"Personally, I don't see the advantage of a tilt deck for a tractor. For things that have low ground clearance like mowers, rollers, and sports cars they make sense, but your tractor will have no problem climbing the ramps on the back. A flat deck trailer usually tends to be lighter than a comparable tilt deck, so your giving up more of your weight to the trailer, remember the rating includes the weight of the trailer itself. If you plan to use it for other things though, a tilt deck may be a good choice."
MMMs can highcenter and backhoes can drag going up ramps, and ramps, hinges and assist springs can weigh as much as tilt components.
"...Wood. But be sure the trailer maker doesn't weld the boards into place with a captive piece of steel. I saw this when I was looking, it was done so they didn't need to put in screws but made board replacement a metal working operation."
This sounds like a great solution to grinding rusted and stripped torx drive self tappers at wood replacement time, put one end of board in pocket, bend board over bottle jack, insert other end in and lower jack viola!
Between wood and steel I would go with wood because lowering steel implements and loaders down on a steel deck just doesnt make sense.
"In terms of ramp trailers, I'm currently leaning torwards low deck height type with full flatbed as opposed to deck-over with beaver tail. I guess these are commonly called skidsteer/tractor trailers."
Deckovers are sometimes called "backhoe pros" and 80% of the ones around me are tandem axle duals. Triple axle duals, tandem and triple singles make up the rest. these are REALLY nice for forking loaded pallets on and off.
The dropaxle 10k 14 and 16 footers are preferred for bobcats and such. a popular brand for these are CRONKITE or CRONKHITE dont recall which.
"I'm still not sure if it's worth the extra $2000 for the tilt trailer. At this point, I think I would only go with a tilt trailer if I could find a good deal at an auction or on a used one."
I'll move alot of ramps for $2000
"Yes. Check for paint underneath as lots of makers don't paint it all."
I was looking at a Load-trail brand trailer and mentioned to the dealer that they only primed underneath between the I beams, his reply was "well the insides of your walls at home arent painted are they?" I was at a loss for words after that.
"The trailer needs to be hooked to the truck to tilt up. The front trailer jack will not keep the hitch high enough to allow the rear of the trailer to touch the ground. Thus can't load or unload without trailer on pickup. (Foldable ramps usually have a drop leg and will let you load and unload without attaching to pickup)."
I have never thought of that, if the travel of the cylinder/ram whatever was an extra foot, would it be possible? It seems that if the trailer tongue jack can extend enough to allow the trailer coupler to rise above the truck hitch
there wouldnt be a problem. Hmm...If the unhitched trailer is tilted the coupler/ring whatever would pivot at the tongue jack/ground contact point until either the back end of trailer hit ground or the cylinder runs out of stroke, if the latter happens just raise the tongue jack more. It sounds like this issue isnt a design flaw inherent to tilt deck trailers just the one you are baseing this off of.
