Need practical advice: trailer to haul Kioti

[sendero]

Thanks for the advice guys. One detail I left out is that my truck has the (somewhat hard to find and intentional on my part) 4.3L V6. It gets better gas mileage, and is actually not that less powerful than the V8.

It seems the consensus is:
Get a 16' trailer
With brakes and ramps
Install a frame-mounted hitch
Install a brake controller.

I looked at a similar trailer as I passed through Aubrey last week, I think it was priced at about $1250. Not bad.

Thanks again...

 

[RobertN]

Remember, the 7000lb trailer is gross... My 7000lb tandem trailer weighs 1600lbs, leaving a payload of 5600lbs.

Also, my Kubota B8200 is smaller than your Kioti. With my 4' rotary mower on it, along with FEL, my mower tail wheel extend off the back of the trailer. That is with the tractor pulled forward till the FEL is bumping the very front of the trailer...

Price is fine; mine was a litlle more, like $1350.

Of other note, get a spare tire. Nothing worse than a flat on the trailer, and having to leave it and the tractor while you get a new tire... Most of these trailers come like mine; bare bones. You have to add tires, chain hooks, rope hooks ect...

 

[Bob_Skurka]

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I have a late model Chevy 1500 pickup. I think it is rated to tow about 4,000 pounds. My Kioti weighs about 4,000 pounds with the FEL. It is about 13' long with the FEL attached.
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I'm late to the thread, but as has been mentioned the trailer capacity is gross capacity. Your truck has the ability to tow the tractor, but not the tractor AND the trailer. A typical trailer will weigh from 1200# to 2000# depending on construction.

Any trailer with a GVW over 3000# will require brakes in most (maybe all) states. So yes, you need a brake controller (take a look at the Jordan units, also Prodigy is highly respected).

You are over the capacity of your truck's towing capacity by about 45% when you add the tractor AND the trailer weights. If you only do it once or twice a year and you are very careful, you probably won't do to much damage to your truck (and if you do, it will be to the transmission and/or brakes). Hopefully you don't live in a hilly area.

If you have fluid filled tires, be sure to calculate the weight of those too and add them to the load.

Do you have a friend who can tow the tractor when you occasionally need it? Realistically you won't/shouldn't have to do it very often.

 

[Bird]

Texas doesn't require brakes on trailers under 4500 pounds as a general rule. However, you can tow a trailer under 15,000 pounds with no brakes if you stay under 30 mph. See my first post in this thread for a copy of the Texas statute.

 

[sendero]

I'm aware that I'll be going over the tow rating of my truck. The tractor without FEL weighs 3400. I'm guessing the FEL weighs another 700. The trailer itself probably about 1500. I've always assumed that things like towing ratings are very conservative. I see folk towing huge boats all the time /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif I am assuming that if I drive like pushing the accellerator is like leg pressing 600 lbs, and keep my speed below 55, I could get away with it. I am not interested in hurting myself, my tractor, my truck or others /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif I think the main point of my question was that it going over the tow rating of my truck by that much is nutso or not.

I would be moving this tractor probably about once every year or two. There are a couple long hills, but nothing steep along the way. There are good roads between my place and the service dealer.

I suppose a counter argument would be that if it is that seldom, why not hire it out? Most dealers are probably equipped to haul these things around, and probably wouldn't charge that much. There is a convenience factor to being able to do it yourself, own your own schedule.

Again, thanks everyone for the advice. I suppose I'm still fence sitting on this one...

 

[Bird]

Billy, of course you're right in that the tow ratings are generally conservative, and that's understandable. The manufacturer doesn't know what kind of weather, terrain, distance, speed, etc. owners are going to drive while towing a trailer. So many, many trailers on the road are over the tow vehicle's rated capacity. IF they become involved in an accident, then that might be one factor working against them, but for relatively short distances, lower speeds, etc. you can exceed the rated capacity with no damage to the towing vehicle as long as neither engine nor transmission overheat.

 

[EddieWalker]

On an earlier post I mentioned to be sure to only tow with the overdrive turned off. I say this because my Dad had a Blazer with the 6.2 diesel and auto transmission. The only thing he ever towed with it was his boat. Well under what the Blazer was rated for in weight. He never turned the overdrive off and burned out the tranny from it. Almost $2,000 for that back in the 80's.

If you are buying the trailer for just the once a year, or every other year use, than I'd pass on it. Borrow one, rent one or hire it out. But I've found my 16 foot trailer to be very handy when I want to buy things that are too long for my truck bed, or weigh more than I want to put in there. It's also nice to leave a load of whatever on the trailer and only use what you need as you go. I had a pallet of morter on my trailer that I used a few sacks a day. Instead of unloading it and handleing it all the time, I just parked the trailer in my barn and pulled it out when I needed it. Very nice.

Another thing to consider is just driving your tractor in for service. My backhoe is WAY too heavey for my trailer or my pickup, but I've driven it 30 miles each way to do some jobs. A few hours on the backhoe saved me a couple hundred in hauling fees which adds up to more cash in my pocket.

I've driven my Century CUT about 5 miles each way to do some stuff for a friend just because it's easier to drive it there than to hook up the trailer, load the tractor, unload it and repeat the process when I come home.

Eddie

 

[Bird]

Yep, Eddie, most of the manufacturers used to recommend turning off the overdrive when towing. I don't know whether they still do or not, but it's a good idea. In the early '80s when fleet management was part of my responsibilities and overdrive automatic transmissions were relatively new for police sedans, Ford even supplied us with stickers to put on the dash instructing officers to turn off the overdrive on the sedans when speeds were under 40 mph AND in pursuit conditions. The other manufacturers would orally agree, but would not put it in writing as Ford did. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[Soundguy]

I know my dodge ram truck has a 'tow/haul' button on it... the biggest difference is the OD lockout on it..

Soundguy

 

[sendero]

I finally obtained an owners manual for my truck, which has the towing ratings.

It's full of surprises. My truck (as equipped with V6/auto) is rated at either 4,600 or 5,100 lbs, depending on what the differential ratio is. I haven't figure out what it is yet.

Amazingly, the manual transmission version of the truck is rated a full 1,000 lbs less. The V8 version over 2,000 lbs more.

Anyway, this is more than I thought and so I would be going over the rating of the truck by only a bit, especially if I have the "better" ratio /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif