Yooper3830
New member
- Joined
- Feb 4, 2005
- Messages
- 7
I have a Kubota L3830 HST with 723 FEL and fluid in the tires. I've got about 45 hours on it (primarily making food plots for deer). I have a 20 acres with my house (5 acres maintained and 2 camps each without about 5 acres of "maintainable" land. Camps are about 20 and 35 miles from home. I plan to take the tractor to each place 2 - 4 x per year.
I've been borrowing a couple of trailers to get the tractor to the camps until I can save my $ for a trailer of my own.
I've learned a lot and I've had some scary trailer experiences. I have a 2000 GMC Sierra 1/2 ton with 3.73 gears and tranny cooler; seems to pull it fine.
The first trailer borrowing experience went OK. This past weekend I used a different trailer (7000#, 16') and had a lot of problems. First off I put the bucket behind the "rack" on the front of the trailer. I loosened the hitch from the truck with the tractor loaded and the trailer literally balanced with 2 fingers of pressure; wife heard my "panic whistles" and put jack stands underneath so I could pull the tractor forward. Then I bent one of the ramps a bit. Then one of them "kicked out" 1/2 way up. (ended up putting scrap boards under the FEL and using it to lift the front wheels while I backed the tractor off) I decided to back it into a ditch and load without ramps and proceeded to break the trailer lights. Whatta mess.
Also had one situation where, at about 50mph, the trailer started swaying bad - very scary. I thought I blew a tire but everything was fine. Stayed at 45mph after that with no issues. I know tongue wt loading can cause this but I balanced the trailer to where the truck squatted about 3" like I've been told.
With all that background; my questions...
1) What is a good estimate of my tractor wt. I found stats on the tractor at 3400#, I'm assuming about 800# for rear tire fluid, 500# for tiller. Can't find FEL 723 wt: assuming 800#. That puts me at 5500#. This puts me just over the "max" for most gross weight 7000# trailers. I run the backroads to camp so I'm not overly concerned about DOT; I just want a practically safe trailering situation. Do most people use 7000# rated 2 axle trailers for tractors of this size?
2) After all the ramp issues I've had; I'm really leaning toward an H&H speedloader tilt trailer. 18' min but would like 20' to allow for rear brush hog length. The trailers I've borrowed have "set in place" ramps so manhandling the ramps and blocking the back of the trailer during loading and unloading is a real pain. Any comments on tilt trailers vs. ramp trailers? I've been quoted about $2300 for an 18' manual tilt H&H 7000#. A 10,000# rated trailer adds roughly $1000.
My second choice behind a tilt trailer would be one with pedestal ramps (the ones that stand up in the back when trailering) but my concern there is that I can never "cheat" and overhang a brush hog or something a foot or so. Trailer dealer has an 18' 10,000 trailer with pedestal ramps but I don't think that'd be long enough with the brush hog and FEL.
Any trailer tips / comments would be appreciated. I want to be sure to do my research and "buy right" the first time.
Thanks.
I've been borrowing a couple of trailers to get the tractor to the camps until I can save my $ for a trailer of my own.
I've learned a lot and I've had some scary trailer experiences. I have a 2000 GMC Sierra 1/2 ton with 3.73 gears and tranny cooler; seems to pull it fine.
The first trailer borrowing experience went OK. This past weekend I used a different trailer (7000#, 16') and had a lot of problems. First off I put the bucket behind the "rack" on the front of the trailer. I loosened the hitch from the truck with the tractor loaded and the trailer literally balanced with 2 fingers of pressure; wife heard my "panic whistles" and put jack stands underneath so I could pull the tractor forward. Then I bent one of the ramps a bit. Then one of them "kicked out" 1/2 way up. (ended up putting scrap boards under the FEL and using it to lift the front wheels while I backed the tractor off) I decided to back it into a ditch and load without ramps and proceeded to break the trailer lights. Whatta mess.
Also had one situation where, at about 50mph, the trailer started swaying bad - very scary. I thought I blew a tire but everything was fine. Stayed at 45mph after that with no issues. I know tongue wt loading can cause this but I balanced the trailer to where the truck squatted about 3" like I've been told.
With all that background; my questions...
1) What is a good estimate of my tractor wt. I found stats on the tractor at 3400#, I'm assuming about 800# for rear tire fluid, 500# for tiller. Can't find FEL 723 wt: assuming 800#. That puts me at 5500#. This puts me just over the "max" for most gross weight 7000# trailers. I run the backroads to camp so I'm not overly concerned about DOT; I just want a practically safe trailering situation. Do most people use 7000# rated 2 axle trailers for tractors of this size?
2) After all the ramp issues I've had; I'm really leaning toward an H&H speedloader tilt trailer. 18' min but would like 20' to allow for rear brush hog length. The trailers I've borrowed have "set in place" ramps so manhandling the ramps and blocking the back of the trailer during loading and unloading is a real pain. Any comments on tilt trailers vs. ramp trailers? I've been quoted about $2300 for an 18' manual tilt H&H 7000#. A 10,000# rated trailer adds roughly $1000.
My second choice behind a tilt trailer would be one with pedestal ramps (the ones that stand up in the back when trailering) but my concern there is that I can never "cheat" and overhang a brush hog or something a foot or so. Trailer dealer has an 18' 10,000 trailer with pedestal ramps but I don't think that'd be long enough with the brush hog and FEL.
Any trailer tips / comments would be appreciated. I want to be sure to do my research and "buy right" the first time.
Thanks.