L3830 Trailer Options

ChrisBWJ · Jul 28, 2004

Loaded tires, FEL, and Backhoe. Delear says 8300 pounds.

Who trailers their L3830 (or one of the Grand L series)? What is the GVWR of the trailer you use? How far do you usually trailer it?

What do you tow it with? What is it's tow rating?

_RaT_ · Jul 28, 2004

That sounds high on the weight. I don't ballast my tires, quite frankly for my needs I don't see that I ever will as I don't think the unballasted weight/power/traction is bad. I think the L48 comes out under 8000lbs unballasted and it is a much heavier tractor. Kubota attempted to keep the L48 TLB under that to help a contractor avoid the licensing issues involved with going over 10,000lbs as I recall. I think a 9999lb tractor and trailer should be do able especially if that is the cutoff for having to go to a different license class rating. To avoid the need for a higher class trailer, I would surely remove ballast from the tires, especailly with a hoe.

LarryRB · Jul 28, 2004

I have a hard time believing 8300 pounds. But, this aside, I have a mahindra 4110-FEL-and a Bradco 511 hoe with extra buckets, a PTO pump system w/15 gallon reservoir and all together it weighs in at 6400 pounds. I have a BRi-Mar 12,000 GVW trailer at 18 ft length.. I do hual around other TBN tractor owners who have much larger machines than mine.. You can easily haul your equipment on a 10GVW , 18 ft without problems, providing you have a 3/4 ton rated pickup and most important, the "RIGHT" class hitch.. When I ordered this Dodge diesel it had the heavy tow pkg.. Still wasn't enough tongue weight to be legal and had to change the hitch to a 1200 lb hitch.. IF you go over 10,000 trailer this puts you in a CDL class license, so be careful there unless you really need to go higher.

Kytractor · Jul 28, 2004

I was looking at buying one last year for my L3830 with a 509 bradco backhoe. I've still not bought one yet, but some one had a good thread on trailers. I believe it was an anderson 18ft 2ft dovetail two 6000 Lb axels for around $1800. Wieght of the tractor I'm not sure, but I believe around 6500lbs.

ChrisBWJ · Jul 28, 2004

From what I've been told in Michigan at least, anything above 10k lbs requires a CDL if used for commercial purposes. If used for non-commercial, no CDL is required.

I thought the 8300 figure was a little high too. But as he was rattling off all the weights for frame brackets, buckets, even the hydraulic controls, it sounded pretty close. Maybe those numbers are Kubota max weights, and reality is much lower. I'm kinda hoping that's the case. My wife has already said that I'm going to want a big truck now to haul that trailer and tractor!!! /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

etgjr · Jul 28, 2004

Hi Chris,

I have a L4330 HST with filled tires and FEL but no backhoe. I went with a 20 foot 14k trailer. I was originally going to get a 10k to avoid the CDL issue, even though I trailer for my own use not for hire. My supplier ended up getting shipped 14k trailers and didn't get the 10k's so he offered me a good deal on the 14k. I took him up on it and am glad I did, tractors are heavy! I would strongly suggest getting a 20 foot trailer, this will give you some room to get your tongue weight correct.

My 4330 with the filled tires is about 5500 lbs and the trailer is 3500 lbs. With a backhoe I would be over 10k easy. Remember that GVWR of a trailer includes the trailers weight. So my 14k trailer less its own weight of 3500 lbs leaves me with an available load of 11500 lbs. Not that I would trailer that load with my current suburban.

I tow with a 1/2 ton Suburban. I'm a little over the rating but I'm on backroads for about 35 miles. Tow at the most 45 to 50 mph and everything feels fine.

Good luck.

-Ed

grandad · Jul 28, 2004

Just to give you another reference point, when the dealer installed the BH on my L4610 earlier this year, the mechanic who installed it and personally delivered it commented that the tractor, FEL, loaded tires and BH weighs in the ballpark of 8,000 lbs. Now, the L10 series was a tad lighter than the new L30's like you have, but the backhoe that fit the old model looks to be a bit heavier than the new BH90, so it's probably about even.

I'm going to say that you really do have 4 tons of tractor there and you need to operate and transport accordingly. But enjoy... you have a fine unit there.

GeneD14 · Jul 29, 2004

For my L4330 HSTC I use a tilt bed H & H trailer with 10,000 GVW and a 20' long bed. The trailer weighs 2,800 lbs. See picture.

GeneD14 · Jul 29, 2004

I usually trailer it 400 miles round trip about once per month. I've hauled lots of tractors and safety is #1. Make sure your tow vehicle is sized for the task. I've seen quite a few people use a 1/2 ton pick-up to tow over 10K and it is hard on the truck and it is very dangerous. I tow with an F350 Powerstoke rated at 12,900 lbs tow capacity.

GeneD14 · Jul 29, 2004

I appologize for the story but here it goes: 2 years ago I had a big Allis Chalmers 210 that weighed over 14,500 lbs. I sold it to a farmer from New Mexico. He came all the way to Michigan to pick it up with a fairly new 1/2 ton Chevy pickup pulling a tri-axle gooseneck that weighed nearly 6,000 lbs. I thought that I was on "Candid Camera". The total load was over 20,000 lbs!!! He loaded it on the trailer, and chained it with 2 old rusty log chains. The truck engine strained to pull out of the drive and he was off.
He called later in the week to tell me he made it. No brake downs but he couldn't get it up over 45 mph.
I couldn't believe the state police didn't catch him. I'm also grateful that he didn't have to stop quick or swerve suddenly. Althought the truck was tuff as nails I'd hate to be the next owner.
Attached is a picture of the tractor.
Sorry for the long winded post.

grandad · Jul 29, 2004

Nice setup! You probably have some margin before you get to the 7,200 lb rated payload on that trailer. Since my truck is a little Toyota, there is no way I could take my tractor off site, even if I did have the trailer for it. Fortunately, I don't have much need for that right now.

ChrisBWJ · Jul 30, 2004

Well I bit the bullet. I was going to get the 10k trailer, but, ..... I paid an extra $150 to the dealer + $125 to our governor for the plate and got the 12k trailer, instead.

Loaded it up to the sweet spot the first time. No need to adjust front or back, at least I don't think so. My first runs up to 45 mph didn't produce any sway on gentle curves. Though bumps in the road sometimes produce a vertical oscillation that increases the pucker factor a tad. My rear springs sink down about 3 inches when carrying the load from the trailer.

I've got it sitting in the driveway now, waiting for the trip to the worksite tomorrow. Gonna be a long 80 mile drive taking the backroads very slow.

I KNOW I need to raise the jack before I leave, just thought I'd give my rear springs a breather overnight.

I KNOW I need to upgrade the tow vehicle. I've already been checking the classifieds... I'll be REALLY careful, I promise!

PIcture 1

Picture 2

Thanks for the advice guys!

botalvr · Jul 30, 2004

Got a spare tire fer it yet? Lug wrench to fit?
After seeing the pics, I want one!!!!

(it's not the cost of the tractor that's stopping me, it's the divorce that would come with the news of my new tractor!)
/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Pks · Jul 30, 2004

Chris,

If the weight of the trailer is lowering the rear springs a lot, thus raising the front end of your tow vehicle, then consider getting a Weight Distributing Hitch. A WDH will change the weight bias in the tow vehicle and place more trailer weight onto the front wheels of the tow vehicle.

In no way do you want the tow vehicle to have a light front end.

ChrisBWJ · Jul 30, 2004

I think the springs compressed an inch or two when the trailer was attached empty.

I don't think another inch or so raised the front too much. But I'll still look into one of the WDH jobbies. THX

grandad · Jul 30, 2004

Nice looking package, and it will do just about anything you want it to, short of really heavy construction.

You are indeed asking a lot of that Grand Cherokee. Don't know about Michigan motor vehicle code, but your trailer and payload are probably more weight than the Jeep is rated for. If someone from the local constabulary is having a bad day, they might decide to make your day miserable with a weight violation. I hope that didn't happen, and your 80 mile trip went OK.

I also hope that nice trailer has electric brakes! Seems drivers are always just a bit crazier Fridays than the rest of the week. You definitely don't want some nut swerving in front of you and doing a quick stop, even with trailer brakes.

GeneD14 · Jul 30, 2004

Nice tractor and trailer. They should last a long time. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Kytractor · Jul 31, 2004

ChrisBWJ, Nice looking trailer. What brand did you go with?

DannyD · Jul 31, 2004

I hope you were able to pull the hoe in and pin it in place. That was the one thing my dealer told me about in regards to trailering and transporting.

I also noticed your trailer wheels are way back, seems that would put a lot of weight up front, rather than allowing you to adjust the weight with the placement of the tractor.

(but then maybe I need to learn something about dual axle trailers) Going to get mine today

ChrisBWJ · Jul 31, 2004

Well, it was about 160-170 miles, round trip.

No real problems. Was able to cruise at 45 mph, no problem. Actually got up a bit higher, and had to force myself to keep the speed down. I shouldn't admit it, but on one particular flat stretch when nobody was around, I actually got it up to about 60 mph for a little bit....then traffic started passing and I took her down to 45-50 again. Had plenty of gas pedal left, but not willing to test it. No trailer sway that I could detect during the entire trip.

Although there was one old section of highway where the expansion joints, or cement sections were being hit at just the right frequency that I had this weird front to rear push/pull feeling. Once I got back to new pavement, everything was fine.

As for the tasks I went to do... I dug a 4' deep trench, 20 feet long in cement truck-packed clay. No problem for the BH-90!! Moved about 45 yards of dirt to start grading around the foundation. If the inspector would have been there on Friday, we could have backfilled.... Oh well...

Trailer is made by Rice. I hadn't come across them before, but I really like the construction of it.

Dual 6" C-Channel frame. 16" 10-ply tires, self-stowing 6' ramps, D-Rings, Dual axle brakes, etc....

Pinned the hoe side-to side, and for the boom. If you look in picture 2, you can see strap going around the dipper stick to keep it in tight.

Didn't have any LEOs pass me. Saw plenty on the highway and back roads. None of them gave me a second look.... I'm not sure too many of the them know how much a TLB actually weighs.

Now if I stumbled across a Weighmaster....I could have been in trouble.

It's nice to know I can move the trailer and tractor if I have to. I definitely won't make a habit of it. If I have to move it on a more regular basis, there will be a new (to me) vehicle in the driveway to take care it!!!