Need to tow a CAT D3 dozer with my non-dually F350

[ultrarunner]

I have a 14,000 GVW gooseneck. It weighs about 4500#.

Never seen one on a gooseneck... only tag trailers. I imagine a gooseneck would normally be a little heavier?

 

[LBrown59]

Hire the dozer moved by someone with the equipment to do it safely. Or buy the proper equipment to do it yourself. Towing that dozer with a SRW F350 makes you a hazard to everyone else on the road.

Scares me.

 

[Builder]

So I started a business promoting motocross races and am currently still renting tractors but am hoping to buy a dozer and skip loader very soon. I have a 08' F350 diesel, crew cab, single rear wheels. Towing the skip loader is no problem but the dozer is about 18,000lb. I dont need to transport this thing often.. I host events about every other weekend. Most of the time they are 10 miles from my home... longest trip I will take is 60 miles or so. I know my truck as it sits has no business towing a gooseneck with a 18,000lb dozer. I should have got an F450 but I didn't so now what do I do? I know the F450 has a 24,500lb 5th wheel rating.. Is it possible to tow this setup with my truck..? I have 3.73 gears and I am planning on changing to 4.3 or slightly lower.. I have looked into dual rear wheel conversions.. Do I need a heavier leaf pack or can I add helper springs or airbags..? Any suggestions or help would be awsome. And no, I'm not buying another truck. This thing is gonna tow my 23,000lb tractor & trailer somehow...

Thanks for the help,
Shawn
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And somehow you'll pay in a big way, so don't do it.

When I hook up a trailer, I try to think about the safety of other people using the road, not "if my truck will do it".

There's a group of idiots out there with overloaded trucks/trailers putting other peoples safety at risk.....think of the kids.

Don't join that group.

 

[some zilch]

So you don't think it a good idea to tow a D3 with F450 but would load a D5 on a single axle Sterling?

Towing 18k on a 6k trailer is within spec for a F450. I am a Ford fan but am sure that a Chevy 4500/5500 or a Dodge 4500/5500 would be just as capable.

FWIW There are several guys around here that haul 16k on a 20k trailer towing with SRW Dodges and Fords. They go about 50-60 miles to the auction this way.

i can legally, as per NY state, carry a kobelco sk80 excavator which weighs 22400 lbs, plus the bucket or hammer on our single axle peterbilt or sterling rollback trucks. a d5 weighs less than that, and therefore a d3 weighs considerably less. these are full-size heavy duty trucks, not f-450/f-550 sized trucks, and not something that normally would be used to carry broken down cars or trucks. these are much more heavy duty.

during the summer i drive an f-550 service truck with a 6spd, and i would never even think of putting a d3 behind it. the truck can barley move or stop itself, much less a 18k dozer on a trailer behind it. it would be a disaster waiting to happen. nor would i ever attempt to pull a d3 w/ 4500 or 5500 series dodge or GM. i love my cummins powered dodges, but know the dodge part of the truck is not up to that task. i find it rediculous what some people think they can tow with their big bad powerstroke or duramax. its scary. i work at a heavy equipment rental yard, and people come in wanting to put 8000lb mini-excavators in the bed of an f-350, or tow a 10000lb tracked skidsteer with a chevy trailblazer on a single axle landscape trailer.

BTW, my main job is to drive a tractor trailer and deliver and move the heavy equipment my employer owns. i can legally weigh 175000lbs, so i do have some experiance with towing equipment

 

[EddieWalker]

I had a class A license when I lived in CA, but let it go when I moved to TX. It's easy enough to get the license, but expensive to get insured to haul anything. I don't remember what you need to haul what, but liability is going to be the real killer.

It's really a numbers game. How often do you need the dozer, how much will you make with it compared to what it will cost to rent one and have it delivered. If you are only needed a dozer once or twice a month, renting and having it delivered makes allot of sense. Maintaining a dozer is expensive. They break down all the time. Buying a small one so that you can move it around just means that you are buying something too small to get anything done. In the world of dozers and dirt, bigger is better.

Which leads to the next thing. How big of a dozer do you need? A Case 550 dozer isn't much of a dirt moving machine. It's a finish dozer that's fine for spreading spoils and landscaping, but it's not much for moving allot of dirt around.

United Rentals will deliver a dozer to your site. They have Deere 650's, which is where you start to get into a size that can get something done. Try some different machines and see if it's realy something you want to buy. I own a Case 1550 dozer and can tell you with total honesty that it's something that I don't want and look forward to the day I can sell it. Unfortunately, it's paid for and I still need it, so it's gonna be here for awhile.

The reason I look forward to selling it is because working on it sucks. It's always expansive, heavy and painful. Add emotionally draining and you get the idea of what dozer ownership is all about.

Don't play around with towing a load too much for your truck. Find out the law and do the numbers. With that information, you will know what your options are.

Eddie

 

[Dargo]

One thing that Eddie pointed out and Builder could probably extrapolate on is the insurance cost. I bought all the heavy equipment I needed to build my lake about 15 years ago and thought it was really handy to have the equipment around after I was finished. Unfortunately, just the cost of insuring either of my dump trucks made it unrealistic for me to keep either of them. That doesn't even count the cost of all the actual earth moving equipment and the LowBoy trailer I had.

You can probably find an extremely low mileage old grain truck (they just don't get many miles put on them) that would haul the right size trailer and dozer you are talking about for not much more than five grand or so. A dual rear wheel pickup would never be safe for the job and a single rear wheel pickup would be far worse. Buying a proper sized trailer and an old tandem axle grain truck would likely be your least expensive route but insurance costs will still be high.

 

[jgbanshee]

ncoracing,

What skip loader do you have and what do you use to haul that?

 

[powerstroke444e]

Have you looked at renting? RSC or sunbelt may be a good option? If you have one breakdown it could cost you a big event and moving it with old junk that could break? I would think that a rental that is delivered may be a good option and cold be more economical and You may even get a bigger machine for that get you in and out faster. Last year we rented all kinds of machines as we didn't have time to spend fixing our junk. Over the winter fixed most of it and don't need to rent as much.

 

[Builder]

during the summer i drive an f-550 service truck with a 6spd, and i would never even think of putting a d3 behind it. the truck can barley move or stop itself, much less a 18k dozer on a trailer behind it. it would be a disaster waiting to happen. nor would i ever attempt to pull a d3 w/ 4500 or 5500 series dodge or GM. i love my cummins powered dodges, but know the dodge part of the truck is not up to that task. i find it rediculous what some people think they can tow with their big bad powerstroke or duramax. its scary.

Amen. And the sooner we can get these "supertruckers" with their diesel pickups pulling 15K or more off the road, the better.

 

[Dargo]

Amen. And the sooner we can get these "supertruckers" with their diesel pickups pulling 15K or more off the road, the better.

Hey, with low range I bet you can find an example of some rocket scientist bragging about how his 6 banger gas pickup can tow 20k.