Choosing Between 2 Trailers - Here's Your Chance to Give Advice/Opinion

[DanHen]

Can't add a lot to this but... recently purchased a 20' 14k myself and glad I got one without any side rails. Plan to add stakes and side boards for carrying loose material but it's really nice being able to set a full skid on the deck. If I had an option to buy "painted" over "powder coated" I would. Powder coated looks great when new but rusts beneath the finish surface and if you want to touch up anything in a few years it's a pain because you have to remove a large area of the finish to get to solid. Much easier to touch up paint. Also my 14k has slipper springs and it rides like a bronco until it has a fair amount of weight on it. I only know what I've read, that slippers carry more but the ride is rough. Adjustable coupler height is nice but you can use an adjustable mount if your under 10k lbs. (again my experience, I couldn't find a mount with any sort of drop rated for more than 10k)

 

[civilian]

Can't add a lot to this but... recently purchased a 20' 14k myself and glad I got one without any side rails. Plan to add stakes and side boards for carrying loose material but it's really nice being able to set a full skid on the deck. If I had an option to buy "painted" over "powder coated" I would. Powder coated looks great when new but rusts beneath the finish surface and if you want to touch up anything in a few years it's a pain because you have to remove a large area of the finish to get to solid. Much easier to touch up paint. Also my 14k has slipper springs and it rides like a bronco until it has a fair amount of weight on it. I only know what I've read, that slippers carry more but the ride is rough. Adjustable coupler height is nice but you can use an adjustable mount if your under 10k lbs. (again my experience, I couldn't find a mount with any sort of drop rated for more than 10k)

Got rid of a crappy looking powder coat after 2 winters in Northern Michigan and ordered one with PPG paint. Also went to 10k, deck size the same at 80"+/- x 16ft. 3 board sides with square top tube. Reason is then I can haul fire wood, leaves, gravel, etc and not have to rely on me building strong enough sides for stake pockets. Haven't had the need to load over the side on the old trailer. To unload gravel, I just drive the BX up into it. Jon

 

[cabover4us]

Couldn't agree more about flat deck, I have old 1992 16' Doolittle pipe top trailer rated for 7000 lbs currently in need of axles. But this trailer has been a 100% trailer in all our years owning, is done cars, gravel, dirt, 4 wheelers, lumber, kitchen cabinets, moved my oldest daughter and family probably 15 times over the years. Now my son has steel deck trailer 14,000 lb, we use for the heavy work, and tractor hauling until I work in new axles for mine. My trailer had a mesh gate single unit ramp, which has rotted off and now we use for our conex box in back yard. The length was only 4' not enough in my opinion, with car loading the trailer's angle on the ramp was too sharp for lower vehicles and was a hassle, sometimes had to add flat boards under tires to raise enough to not hit top of trailers floor edge, another foot would be helpful. My son's has two separate 5' steel ramps that can be hooked together or apart at any measurement. I like that, when I do some updates my mine I will be adding the ramp rail and making new 5' ramps. Now I bought a Carry-On trailer from Glenmont Tractor Supply about four years ago, 5' X 8' mesh ramp. $599 on sale, light duty I would agree, but in renovating our home coupled with many, many product pickups as well as the dump also, this little trailer has well outdone itself, I call it my poor man's pickup, pmp.. Pull it with my Subaru Forester 20 mpg verses 14 or less for Chevy and larger trailer. Only thing about Carry-On are the lights really are terrible... ripped those off and added double 4" hole aluminum light boxes and metal backing for support and licence plate light, added couple LEDs to each side as well, overall very pleased with the results. Another thing I found is wooden decking was fastened with AIR NAILOR!! Are you kidding? So, more cross members and carriage bolts are in order. I'll just keep welding until there's nothing left to attach to....
Oh, one more thing, aluminum fenders are a plus, they stay around awhile, unless you buy steel and paint or make a lighter tar mixture and paint with that, agree with the others in paint, absolutely terrible in this category of tools.