New trailer discussion & ideas

Renze · Jul 16, 2015

franklin2 said:
I have personally seen one of these used. It was pretty neat.

Rollback Trailers, Tilt Trailers & Heavy Car Haulers in Texas | Kwik Load Trailers

It has a hand brake that you lock down to hold the trailer wheels in place, pull some pins out in various places, and then back the tow vehicle up.

I built a tilt bed deck-over for my brother in 2007. Now, for myself, i am building a fixed deck-over on 195/50R13 wheels. Small enough to get a two foot deck height, stabile enough to track well, and enough air in them to smoothen out the bumps when driving with an empty trailer. I will use knot free Douglas fir ramps which are about as strong and as light as aluminium, and support the back of the trailer with foldable stands.

For me, only fixed axles and towbar, i dont want any slack as it allways jerks when driving empty.

CDN Farm Boy · Jul 16, 2015

franklin2 said:
I have noticed the deck-overs look heavy too. They are pretty much two trailers, a frame underneath to hold the suspension and the tongue, and another frame above for the decking.

Every flat bed trailer I have seen has 2 main frame rails running fore/aft and cross rails on them to support the wood decking. Doesn't matter if its deck over or deck between. They may look heavier just cause they are. Deck overs are usually 12k or higher where many of the deck between are 7 or 10k

franklin2 · Jul 16, 2015

CDN Farm Boy said:
Every flat bed trailer I have seen has 2 main frame rails running fore/aft and cross rails on them to support the wood decking. Doesn't matter if its deck over or deck between. They may look heavier just cause they are. Deck overs are usually 12k or higher where many of the deck between are 7 or 10k

This is what I was talking about. One frame on the lower level, another that is tilted. Most heavier rated deck-overs have this even if they don't tilt.

CDN Farm Boy · Jul 16, 2015

franklin2 said:
This is what I was talking about. One frame on the lower level, another that is tilted.

Well of course a tilt deck needs 2 frames, that's not the same thing at all.

franklin2 said:
Most heavier rated deck-overs have this even if they don't tilt.

I beg to differ. I have never seen a commercially available fixed deck-over with any design other than 2 main frame rails (usually C channel) then cross rails then the decking. And that is everything from 3.5t right up to transport trailers.

franklin2 · Jul 17, 2015

Here's one.

A lot of the equipment trailers around here are built like the one above though, smaller main rails with a thicker deck frame on top of them.

The one we had was a weird one, it had single wheels made with very short axles. The axles didn't go all the way across the trailer, and the single wheels were in pairs on short axles, with one of the wheels way under the trailer. In other words you almost had wheels all the way across the center of the trailer.

Renze · Jul 17, 2015

franklin2 said:
The one we had was a weird one, it had single wheels made with very short axles. The axles didn't go all the way across the trailer, and the single wheels were in pairs on short axles, with one of the wheels way under the trailer. In other words you almost had wheels all the way across the center of the trailer.

That would track poor on highways where tractor trailer combinations have made ruts in the tarmac. My trailer is wide enough to run in the truck track, it reduces sway tendency very much.

franklin2 · Jul 17, 2015

I have been searching on the internet but can't find it. Maybe you guys know who made it;

At work they hired a guy to move these metal ship containers we use for storage. He comes in with a full size tractor trailer tractor, and a single axle flatbed trailer(5th wheel of course to hook to the tractor).

It was amazing to see what this thing could do. The 5th wheel pin on the trailer was not mounted to the trailer fixed. The pin was mounted to a hydraulic mechanism which let him raise and lower the whole front of the trailer in relation to the tractor.

Along with this, the single axle dually wheel set was not mounted stationary to the trailer either. It was mounted on some sort of track system and a very long cylinder. He could move the axle forward and back several feet. I am not sure what all else it would do, but he was controlling the whole thing by remote control, walking around the whole thing while he was working it.