Tilt trailers

[Hay Dude]

Plot twist, may have found a 1 year old Appalachian, locally. Same specs as the Kauffman for $4600.

Similar quality. My first gooseneck was a 25’ 14k Appalachian. It wasn’t a bad trailer. Neither of them are painted like they should be.

 

[MoMower]

Went that way, 2020.

 

[MoMower]

All nestled in with its little? Brother

 

[Hay Dude]

Looks barely used.
I always look for those kinds of deals, too. Nothing like letting the first owner take the big depreciation hit.

 

[MoMower]

Looks barely used.
I always look for those kinds of deals, too. Nothing like letting the first owner take the big depreciation hit.

Yes sir, only scratches are in the ramp area. He estimated it at about 2k miles of use, ended up knowing the seller too.

Pulls nice empty! I registered it at 10k, as I want to stay out of DOT number, or 17001k anyway. My usual full load, is 11-13k combo weight.

 

[jmc]

Not familiar with tilt trailers but they sound like a good idea. If you unlatch the front, is the empty deck balanced so it drops to the ground in the rear, or is there up and down hydraulics involved?

Thanks.

 

[MoMower]

Not familiar with tilt trailers but they sound like a good idea. If you unlatch the front, is the empty deck balanced so it drops to the ground in the rear, or is there up and down hydraulics involved?

Thanks.

All that I looked at in this style, partial fixed deck, were “gravity/manual” tilt. All had some kind of dampening so they didn’t slam.

Yup, the empty deck will mostly tilt on its own.

I believe all manufacturers make powered tilts as well.

Some of the “car” full tilt decks have funky jack to tilt styles to them.

 

[Fallon]

Power tilts are usually deckovers. They can put the pivot behind the axles & not run into balance issues.

The gravity tilt trailers usually pivot between the axles. To balance things the deck has to pivot in the center. That can make things for balancing the trailer vs the deck. The back of the deck rarely ends up being usable for hauling as it makes for to little tongue weight.

Many of the gravity tilt trailers have a hydraulic cylinder on them. It's a dampened, not a lift cylinder. There is just a valve between the cylinder & reservoir to slow or stop the deck. All tilting deck trailers require a mechanical latch for transport as hydraulics aren't reliable enough.

Some of the longer gravity tilts over 16-20' or so also have a fixed deck. In front of the 14-18' tilting deck there is a 4-8' fixed deck. That fixed deck helps with balance as it makes the trailer longer in front of the pivot & axles. It also let's the deck pivot high/low enough with the low frame height.

The 50/50 weight split on the gravity tilts makes balancing your trailer easy. Just figure out the tipping point on your deck by inching forward until it tilts. Then move forward a bit more to go from perfectly balanced to proper 10-15% tongue weight.

 

[Fallon]

And those crappy car haulers aren't really a tilting deck. They have a hinge where the deck meets the tongue. When you run that jack, it folds the frame & lifts the front axle off the ground. Really slow & jenky IMHO.

 

[jmc]

Thanks all, for the explanations of tilt trailers. You guys should write a primer on trailers and make it a Sticky in 'Trailers and Transportation".