Once again...BX24 Weight

[Skyco]

Put another way: I would absolutely, positively, under no circumstances whatsoever, feel comfortable with my $20,000 machine in a rented trailer with a capacity of 2,500#. No way, no how. Just too small.

I'll second that!

 

[LBrown59]

I just re-did someones driveway for them yesterday. I dropped the tractor off, un-chaining it in about 3 minutes, went to the quarry and picked up 3 tons of stone, unloaded and spread the 3 tons of stone in about 20 minutes, then spent 30 minutes dressing the driveway with the box blade, then loaded the tractor, properly chaining it down in under 5 minutes. The whole thing, including picking up the stone, took about 2 hours. *If I wasn't able to unload the stone with my tractor, I'd spend 2 backbreaking hours just getting the stone off the trailer.

*How do you unload the trailer with the tractor.?

 

[BXpanded]

*How do you unload the trailer with the tractor.?

I don't know how Keithinspace does it, but I remove the rear gate, approach the trailer from the rear, backdrag the material off onto the ground until I have a "ramp" that lets me drive the tractor up on the trailer. Then I just grab it and go! Repair the "ramp" as necessary until the trailer is empty. Pull the trailer forward, pick the material up from the ground and I'm done.

 

[Volfandt]

How do you unload the trailer with the tractor.?

This is one way I unload my 6'X12' trailer.

 

[LBrown59]

I don't know how Keithinspace does it, but *I remove the rear gate, approach the trailer from the rear, backdrag the material off onto the ground until I have a "ramp" that lets me drive the tractor up on the trailer. Then I just grab it and go! Repair the "ramp" as necessary until the trailer is empty. Pull the trailer forward, pick the material up from the ground and I'm done.

That's one way

 

[KeithInSpace]

This is one way I unload my 6'X12' trailer.

Yup, something like that. When I had the 'cheesegrater' rear gate (on my previous 5' x 10' trailer), I had to fortify it with some angle and 2 x 12's or my tractor wheels would just punch right through. Even then, I was not successful unloading it with my machine. I don't recall why...perhaps I just didn't like how it pulled up on the ball every time (no support legs on the ramp like on my big trailer) and worried that something was going to fail catastrophically. Always seems to with me. Don't know why.

With the dovetail, my problem is that the deck is quite a bit higher than Mr. Volfandt's trailer. The fold-down ramps are too steep and the rear implement drags on the ground (BH or box blade). So I have two "approach ramps" out of 2 x 12's that I carry around with the trailer. They get me up in the air a little so I can 'make the turn' without dragging anything on the ground. It ends up working pretty well. I just climb up in there and scoop away.

I have it down to where I can sneak in at a bit of an angle and even scoop everything in the corners along the way and just leave myself with a small scoop at the front of the trailer.

Someday I'll get some high-capacity aluminum ramps to replace my wood approach ramps. They'd look nicer, anyway. And the wood is a little heavy.

 

[LBrown59]

Yup, something like that. When I had the 'cheesegrater' rear gate (on my previous 5' x 10' trailer), I had to fortify it with some angle and 2 x 12's or my tractor wheels would just punch right through. Even then, I was not successful unloading it with my machine. I don't recall why...perhaps

1*I just didn't like how it pulled up on the ball every time (no support legs on the ramp like on my big trailer) and worried that something was going to fail catastrophically.

With the dovetail, my problem is that the deck is quite a bit higher than Mr. Volfandt's trailer. The fold-down ramps are too steep and the rear implement drags on the ground (BH or box blade). So I have two "approach ramps" out of 2 x 12's that I carry around with the trailer. They get me up in the air a little so I can 'make the turn' without dragging anything on the ground. It ends up working pretty well. I just climb up in there and scoop away.
I have it down to where I can sneak in at a bit of an angle and even scoop everything in the corners along the way and just leave myself with a small scoop at the front of the trailer.
Someday I'll get some high-capacity aluminum ramps to replace my wood approach ramps. They'd look nicer, anyway.

