I'm not trying to be argumentative, just putting thoughts down that you may not have considered. Your tractor & mower driven on a 32-35 foot trailer will probably put 60% or more of the net load on the pin. You are putting 80% of the load on the front half of the trailer deck. That's why I mentioned the position of the trailer axles and the possibility of overloading the drive axle. If you check into that and find my seat-of-the-pants opinion is wrong, so be it. If I were in that business (again), I'd be looking more to put money in my pocket rather than paying for a truck like you describe. A good share of the time it is nothing more than a $55,000 taxi. But then you have lots of company in that regard.
I does appear that you're being very strongly opinionated/borderline arguementative, but I understand why.
I wouldn't agree that 80% of the load on a trailer goes on 5th wheel hitch, though. With the wheels positioned correctly, I'm thinking more like 20-25%?? Remember, my payload on trailer should never exceed 16,000lbs. Should be able to put 8-10,000lbs on the pin easily.
What I think the thing you're losing sight of is I cannot push snow with a Kenworth tractor in the winter, nor can I run to the lumberyard and pick up 40 sheets of 1/2" cdx, park it in my 9' high garage and it doesn't have 4WD for off road work. I will never dispute your point that it isn't as HD as an airbraked daycab. These are going to be short hauls in general- most ~ 30-40 miles.
I already have a large diesel airbraked dumptruck and I don't want to license, inspect, store, nor be disappointed with the lack of versatility of a road tractor. The registration would be $1,000/yr in PA.
I have several competitors towing much larger machines on 30+ foot trailers behind F-550's, GM 4500's & 5500's in my neck of the woods and doing quite well with them.
This is a 19,500lb GVWR truck with only a 675lb Eby aluminum body, small fuel cell and 2 tool boxes perched on back. That leaves a butt load of remaining pinweight available.
Already have big airbraked truck for the nasty stuff.
