How do you transport your tractor & batwing bush hog?

[Farmwithjunk]

I'm having a hard time figuring how anything noticeably shorter than a SA daycab road horse with a 35-40' trailer is going to do the job for you. Lighter, maybe, shorter, I don't see it.

The KW road tractor I bought is a tandem axle day cab, w long enough frame to eventually add a headache rack/winch on the truck. (May prove handy snatching stuck tractors out of roadside quagmires..... ) Even at that, it's still roughly the same overall length as the 25+5' 20,000gvw goose neck and Dodge 3500 QC I was using, plus, the semi tractor will see double duty pulling a bottom dump grain hopper trailer I'm buying.

 

[JoeinTX]

"Guys around here haul tractors with batwings all the time. U just need a long gooseneck with a dovetail on the back. No biggie. They do commercial bush hogging like u do...."


Ditto. Lot's of 1-ton/HD pickups with long goosenecks moving tractor and bat-wing around here.

 

[Builder]

I'm having a hard time figuring how anything noticeably shorter than a SA daycab road horse with a 35-40' trailer is going to do the job for you. Lighter, maybe, shorter, I don't see it.

Probably a F-550 with high cap. tow package (33,000 GCWR) and a 24K 32' gooseneck. That way I can use the truck for other purposes than a 1-dimensional road tractor.
Othe option is same truck with shorter trailer and tow the batwing behind truck making 2 trips, but that's less desireable.

 

[RickB]

Probably a F-550 with high cap. tow package (33,000 GCWR) and a 24K 32' gooseneck. .

That will take up just as much room in your yard as the rig I described (or more). Plus you will have two to three times as much tied up in the truck alone with 1/2 the braking capacity. But it's your dime. Additionally, you are pretty much guaranteed of being overweight on the drive axle of that F-550 unless you are VERY careful about axle location on that 32' GN.

 

[Deere9986]

i pull batwings behind my f350 all the time. the airplane tires are rated at high mph but that is short distances. the sidewalls are so thick the tires heat up really quick and don't cool off as fast as regular tires. i have pulled mowers behind my truck 45 mph for 40 miles with no problems but i could have been just lucky. we have 6 tractors and mowers that we drive all over ne arkansas from hardy to cabot to blytheville to jonesboro and i found out that driving them is quicker than hauling. if 1 breaks down and has to go to the dealer i have a 30+5 gooseneck that i pull behind either a 2500 gmc or my f350 or my semi and double drop or my single drop. if i was the op i would just buy me a scooter and put it on the bushhog to drive home or get someone to pick me up. save alot of trouble with the dots.

 

[JoeinTX]

i would just buy me a scooter and put it on the bushhog to drive home

Hey, that's an idea.


Reminds me of some pics I've seen from Australia where some custom harvesters have a special mount they put on the combine once they've removed the headers for transport. They put their "utes" (pickups, Hi Luxes, etc.) on it and then attach to the header mount and move down the highway carrying their ride home on the front of the combine.

 

[Builder]

That will take up just as much room in your yard as the rig I described (or more). Plus you will have two to three times as much tied up in the truck alone with 1/2 the braking capacity. But it's your dime. Additionally, you are pretty much guaranteed of being overweight on the drive axle of that F-550 unless you are VERY careful about axle location on that 32' GN.

Drive axle is kinda light at 13,500lbs, but I'm only hauling a M-7040 or an M-105X with a 3-5K mower. Load on trailer shouldn't be more than 13-15,000lbs. The truck is rated to pull a 24,000lb 5th wheel with a pin weight of 15%. That should be ~3,500lb of pin weight and much more pleasant to drive than my dumptruck.

Try to remember the purpose of the truck isn't just for hauling tractors on a trailer. It will also serve as a typical work truck. It'll have an EBY alum. flatbed with a fuel cell and two underbody tool boxes. I also want to park it in a garage with a 9' high door.
Trust me, what you say is true, I just can't use a road tractor to run between home, shop, customers, etc. It needs to be an everyday driver type of truck, too.

 

[Builder]

"Guys around here haul tractors with batwings all the time. U just need a long gooseneck with a dovetail on the back. No biggie. They do commercial bush hogging like u do...."


Ditto. Lot's of 1-ton/HD pickups with long goosenecks moving tractor and bat-wing around here.

That's what I see, too. I don't see the need for a semi-road tractor unless you're lik Fw/J and you're behind the wheel everyday.

 

[tcartwri]

An F550 will pull this easily. But how wide is it?

 

[RickB]

Drive axle is kinda light at 13,500lbs, but I'm only hauling a M-7040 or an M-105X with a 3-5K mower. Load on trailer shouldn't be more than 13-15,000lbs. The truck is rated to pull a 24,000lb 5th wheel with a pin weight of 15%. That should be ~3,500lb of pin weight and much more pleasant to drive than my dumptruck.

Try to remember the purpose of the truck isn't just for hauling tractors on a trailer. It will also serve as a typical work truck. It'll have an EBY alum. flatbed with a fuel cell and two underbody tool boxes. I also want to park it in a garage with a 9' high door.
Trust me, what you say is true, I just can't use a road tractor to run between home, shop, customers, etc. It needs to be an everyday driver type of truck, too.

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.