2*And the wood is a little heavy.

3* I have two "approach ramps" out of 2 x 12's that I carry around with the trailer.

~~~~~~ ~ ~ ~
1*If the trailer would happen to come off the ball it wouldn't be very nice.
2*I have two 12'' wide 2'' thick Oak planks.
3*How long are these planks?
Mine are 8 feet long.
They are a full 12 inches wide and a full 2 inches thick not 11.5'' wide by 1.5'' thick like milled lumber.
I got them at a saw mill and had them cut to exactly 12'' x 2'' 96''.
Talk about heavy.
I've never used them with the BX23 because I'm afraid they aren't strong enough to support the BX23.
What do you think about the strength issue?

 

[donn12]

keith, any pics of the trailer? i am wondering how everyone fills the trailer. I am guessing some have made side walls out of plywood. Are there any disadvantages to a trailer with non removable walls?

 

[Volfandt]

Yup, something like that. When I had the 'cheesegrater' rear gate (on my previous 5' x 10' trailer), I had to fortify it with some angle and 2 x 12's or my tractor wheels would just punch right through. Even then, I was not successful unloading it with my machine. I don't recall why...perhaps I just didn't like how it pulled up on the ball every time (no support legs on the ramp like on my big trailer) and worried that something was going to fail catastrophically. Always seems to with me. Don't know why.

1*If the trailer would happen to come off the ball it wouldn't be very nice.

Understand completely, one must be confident in their eqt, as I am with mine....
As long as one is within the design specs of their eqt, it should function safely. Of course man made machinery can break at any time so not even going with "over spec'ed" eqt guarantee's complete safety......
In nearly 4 yrs of working the BX23 w/this 6'X12' trailer, I've had ZERO problems, both in transporting it, loading / unloading material on it, and hauling the trailer full of various material around with a ball hitch on a custom made bracket on the BX23's 3PH.
I do not recommend hauling a fully loaded BX TLB w/this setup at highway speeds or during a "rush hour" but it functions fine for hauling my fully loaded BX23 (tractor, FEL, BH & 60" MMM) from point A to point B on my rural roads..
All that said, would I rather have a car hauler trailer, you betcha! It would be more flexible in that it could obviouisly haul autos/pickup trucks as well as larger ag machinery, a Swiss knife solution similar to my BX23 matter of fact but, neither the need nor cost justification exists in my present situation.
Of course I'd never turn down a great deal

 

[KeithInSpace]

This is my trailer when I first built the stakesides. It's not quite as shiny now, but is holding up pretty well. The trailer is so large, I generally run out of weight capacity before I run out of room. 7 CY of triple-shread mulch weighs every pound of 3 tons and that fits in there quite easily. 3 tons of stone barely makes a pile in the middle. The nice thing is that each stakeside panel weighs less than 20#, so I can remove quite easily for whatever reason...which I have done. It all works pretty slick.

About my ramps, I doubled up on 2 x 12's...one 7' long piece with a 5' long piece screwed under it. That leaves 1' of 'single thickness' 2 x 12 at either end where it engages the ground and the ramp with the double thickness in the middle to resist flexing. I chiseled the ramp end so the end "nests" into the metal nicely, so there is actually a left and right ramp. I spray painted a big "L" and "R" on each so I don't have to think about anything.

I have it filled with whatever however. My FEL easily goes over the sides, but it is generally filled by skid-steer or quarry loader, depending on where I'm at. I had something loaded by forklift the other day, which made me feel REALLY good about the removable sides. And I plan on towing a car around sometime in the future. I have only unloaded by the rear (no pun intended).

And I would LOVE to have my small trailer sometimes. This one is just so big and heavy. I have towed it around without any trouble, but putting 2 things from IKEA on it just looks silly. If your trailer works for you, Mr. Volfandt, go with it. My 5' x 10' just didn't cut it, but perhaps I would have felt a little differently about a 6' x 12'. Not to say I don't love my big trailer, though.