trailers

[AllforWork]

Help with trailer. Want gooseneck 20 to 25 ft. Can not find trailer talk forums. Advantage or disadvantage of dovetail. Are grease axles OK. Mostly hauling hay or 3 ton tractor.

Thanks

 

[Highbeam]

I tow a 4500 lb tractor package on a bumper pull trailer of 18 feet in length. It has a dovetail of 2 feet in length, when combined with the 5 foot ramps I get 7 feet to climb to deck height vs. 5 so the dovetail makes for a more gradual climb, I like the dovetail.

I have 5200 lb Dexter EZlube axles. I wouldn't pay extra for the EZlube feature. You still need to manually disassemble and grease the bearings even according to dexter. The EZlube feature doesn't hurt unless you pump grease in past the seals and it gets all over the brakes.

My 10,000 lb GVWR trailer weighs 2500 lbs. To carry a 3 ton tractor, in a 25' gooseneck, the trailer will weigh closer to 5000lbs so youll want to be looking at trailers with 14000 lb GVWRs.

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Are grease axles OK )</font>

/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gifI'm not sure what you mean by that. If you mean the EZlube, as mentioned above, I like that on little boat trailers and on my little 4' x 8' trailer, but would not want it on a trailer with brakes for the reason mentioned.

 

[gordon21]

I just bought a 16' landscape trailer with two axles and one set of electric brakes. I have added bearing buddies to all my trailers in the past that did not have brakes. I was going to go get 2 sets this weekend and install them. Please explain how using a bearing buddy will possibly contaminate the brakes? Should I put the bearing buddies on one axle only and do manual greasing on the electric axle? I don't see how the spring would be that strong to force grease into the brakes. My past experience shows that when the spring is fully compressed, you merely stop trying to add more grease. You watch the flat disc slowly move outwards and stop when the spring is compressed.

 

[Dallas_Lilly]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( </font><font color="blueclass=small">( Are grease axles OK )</font>

/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gifI'm not sure what you mean by that. If you mean the EZlube, as mentioned above, I like that on little boat trailers and on my little 4' x 8' trailer, but would not want it on a trailer with brakes for the reason mentioned. )</font>


Grease axle bearings opposed to oil bath axle bearings?

 

[Highbeam]

Where do you think the grease goes each time you have to add more grease to the bearing buddy? It must go somewhere. It goes out the back through the seal that is mounted to the rotating hub/drum and starts to build up and spooge out between the brake backing plate and the rotating hub. It gets mighty hot in there, the grease gets more fluid, and the rotating hub flings or drops grease all over inside the cavity between the hub and the drum wear surface. Bad news, you can't just clean it, the brake linings are saturated with lube.

Now with the EZlube axles as you pump in new grease, the old grease is supposed to be purged back out toward the grease gun and not go into the brake cavity. Problem is you don't know whether or not the seal is holding until you remove the drum/hub to inspect. At that point, why not just repack the bearings like a normal person? People report 30 pumps of grease into their EZlube axles before any old grease purges back out. After about 10 pumps I would be worried that I just filled up the brake cavity with grease.

On non-braking axles (I question the sanity here unless the trailer is super light) lube away as the extra grease can't hurt anything.

 

[Bird]

Lewis, the bearing buddies are not a problem as long as you don't overdo greasing them and push some out that gets on your brake linings. </font><font color="blue" class="small">( I don't see how the spring would be that strong to force grease into the brakes. )</font> You know when you repack wheel bearings, you don't actually completely fill the void in that hub, but with the bearing buddies, you very well may do so. I've not had a problem myself because I've never used bearing buddies on the trailers I had with brakes, but I've seen it enough that I'd be leery of them even though the problems I've seen may have been operator error in overdoing it and/or old defective seals.

 

[KentT]

I have EZ lube axles on my 14' tandem axle (7,000 lb rating) trailer with brakes, and I love them so far, with around 5,000 miles on the trailer. I've seen no indications of grease coming out the back seal and getting on the brakes. There is no front seal, only a rubber plug that pulls out. When you fill the cavity between the bearings with grease it begins to push out through the front bearing, where there's no seal to slow it down... Stop pumping and reinstall the plug...

EDIT: In comparison, there's no way with some systems for you to tell, except for resistance on the gun...

One caution though -- only grease the trailer with EZ lube axles before use, when it is cold, NOT after you've driven it and the grease warms up and gets thinner... then it would be more likely to push by the rear seal...

My 2 cents -- your mileage may vary!

 

[George2615]

I have a 7K 20' tiltbed trailer hooked to a 2 5/16" 10K hitch. I find it easy to load and unload and since the whole bed tilts I don't need a beavertail. The beavertail allows you to load / unload gradually so what your loading doesn't bottom out on the trailer. If your getting a trailer to haul a 6K tractor you'd need at least a 10K minumum trailer. My 26HP tractor with loader and 5' KK rotary mower totals 19' in length so it fits nicely on my 20 foot bed trailer. If it has ramps then a beavertail would be advised to ease the steep loading angle. As others have said, a gooseneck will weigh more than a pull behind so you may need to go higher in weight capacity maybe 12-14K rated.

 

[hudr]

Dovetail is great for loading equipment. I have seen platforms that go over the fold up ramps to level it for hauling hay. Grease axles are fine. I assume you are talking about the now available upgrade to oil-filled axle bearings (like on big trucks). I have a neighbor that has them on his new dual-tandem trailer and they are nice. Given the choice I would go with them myself. For now I am still packing wheel bearings on my 24' 2-axle single wheel gooseneck.