Towing Batwing behind a truck

[RickB]

I dont think it would be any different then the big round balers that get pulled around.

Way more tongue weght with a batwing. How much of a rotary cutter's weight is situated behind the wheels? Zero.

 

[foreman Etexas]

Alright RichB the total weight of his BW180 is 3,950lbs and tongue weight is 1,380lbs. A Vermeer 605 round baler total weight 8,000lbs with a tongue weight of 1,650...
My small 5x4 baler weights 4700 with a tongue weight of 760lbs...

 

[CCOUGHRAN1]

As long as you have standard rear axle setup on your batwing ( no walking beam axles ), then you will be fine hauling it on a 27+5 GN.

What I do, is drive the tractor and mower all the way to the front of the trailer, up against the GN. Then I flip my ramps back onto the trailer, then I back the tractor and mower onto the ramps. This puts the tractor about 6' further back away from the GN frame.

Still a lot of pin weight, but it will travel just fine.


As mentioned above, your 7.3idi will haul it just fine, just won't get up to speed very fast, and will lose speed on any hills. You ought to gross close to 30k with the truck/trailer/tractor/mower


Here's a pic of my M7040 and a Rhino magnum that I picked up a few weeks back.

 

[meburdick]

I apologize to any who have heard me say this before, but it's my latest soapbox, and I aim to make sure everybody possible is educated. Ahem...

I was recently very surprised to learn that my truck required a weight-distributing system to achieve its maximum receiver weight rating. Without a WD system, my truck's receiver is only rated for 3500# gross trailer weight / 350 lbs tongue weight. With a WD system, it goes up to 12k# GTW / 1.2k# TW. In another thread on TBN, I learned that this rating is relatively conservative, and many receivers on the road today are good for up to 5000# / 500# without a WD system. Newer trucks are sometimes even better specced and can do 10k / 1k. I have looked on etrailer.com, and the biggest I have ever seen is one rated for 15k# / 1.5k# without a WD system.

The moral of the story, though, is that you may be very surprised to learn that your big, powerful truck's towing ability is being hamstrung by the fact that you don't have a WD system. If you're like me, you saw that 12k tow rating and assumed that the factory hitch was good to go. Why wouldn't it be? They say the dang truck can tow 12k? But there is this little asterisk and little text down at the bottom of the page that says, "Oh yeah. If you don't have a WD system, you can only tow this much smaller number," and if you miss that, you could end up in a world of pain.

My impression, from my limited research, is that many factory receivers today are rated between 500-1000 lbs tongue weight without a WD system. That drop forged ball mount you bought is rated for 10k# gross trailer weight. It is almost certainly rated for 1000 lbs tongue weight. So if what an earlier commenter said about a batwing having 1500 lbs or more on the tongue is true, you may not have the specs to do it.

I'm not trying to sow fear and discontent. I just hate to think of people exceeding their towing system's capacities without knowing it, and getting themselves into trouble.

While you are very correct that many vehicle manufacturers will tout a "Maximum Towing Rating" of a certain amount but aren't as up front about the fact that it requires a WDH to get that rating, it has nothing to do with the GTWR (Gross Trailer Weight Rating) value.

If your vehicle is rated to tow 10,000 pounds, that never changes whether you have a WDH or not. What the WDH does is reduce the TONGUE WEIGHT, and that's the limiting factor for so many tow vehicles. The GTWR number has to do with the ability to get the trailer moving and keep it moving. The Tongue weight has to do with whether or not you can move that much weight SAFELY because of performance / handling characteristic changes that come about from tongue weight.

Gooseneck trailers aren't necessarily the answer either. What they do is bring the "tongue weight" further forward and place it directly over the rear axle. This way, the weight pushes straight down on the rear suspension and has no bearing on the FRONT of the vehicle. With the down-force remaining the same over the front wheels, steering characteristics don't change at all.

The end result here it that you need to understand some math, some geometry, and some physics to be able to know how to tow correctly and safely.

 

[aczlan]

Gooseneck trailers aren't necessarily the answer either. What they do is bring the "tongue weight" further forward and place it directly over the rear axle. This way, the weight pushes straight down on the rear suspension and has no bearing on the FRONT of the vehicle. With the down-force remaining the same over the front wheels, steering characteristics don't change at all.

If properly installed, a gooseneck or 5th wheel hitch should be in FRONT of the rear axle and as such, should add load to the front axle when used.
Also, adding weight directly over the rear axle vs behind it will eliminate the negative load that a BP trailer will put on the front axle. That will also improve steering when loaded.


Aaron Z

 

[Davidsan]

Mace, the favorite part of my BW180 is the decal on the rear right deck of a big BAT's WING!!!

I do have a WD system setup for my bumper pull trailer but not sure how you could adapt that to an implement like a rotary cutter. I'm sure it could be done. I hear ya though, a WD system definitely makes for a better spread of weight over both truck and trailer. You can tell a difference in the way everything "rides and handles".

As long as you have standard rear axle setup on your batwing ( no walking beam axles ), then you will be fine hauling it on a 27+5 GN.

What I do, is drive the tractor and mower all the way to the front of the trailer, up against the GN. Then I flip my ramps back onto the trailer, then I back the tractor and mower onto the ramps. This puts the tractor about 6' further back away from the GN frame.

Still a lot of pin weight, but it will travel just fine.


As mentioned above, your 7.3idi will haul it just fine, just won't get up to speed very fast, and will lose speed on any hills. You ought to gross close to 30k with the truck/trailer/tractor/mower


Here's a pic of my M7040 and a Rhino magnum that I picked up a few weeks back.
View attachment 273552

I like your idea of pulling both tractor and cutter up to the front of the trailer, fold up the ramps and then back up as far as possible to spread the weight more to the rear. Thanks for the picture.

If I can remember to take my camera this weekend, I'll try to snap some photos as I may try pulling the batwing over to the farm with the truck, then transport both on the way back on the GN. You guys have convinced me to try it. We'll see how the 7.3 Ford performs!!??

 

[Davidsan]

Just an update with some pics on hauling the BW over to the farm. We hauled the BW over Friday morning with a 3/4 ton Chevy. As you can tell from the pic, it's little heavy in the rear but it pulled just fine and speed was kept to a minimum so we had no problems whatsoever.



On the way back home Sat evening, I tried loading both 9540 and BW on the GN and towing with the 7.3 '89 F350 Ford. Like CCOUGHRAN1 suggested, I pulled all the way up to the bulkhead, flipped the ramps over and then backed over the ramps to move the weight to the rear. Truck pulled it better than I thought it would. Sorry the picture was taken at night after I had gotten home and it was dark. We forgot to take one at the farm earlier.

 

[SLHawkins]

Nice pics! In addition to the chains to lock the wings in the up-right position, did you add any other straps or chains to help secure the wings? That is my biggest concern when hauling mine on the trailer-how to keep the wings from swaying back and forth...

Hawk

 

[Diamondpilot]

Wow, that is tongue heavy. Put that Chevy's front end skyward.

Chris

 

[Highbeam]

The WDH does not reduce tongue weight. That statement demonstrates a lack of understanding.

It distributes the tongue weight from amongst the trruck's axles. This means transfering a portion of the tongue weight from the rear axle to the front axle. Total tongue weight is still the same.