Steel vs. Aluminum Stock Trailer

[twabscs]

Hi All,

I'm looking to purchase my first stock trailer now that I've been in the cattle business for two years and am up to about 60 cows. I'm looking at either a steel Titan or aluminum Barrett trailer, both of which ar 24' long. The Titan is $8,250 and the Barrett is $15,200. The sales guy said the Titan is about 3K-4K heavier than the aluminum trailer. I find this hard to believe, but I can't seem to find trailer weights anywhere on the web. Does this sound about right? Of course I like the Barrett trailer, but is it it worth the extra $7K?

Thanks!

 

[ultrarunner]

I was going through the same delima last year... I really wanted to go all Aluminum, but in the end, I'm just not on the road enough to justify paying double the price of steel.

Also, I'm quite capable and have the equipment to weld steel... so I can make my own repairs of mods if need be.

If money is no object and if your on the road a lot to realize reduced costs... or your at your towing limit... a quality Aluminum Trailer is the way to go.

 

[firefighter9208]

Also, take into consideration that urine is extremely corrosive to aluminum. I know of a couple people that bought aluminum trailers to haul horses and didn't remove the mats and wash out the trailer after using it. Only to find that the floor(aluminum) was rotted away from the urine.

Chris

 

[riptides]

Weight, brakes and towing capacity with livestock should factor in. If you can find the specs on the steel trailer, that appears to be 1 to 2 cows you may not be able to move. Is that a factor? Will you make a extra trip because of it?

-Mike Z.

 

[Jimbrown]

I have a Titan goose neck horse trailer. It is 27ft overall with a 6 ft tack room it weighs 5520. It pulls just fine with two horses and all the tack and feed ect the wife can load in it. I guess about 11,000lb. I just pulled it 3 weeks ago to Prescot and back 600 miles. Tracked true and straight on I-10 running 70 to 80 MPH the whole way. I think they are a good buy for the price. My worry with aluminum trailers is that once they stat to crack (and they all will steel or alum) it is hard to find a guy who can weld alum correctly. Have you looked here?
Titan Trailer Downloadable Full Length Brochures



That trailer comes with two 7000lb Dexter axles it will probably be rated at more than your truck can pull. at least 12,500 and maybe 14,000lb. You can call titan nand ask the weight. They are good to deal with.

 

[Redbug]

I would go with the steel. Mainly because it can be welded easily and the trailer has less initial cost.

 

[MikePA]

We use a 16' GN aluminnum stock tralier to haul our horses. No problem with the urine because the frame/deck is all steel.

 

[keeney]

... My worry with aluminum trailers is that once they stat to crack (and they all will steel or alum) it is hard to find a guy who can weld alum correctly ...

The problem with many aluminum designs is that they are based on steel trailers and just up-gauge the materail with some rule of thumb. Aluminum has three properties that make this a bad design process:

1. Aluminum when welded, becasue of the heat, goes to a very soft -O temper. A common high-strength Aluminum like 6061-T6 at 40,000 PSI goes to only 8,000 PSI at -O temper. Compare that to the 50-60,000 PSI easily achieved in a mild steel weld. Anything welded out of aluminum needs to take into account that the welded areas are going to be very weak - the design cannot cantilever or bend the welded joints with any leverage or it will fail. As below, think trusses and triangles, not unsupported right-angle joints.

Nobody can make a weld on an aluminum frame that will ever be as strong as the original tempered material unless you can put the whole weldment into a giant annealing oven and re-temper the assembly after its welded. It might be cost-feasible for a bicycle frame or aircraft wings, but not for a livestock trailer repair. Much better to bolt or rivet-on a gusset or patch than to try and weld it at that point.

2. Aluminum is 3x more elastic than steel, so there will be more flex for a given stress. Flexing can cause stress to propagate to places not initially considered in the design. Most structures designed out of aluminum are limited more by flexing than yield. Thus they tend to use very high-profile beams, large diameter tube, or truss concepts. Take a look at how tall the beam is under an aluminum flatbed semi trailer sometime.

3. The fatigue limit for Aluminum is an issue whenever it is in a dynamic structure like a flexing, vibrating trailer. Combine with issues 1 and 2 above, any trailer built out of aluminum based on a 'steel' concepts is just asking for trouble. An aluminum trailer has to be designed to be made out of aluminum to start with, not adapted using simple rules of thumb.

I agree with the other poster - get a steel frame (and deck if you plan to get urine on it), and save the aluminum for the non-structural upper enclosure portion of the trailer.

- Rick

 

[chh]

Haven't had any experience with the Titan brand, but I bought a 24'x6'8" Gooseneck brand this spring.(Around $7500) Torsion axles instead of springs. Traded in a WW 20'x6'. Seems much better built than the WW or Neckover brands and have a higher resale value. Steel is the only way that I would go. The posts mentioning repairing Aluminum are the main reasons I didn't go that way. Most generally ,in my experience, you will run out of space before you go over your weight rating hauling cattle, so I wouldn't worry about the difference in the trailer weight as long as you have a truck that can handle it. I am using a Dodge 2500 4X4 with the Cummins.

 

[twabscs]

Thanks for all the replies. I found a local dealer / website that has the trailer weights listed. It's clear that the only difference between steel and aluminum is around 1000 lbs max. Not really something that would make one go either way. Yes, it's one cow or two calves, but you're usually at a space limit before weight. I'm now leaning toward steel given I'll be on the road say 8-10 times per year. Here's the link:

Mellor Trailers