H&H tilt bed trailers

[Renze]

These tilt beds look very nice !!
Since i work in the trailer business since this spring, i look at every trailer i see on the road. By the time i arrive at work, i've studied at least 3 trucks and trailers i saw on the road to work...
The H&H trailers look like good bang for the buck, well taken care of design and finishing quality...

I have my brothers 2 ton bed-over-axles tandem trailer in the workshop, it is currently being restored, i am converting it into a tilt bed so he can drive 1,5 ton mini excavators on it. I have a pivot behind the rear axle, and the tandem aggregat mounted to a tube frame that extends into a V tongue, so the axles are allways flat on the ground when the deck tilts.
Because it is a bed-over-axle trailer, the bed is higher so i need a meter of ramps behind it to get to a bed angle that a car can drive on to.

Looking at the H&H, i start wondering: How does the rear axles of the H&H tilt bed trailer hold up, when all the weight is on one axle when it tilts ?

I have mounted a sideboard quick lock between subframe and tiltbed, would this provide sufficient stiffness between subframe and tilt bed to make it stabile and vibration free when ging down the road with it ? How do these H&H lock the drawbar to the tiltbed ?

 

[radman1]

These tilt beds look very nice !!
Since i work in the trailer business since this spring, i look at every trailer i see on the road. By the time i arrive at work, i've studied at least 3 trucks and trailers i saw on the road to work...
The H&H trailers look like good bang for the buck, well taken care of design and finishing quality...

I have my brothers 2 ton bed-over-axles tandem trailer in the workshop, it is currently being restored, i am converting it into a tilt bed so he can drive 1,5 ton mini excavators on it. I have a pivot behind the rear axle, and the tandem aggregat mounted to a tube frame that extends into a V tongue, so the axles are allways flat on the ground when the deck tilts.
Because it is a bed-over-axle trailer, the bed is higher so i need a meter of ramps behind it to get to a bed angle that a car can drive on to.

Looking at the H&H, i start wondering: How does the rear axles of the H&H tilt bed trailer hold up, when all the weight is on one axle when it tilts ?

I have mounted a sideboard quick lock between subframe and tiltbed, would this provide sufficient stiffness between subframe and tilt bed to make it stabile and vibration free when ging down the road with it ? How do these H&H lock the drawbar to the tiltbed ?

When the bed is tilted up, the weight is on the end of the trailer on the ground and rear axle. When you start to tip the trailer down, then for a relatively short time, the weight is only on the rear axle until the front axle touches down. I have loaded some pretty heavy loads without any problem. I would guess since the weight is static and relatively breif, the stress to the axle is not too great. The bent axles I have seen are usually secondary to hitting a bump like a curb or hole. The shock load to the axle can be tremendous in those situations. Much higher than a static, gradual load. Unless your trailer is massively overweight, the load on the axle is probably ok if the trailer is sitting. Same holds true for the tires.
The manual tilt trailers have a pin the front that locks the bed to the tongue. The hydraulic ones are just held down by the retracted cylinder.

 

[Renze]

O.K. that is a very plausible explanation... at our company we've also seen some bent axles, we use a bit more expensive, higher quality Knott axles and you dont want to know the abuse they get to take... When one of these axles is bent or jammed up through the rubber suspension, you bet something serious happened...
It's usually the rough operators that buy our custom built mid-axle trailers instead of a cheap serial product...

For my trailer, my hinge point is about 40 cm behind the center of gravity so the dynamic forces on the snap lock holding the bed on the V tongue, wont be as big as a H&H style tilt bed, because the center of gravity is in front of the pivot point... My boss has experience in building all kinds of custom trailers since 1976 so i trust him when he says i'l be o.k. with just that snaplock holding the bed down...

 

[richtidebruin]

Well just to follow-up, I drove to 2 dealers last saturday in IN. Bottom line was I drove further to get the 20ft, 10k Speedloader EX. Was a little more than what I wanted to spend, but in the end, I got a nice trailer that will be very versatile.

My main concern about getting a 20ft'er was getting the trailer up my inclined driveway without dragging. Since H&H tilts have a nice reverse dovetail, the tail clearance is better than a ramp style trailer. I just do clear - pulling (or pushing) forwards or backing up the drive.

I had read some negatives on how tilts do not pull as good as ramp trailers, but I thought it pulled great and am impressed with the maneverability.

All in all, really pleased with the purchase and appreciate all the great input you guys had on the issues.

Rich

 

[radman1]

Congrats on your new trailer. Glad to help. You will like the EX. I charge the battery every few months just to keep it maintained. I have had mine loaded to capacity and never had a problem with swaying. The longer trailers will sway less.