No Need to Trailer when hauling tractor?

[john_bud]

You want to see more plywood on the ground? Just go sit at the intersection my the home depot or equivalant when there is a big sale on. You see stuff flying off every day. Short bed trucks with 20-30 sheets and not tied down are my favorite. Some of the brainiacs don't even stop when they've lost 800# of load leaving the parking lot. I wonder what they tell the Mrs?

jb

 

[selkplitt]

Someone posted the following "Oh, for a trailer with 3500 or less pounds, trailer brakes are NOT required in many states. Heck, here in WI for 3500 or less, you don't even have to register the trailer! The truck brakes are designed to handle that. "

I have to disagree with this statement. Chevrolet recommends trailer brakes for any trailer over 1500#. It doesn't matter if you are driveing a 3500 dual rear wheel. Are the brakes on the truck designed to handle that much overall weight, absolutely, however it is not designed to carry trailers without brakes. What about jacknifing?
I once couldn't stop on wet roads with a load of tanbark on a 10' trailer with a 1/2 ton truck. When I bought my own trailer I refused anything without brakes. Just doesn't make sense to hurt someone. Right or wrong, I believe there are enough lawyers looking for more business willing to take any case, why give them the chance.
And as far the the brake info, I have been a chevrolet truck salesman for 16 years.

 

[Joe1]

It's easy to overload a vehicle and not know it. 10 years ago, I borrowed a friends 77 Ford F-250 camper special Pickup to move some dirt. The stuff was wet clay and I pretty much filled the 8' bed.

The truck had a 7,900 GVW and weighed 5,100 empty. It only dropped a couple of inches at the rear bumper. When I took it to dump it, it weighed 9,400 lbs. It handled accelerated and stopped just fine. The tires looked OK and it just didn't seem to have over two tons in the bed. Fortunately, it was a short trip and the load was low in the bed and well distributed.

Just a couple of months ago, I bought some cap blocks for a mortarless retaining wall I was building. I woefully underestimated the weight of each block and ended up loading 1,980 lbs into my trailer which had a net capacity of only 1,000 lbs. I made the 8 mile trip home safely, but those 4.80 X 8 tires were about 50% overloaded. God was with me on that trip. I didn't know how much I had until I weighed a few of the blocks when I got home.

I'm a whole lot more careful after those two dumb mistakes.

 

[ArkLaTexSam]

I see ole timers hauling overloaded trailers everyday. Their top speed is about 30mph on the highways. They stay off of the interstates and mostly take the back county roads like I do. These guys are 75yrs or more and I guess back in their stomping days they did not have to worry about government weight restrictions etc. The police do not stop them because they are working men and this is just the way it is out in the country. I've never seen so many people scared of lawyers. The only people that will love this post are the lawyers themselves. Thank God I live out in the country.

ArkLaTexSam

 

[gemini5362]

A tractor PLUS the weight of a trailer would have the added benifit of (a) having the front wheels of the truck in a position to stop, and (b) trailer brakes . I don't care if it's 1900 lbs of duck feathers in the bed, that's not a safe load. But, tow truck operators and undertakers have to eat too, so haul on bro.

I dont know about the area that you live in but where I live there are lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of trailers going around that dont have trailer brakes. Lets see all the people that i know who have trailers that are 16 feet dual axle or less and have trailer brakes. counting my trailer that has brakes that would be one. when I bought my new tractor they offered me a trailer as part of the deal. That trailer did not have brakes either. I did not take it I had them discount the price the amount of the trailer. This is not a commentary on whether or not you need brakes. You notice I said I have them on mine. This is just a commentary on real life situations concerning brakes in Fort Smith, Arkansas

 

[gemini5362]

Im

You average 50000 miles per year for 41 years??? Come on, thats about 200 miles a day, five day a week, for 52 weeks a year for 41 years. Thats about 2050000 miles. You must have one heck of a good job to commute 200 miles a day for 41 years.

Just to point out that some people do it. My wife actually commutes 250 miles per day and has been doing it for several years. I dont see her changing jobs anytime in the near future. by the time she goes to work and we take her car to visit family it is nothing unusual for her to put 50,000 miles plus per year on her main car and she has a convertible that sometimes she drives if the weather is nice.

 

[gemini5362]

Going back a few posts here -- it is human nature to think we are better than most others at things we do. The majority of drivers, especially males under 35, think they are better than most others on the road. What makes a good driver?

IMHO, it's the ability to smoothly blend in with the traffic, to travel safely and quickly from point A to point B carrying whatever load you can while neither inconveniencing nor endangering others with whom you share the road. A good driver is not the one who is noticed by others, it's the one who is simply there, not in your way, not causing you to change your intended path of travel, to speed up, or to slow down.

I ride a motorcycle in my opinion a good driver is someone who doesnt almost run over me but misses because I have good reflexes when it comes to dodging moving metal. Unfotuneatly there are a lot of bad drivers out there according to my definition.

 

[Wesbo]

Speaking of human error...

I had to haul my tractor the other day and borrowed a cousin's trailer that I've used many times before. Between tractor and trailer I was right up against the tow limit for my truck, so I was grateful that the trailer had two axle's worth of good, recently rebuilt surge brakes.

Didn't realize until I'd done my hauling that the pin that disengages the brakes for backing up had been in place the whole time, so I had no trailer brakes.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

Sorry, I'm a late comer to the discussion. Some of you may remember the attached picture from a few years back.

It was shortly after that that I got a trailer. My calculations told me that the whole load was actually pretty close to the payload, etc., but it just wasn't much fun to drive it that way.

Now I'm even looking for a bigger trailer than what I have so that the load is more comfortable to haul. The biggest pucker was getting the tractor back out of the truck once I got it in.

Just for the record, I did take the tailgate off for this one.

 

[WayneB]

This reminds me of when I picked up my Tractor. B-7500 with FEL and yard rake. I rented a U-Haul Trailer and with the rake on it would not permit me to close the tail gate.

The guy told me the best way was to back the tactor on and let the bucket hang over the tailgate.

Well, bad advice, as I was leaving his place it was a bit light on the handling of the truck, but once I got on the highway and up to about 50 miles an hour I totally lost control of the truck and head directly to the shoulder. Pulled off the road (I-95 just south of Boston) and took the tractor off from the trailer. I decided to drive it in with the bucket in the front and put the yard rake as high as I could get it, then back off slightly so I could close the tailgate on the trailer. tied it down and drove the 90 miles home without a problem.

Just wonder what a state trooper would of thought of me parking on the side of a very busy interstate highway. I had no idea what I would of told him.

Just a case of "Men and their toys"!