Looking for input on trailer choices

[nittanyjd]

You nailed it! I bought a dovetail 18' footer with the fold up ramps. I wish I had purchased the 20' flat deck with slide in ramps. The fold up ramps just get in the way.

I'm in the process of looking for a trailer. Currently rent and getting costly. I'm done looking for used, too. The dove tail vs flat and 18' vs 20' are my issues. Attachment shows a 16', fold-up ramps, and dove tail. It drags if I don't angle when leaving driveway or pulling off road into camp lawn. 20' flat deck and slide in ramps seem the way to go so long as the weight isn't too high. My tractor and brush hog are 4500# so I'm looking at 10k. I just have to decide how often I'll have the brush hog and tractor on together.

 

[meburdick]

It drags if I don't angle when leaving driveway or pulling off road into camp lawn.

My mind isn't following this... What drags? The tail?

For me, the tail isn't something I'm concerned about any more. The bottom of the frame rails are 24" off of the ground. The tail drops down a few inches from there, but it isn't "significant".

Your 16' trailer likely has about 80" from the center point (front to back) of the two axles and a 20' will only be about 4" more. The good news there is that it wouldn't make the tail much more likely to drag that a shorter trailer. The bad news is that it still doesn't give you a lot of actual room behind the tractor for something like a bush hog if you load facing forward. Personally, looking at your setup, I wouldn't load that tractor backward on that trailer because it puts most of the weight over the *front* axle of the trailer, and you want it over the back one. For my tractor, I can't load backward at all because I have the FEL (and all of the weight would end up on the tongue).

I would take a very close look at how much clearance to the ramps you have right now with the fold-downs and the tail on that trailer. Unless the clearance is pretty substantial, I would be careful about switching to a flat deck because it will likely change the loading angle (unless you get very long ramps - and it looks like your fold-downs are 5').

 

[s219]

That loading doesn't look too bad to me, but it really varies tractor to tractor. If anything, I would have rolled the tractor even more forward on the trailer, but maybe there wasn't enough room. When I looked at working out tongue weight and balancing, most handbooks assume the tractor center of mass is just forward of the rear wheels. Ideally, you'd want to have that (or the real center of mass) evenly positioned over both axles. Implements will skew the overall center of mass in the direction of the implement, and how you lower or block implements will factor in. Where they touch the deck (or not) impacts how they affect the balance of the whole load. This definitely matters with long implements.

 

[meburdick]

That loading doesn't look too bad to me, but it really varies tractor to tractor. If anything, I would have rolled the tractor even more forward on the trailer, but maybe there wasn't enough room. When I looked at working out tongue weight and balancing, most handbooks assume the tractor center of mass is just forward of the rear wheels. Ideally, you'd want to have that (or the real center of mass) evenly positioned over both axles. Implements will skew the overall center of mass in the direction of the implement, and how you lower or block implements will factor in. Where they touch the deck (or not) impacts how they affect the balance of the whole load. This definitely matters with long implements.

All very good things to consider when loading. For me, I need to load facing forward (FEL, Ballast Box on rear) and position the rears slightly ahead of the rear axle (weight distribution from FEL up front and having filled rears).

 

[nittanyjd]

My mind isn't following this... What drags? The tail?.

Yes, the tail of trailer drags, but common sense and keeping an eye on it and I'm fine.

I had to load backwards to balance load and to keep brush hog connected. Loaded frontwards and keeping the brush hog connected and then moving both forward enough to be able to fold up ramps I had way, way, way to much weight on the truck. Good case for slide in ramps.

It handled very smooth loaded like this even though the tractor is turned around from the preferred you couldn't hardly feel the load back there.

Believe me I worked with it for an hour to get it safely loaded since I was travelling 125 miles.

Thanks for the good points on ramps and flat deck.

I've noticed in looking at some trailers that axles are positioned different (more forward) between car haulers and equipment trailers.

 

[meburdick]

I had to load backwards to balance load and to keep brush hog connected. Loaded frontwards and keeping the brush hog connected and then moving both forward enough to be able to fold up ramps I had way, way, way to much weight on the truck. Good case for slide in ramps.

I follow the process here, and it makes sense. I don't see how having sliding ramps would have helped you really, as the brush hog would have been hanging off of the back of the trailer. While you could hang a flag or something for safety, that leaves a fair portion of it completely unsupported.

I've noticed in looking at some trailers that axles are positioned different (more forward) between car haulers and equipment trailers.

You may want to look around to see which manufacturers could do a more custom placement of the axles for you, moving them forward by 12" or so. You'd have to be more careful of the back end scraping (which I'm sure is at least partially why the axles are where they are) if you move them forward, but it might better suit your intended use.

 

[CompactTractorFan]

Now, I just need to decide if I want to go the pintle hitch route or a 2-5/16 ball. I've been leaning toward the ball mount style up until tonight. A sincere lack of quality ball mounts that can handle a 10k trailer is making me think I will be better off with the pintle hitch. I am amazed at just how many mounts are rated for nothing more than 6k Gross Trailer Weight.

That's because most tow vehicle require a WD hitch for loads over 5k-6k...:thumbsup:

 

[Diamondpilot]

I'm in the process of looking for a trailer. Currently rent and getting costly. I'm done looking for used, too. The dove tail vs flat and 18' vs 20' are my issues. Attachment shows a 16', fold-up ramps, and dove tail. It drags if I don't angle when leaving driveway or pulling off road into camp lawn. 20' flat deck and slide in ramps seem the way to go so long as the weight isn't too high. My tractor and brush hog are 4500# so I'm looking at 10k. I just have to decide how often I'll have the brush hog and tractor on together.

View attachment 272190

You have answered all your own questions. Like I said before I am on my third trailer and for what you gain the DT and fold up ramps are not worth it to me. I think 20' flat and slide in ramps are the only way to go for you. Just make sure your axles are placed so the rear hang over is not so great that you have the dragging issues with it also.

Chris

 

[Diamondpilot]

All very good things to consider when loading. For me, I need to load facing forward (FEL, Ballast Box on rear) and position the rears slightly ahead of the rear axle (weight distribution from FEL up front and having filled rears).

It all varies load to load. My 28HP Jinma like to go on backward if its just the tractor or tractor and weight box. If I have a Bush Hog or something more significant on the the rear it must be pulled on forward.

My tractor with loader and loaded rear tires, 4 front weights, and cast rear weights is 5,600#. Tractor alone is 3,008#, FEL 850#, 4 33# front weights, 2 100# cast rear weights, and then the fluid in the tires.

Chris

 

[meburdick]

That's because most tow vehicle require a WD hitch for loads over 5k-6k...:thumbsup:

Is that because of the max tongue weight that the vehicle can support? At 6k trailer weight, the tongue would be about 500-600 (taking 10% or so of the cargo weight). I know that previous vehicles have max'ed out at about 500 lbs tongue weight, but my Tundra will take double that.