4 cord of green hickory no problem.
It broke when I was unloading yard waste so it probably had close to 2 tons. A bit over its load rating

 

I've got one and it's awesome for unloading mulch and compost.

I first picked it up when I had to dig a sump pump pit and footer drain system under my old house. I had over a cubic yard of wet clay and rock in the bed of the truck. Guessing over 3000 pounds based on how the truck sagged. The unloader worked but it was very difficult to start moving the load. It was worth $35 not having to shovel the truck out after digging and hauling it all out of the crawlspace.

I've looked at getting a dump bed insert for the truck but I can buy 100 bed conveyors for the same price.

 

Next time try spray some silicone lubricant on the bed of the truck before laying out the sheet. That worked really well for me.

 

Also I filled up the bed completely. I did try not to have any heavy pieces near the wheel weels but man it worked really well. Again, first time using it maybe I cranked it a little too jubilantly because I was tickled pink. Next time will crank it nice and slow and see how that goes. Plus in the video you can see there was a huge wedge slice that kind of got caught up on the bar which I didn't notice until I turned it a few times....

 

In my day we would back the truck up really fast and slam on the brakes.. most of the wood rolled out because of all of the empty beer bottles it was setting on.

 

You have me interested. Not a big Harbor freight fan, but the hand truck with 13" pneumatic wheels I bought there has served me well. I also have a second generation Tacoma, 2009, and at the stage of not putting any money into it except for maintenance. I think I could bend the rules for a $40 item to save my back.
Question: How robust is the belt?

I would be loading rounds into the bed, then unloading directly onto the splitter, then throwing the splits back into the nose of the bed. Lastly I would drive the truck to the stacks and unload from the tailgate. This would mean the wood would never touch the ground once loaded as rounds. I'm wondering if pointy splits or the crosscut edges of rounds would create rips in the belt.

 

Ah good questions Hookedup24 ..

Also, with the belt/conveyer (whatever Its called) in the bed under the load...can the tailgate be closed?

Edit: duh huh..nevermind. just looked at your pics again and answered my own question...

 

It's quite robust. It's thick enough that I was able to push my scissors through as opposed to clipping the scissors. I think it will last quite a while. I didn't see any rips at all and those pieces that I threw out were jagged for sure.

Yeah it can be closed. You just have to make sure that brackets don't interferere with the latch. It slid around a little and I had to tighten up the small clamps on either side of the brackets for the bar to hold it in place. Tthe other thing is that there was ample room in terms of the length of the belt. I think I will pull it out with a bit more slack next time. This will hopefully prevent it from slipping under the end of the load when there is much less weight to push down on the belt.