Trailer new to me, what is the pictured dip in the frame for?

Istillcare · Mar 21, 2023

I recently sold my 555D and trailer and already miss them. Bought the trailer pictured last week to help fill the void. Much heavier duty then I need, but what the heck

What is the dip in the frame at the front of the trailer for? The dip does make for a nice support to take excessive load off of the hitch with a heavy load on the front before a balancing load is toward the back, but as the advertisement goes ... but wait there's more.
The dip is constructed of C-channel covered with diamond plate. Put a door on it and could store stuff there I guess. But the diamond plate has traction bars welded to it that would give traction to a wheel climbing out of the dip??? Stranger to me is the diamond plate parallel to the deck over the dip is made to be removable??

Any idea what the trailer might have been made for with the dips? Large wheel could go down in the dip to reduce the height on the trailer but not much room from the dip to the hitch.

I'll be done with the trailer in a couple months and will be putting it up for sale then.

I'd like to know before then what it was made for. Thank you if you have any knowledge or guess why the trailer was made that way.

Norm W · Mar 21, 2023

It looks like it is extra support for the outside edge of the trailer. Probably for something that rode there in a previous life.

bcp · Mar 21, 2023

First thought is a combine trailer for reduced overall height.

Bruce

dieselscout80 · Mar 21, 2023

bcp said:
First thought is a combine trailer for reduced overall height.

Bruce

Maybe an older combine or a swather trailer as that’s not enough trailer for most combines built since say the 1980s.

bcp · Mar 21, 2023

Cotton picker instead of combine?

Bruce

civilian · Mar 21, 2023

Brother had a semi trailer lowboy with dips like OP's. The lowboy was set up for a piece logging equipment that needed its front wheels in those dips to be road height legal. Maybe that's what the OP's trailer did in a previous life. Then someone no longer needed them and filled them in. Jon

Cycledude · Mar 22, 2023

Might be helpful to see a better picture that shows the entire trailer

4570Man · Mar 22, 2023

I agree with the thought process that they were wheel dips to lower transport height and at a later date someone leveled them out.

Birdhunter1 · Mar 22, 2023

When the diamond plate comes off, does it fit over the tires on those supports?
I agree it might be for a tire on a piece of equipment to sit on but it isn't built for something with a wide tire like a log skidder. Maybe it is for a swather, but those usually sit lower and have wider rails on the sides for the tires to be on. It could be for a spray coupe.

I'm guessing it is a 40 year old trailer and doesn't look real long which makes me think it was built to haul a spray rig. Probably something behind a tandem axle flatbed truck that had a water tank and chemical barrels on it.

civilian · Mar 22, 2023

On the OP's second picture, there is blocking under that dipped area suporting the trailer. OP, what in on the tongue to raise or lower the tongue to hook up to the tuck? Jon

LD1 · Mar 22, 2023

Does the trailer have a manufacturer or model or vin that may offer some insight....or is this a homemade job

David in KY · Mar 22, 2023

Looks like the dips are just the engineered structure to support the deck above. The diamond plate decks are wider that the main trailer structure, wider than the trailer wheels even. So it's a special built trailer to handle wide (and fairly heavy) loads.
That's my observation. It looks to be in decent shape and ready to work.

LD1 · Mar 23, 2023

David in KY said:
Looks like the dips are just the engineered structure to support the deck above. The diamond plate decks are wider that the main trailer structure, wider than the trailer wheels even. So it's a special built trailer to handle wide (and fairly heavy) loads.
That's my observation. It looks to be in decent shape and ready to work.

I dont know about handling "Fairly Heavy" loads.

Hard to tell. Looks like mobile home axles / dayton wheels. SO possibly 5200# axles which would make trailer gross not much more than a 14k

If any of those tires say mobile home use only.....its illegal to run them on an equip trailer

And if its a homemade trailer to boot.....homemade + MH axles just about kills the resell no matter how much you polish a turd. And I'd say about 95% of people that trailer shop....wont be interested in this trailer at any price.

But, I could be wrong......Some manufactures did actually use a axle with dayton style hubs....so maybe the trailer is legit. Just cant tell from the pics

kenmbz · Mar 23, 2023

Can you take a side picture with the top plate over the dips off?

Istillcare · Mar 23, 2023

Thank you for all the thoughts and comments on the trailer. I'm not where the trailer is and will not be back there to get any pictures for at least week. By that time I think this thread will be dead.

I did look at the trailer a bit better when parking it. The top filler plates were definitely added sometime after the trailer was built.

There is a place for a trailer jack just in back of the lunette ring but it is gone. I used a floor jack to lift the ring over the pintle and then lowered the trailer on cinder blocks under the wheel pockets.

I could not find any manufacturing name or data plate on the trailer.

TMGT · Mar 25, 2023

That trailer was made for hauling taller wheeled equipment, you can see the "traction" bars welded to the old wells for the tires. A couple farmers around here have rollbacks with similar wells to lower transport heights for their tractors.

The 14.5 Dayton wheels were pretty common on low pro equipment trailers until 17.5 tires became popular. Most equipment trailer dayton axles were rated at 6k and can most likely be converted to standard 8 lug drums/wheels.

It appears to be a comercial trailer and there were a lot of larger name manufacturers that made that style trailer, guessing gross rating is 18-20k lbs.

The single axle trailer is a Hurst that my dad bought new in '90, my eager beaver dump is a late 80's, both have 6k axles (although the Hurst is derated to 3k for brake requirements) and came with Dayton style axles made by dexter.

Sent from my SM-G715U1 using TractorByNet mobile app

Hay Dude · Mar 25, 2023

Could be a old backhoe trailer. Some of the older hoes had a really tall dipperstick. Maybe there were low overpasses or tunnels he had to get through.

LD1 · Mar 25, 2023

Hay Dude said:
Could be a old backhoe trailer. Some of the older hoes had a really tall dipperstick. Maybe there were low overpasses or tunnels he had to get through.

Thought the same thing. But that would put the hoe boom awfully close to the tow vehicle and seemingly way too much tongue weight

Hay Dude · Mar 25, 2023

LD1 said:
Thought the same thing. But that would put the hoe boom awfully close to the tow vehicle and seemingly way too much tongue weight

Some old timers put the bucket side of the boom in the dump truck box. Or maybe his truck was a tandem.
Thats a custom made trailer that was purpose built for a specific machine or need. One could speculate for a long time its’ original intent or use