wood vs. metal for dovetail and ramps???

[Deere Dude]

Also is there an actual difference between a dove tail and a beaver tail?...

Same thing.

 

[LD1]

It all boils down to what you load, as to what ramp material you want.

The dove.....go with wood to match the deck. Metal is slippery.

My 25' GN has the standard metal angle-iron ramps. I move a D3 Cat for a friend on occasion. It struggles with the metal ramps. Mostly because the angle iron dont aid in traction, because the ramps are narrower than the pads on the dozer, so the cleats arent really biting into the angle irons, rather only on the edges of the ramps. More than once it has slid back down. So now we lay a oak board. It bites into the angle on the ramps, and gives the dozer something to get ahold of.

For everything else I load, the metal angle works great. But thats just equipment with tires. The metal ramps with angle iron also dont work well with car tires. My old bumper pull trailer, had that style of ramps. And it was very much a PITA trying to load a rear-wheel drive car. The front tires would settle in between the angle irons, and on a gravel driveway, the rears just wanted to spin. Had to hit the ramps with a little momentum. So we made different ramps.

So in summary, I guess if you ever have plans on hauling tracked equipment, or cars/trucks......think about something a little smoother than the typical heavy equipment ramps.

 

[Cord]

I have a steel deck on my trailer and it's been problematic. Originally the cross braces were set at 24" on center. Over time the deck sagged between the supports resulting in a washboard effect. When I rebuilt the trailer, I flipped it over and added cross members so they were now 12" OC. The deck is holding up better, but now several years later it's starting to sag again. The other problem is that the deck is slippery. When I have tracks or chains installed I have to be very careful when loading. Once I lost traction and the machine ended up sliding off the side of the trailer. Almost rolled it over. This is not a problem with tires, just with traction aids.

 

[bigtiller]

Also is there an actual difference between a dove tail and a beaver tail?...

The way I was taught;
Dove tail - the last few feet of the trailer floor and frame angle slightly toward the ground and is ridged.
Hydraulic dove tail - the last few feet of the trailer frame angles toward the ground and is ridged. The floor will move up and down inside that framework.
Beavertail - the floor and the framework around it will move up and down.

 

[rustyshakelford]

The way I was taught;
Dove tail - the last few feet of the trailer floor and frame angle slightly toward the ground and is ridged.
Hydraulic dove tail - the last few feet of the trailer frame angles toward the ground and is ridged. The floor will move up and down inside that framework.
Beavertail - the floor and the framework around it will move up and down.

The hyd dovetail looks like a straight trailer. Usually the last 9-11' will be the dove. It's elec/hyd. When you lower it, the last 9-11' of trailer lower then you press the button and it raises up. Common capacities are 10k lift on the dovetail and 4K carrying capacity.

Brett