Weight Distribution Hitch Question

[SMOKEEATERFF]

I am in the market for an equipment trailer to haul my tractor on. I will purchase a wdh to help with the load. One of the trailers I am looking at has an adjustable trailer tongue that moves vertically. Will a wdh work with this trailer? The tractor I will be hauling is a Ford 4000 and a 5 ft bushog. Plan on going with a 20ft tandem axle, no dovetail. I borrowed a buddies 20 ft tandem axle trailer and had a bad experience loading the tractor. It pulled fine. When I pulled my front tires onto the trailer the tongue of the trailer and the back of my truck came off of the ground and the ramps kicked up towards the bottom of the tractor. I was afraid it was going to come unhitched. Needless to say I didnt use the trailer again. I loaded the tractor and bushoh as far back as I could with the tail wheel sticking out between the ramps.

 

[bcp]

Not the trailer's fault, just physics. Any trailer will do that with a heavy load if not blocked up at the rear somehow. People use wood blocks, fold down stands, jack stands, tongue jacks, ramps with stands, etc.

If there is a 200lb tongue weight when empty, then you put 2000 on the rear...

View attachment 275649

Bruce

 

[s219]

Agree, it's not the trailers fault. You should have blocked the rear end if the ramps didn't have built in stands.

 

[wolfpack2]

A WDH will work fine with an adjustable hitch.



Another solution for the ramps is to not have any. This is another reason I bought a tilt deck.

 

[SMOKEEATERFF]

Thanks Wolfpack for the info and pics. I called etrailer one day last week and spoke to a woman about the adjustable hitch and wdh. She said they would work but she did not seem confident in her answer. I just wasn't sure if it would install and I didn't want to waste my money. The ramps did have supports on them but they didn't look like they were in the correct spot. Some home made weld up job. If the trailer I purchase does this I will install some type of support.

 

[SMOKEEATERFF]

One mor question. Dovetail or flat deck? Gonna load the Ford 4000 and 5 ft bush hog. Dealer would have to order the flat deck. Dovetail is the usual 2 ft. I figure I am going to have to load the equipment as far back as possible.

 

[dodge man]

You don't want to load it to far back,you want to make sure you get some tongue weight. Dovetail or not? Thats a debate that goes on often here. Its just a matter of opinion. I don't think there is a right or wrong answer.

 

[Diamondpilot]

I personally like a flat deck and slide in ramps. This gives the max usable deck space and wiggle room for load balancing. I do not care for a deck over, like low boys. I had a deck over and could not load many cars due to the steepness of the ramps ant it was ver uncomfortable to load tractors and such on.


Chris

 

[meburdick]

Here are the questions that I had to ask when I picked out my trailer...

- What will I be towing it with? What is the max GTWR and max tongue weight of the tow vehicle? My truck is rated, as configured, for 9800lbs / 1000 lbs tongue weight.
- How long is the equipment I need to move, at its max configurable length? For me, that means FEL plus forks on the front and ballast box on the back. My tractor came out to about 15'. I added 2' to get 17', and that meant an 18' trailer. Getting the right length is about having enough room for the full load with flexibility to move forward or backward to adjust the weight distribution of the load.
- With the equipment on the trailer, "properly centered", what is the expected tongue weight? This is important to understand to ensure that you get "the right" WDH if one is necessary. Putting on a WDH rated for 1500 pounds then only realizing 1000 pounds on the tongue will actually make the load too light on the tongue and it won't tow correctly.
- Does having the beaver tail (which makes it easier to load because of a gentler incline) cause me any cargo loading issues? This is basically about where the rears will sit on the flat deck and what needs to rest on the trailer behind them. Your entire brush hog may not need to rest on the flat surface of the deck to be stable. In fact, at most, only 2' of it *as most* would be unsupported with a beaver tail. This is likely the lightest portion of the attachment and not susceptible to any sort of instability.

As DiamondPilot indicated, a completely flat deck gives the most flexibility for load movement, but it is highly unlikely that you would load with the rears of the tractor that far behind the axles. If I were to back my tractor up against my ramps, my front tires would barely be at the rear axle of the trailer.

 

[SMOKEEATERFF]

The dealer has the dovetail trailers in stock, would have to order the other. Same price either way. I would rather have fold up ramps than the slide in. I will add a link to the trailer if I can.

Equipment Trailers | Flatbed Trailers | 10,400 GVWR | Alabama

 

[meburdick]

I bought one with a dovetail and the fold-up ramps have support legs. They legs don't reach the ground, so I carry 4x4 posts to block them with and that prevents the rear of my truck from lifting while loading/unloading. The dovetail improves the loading ability by making a longer approach with a gentler angle (basically, I can load anything from a tractor to a long wheelbase car without scraping under the front bumper on the ramps or under the doors on the deck). My tractor loaded on the 18' trailer has about 5' of level space behind the rears before the tail and that keeps the majority of the weight positioned slightly ahead of the rear-most axle of the trailer. Trailer pulls great in that setup.

Two of the three pictures show a spare tire. Included at no charge? Are they load range "D" tires? They need to be for that weight class - make sure.

 

[gumshu]

I have a 14k trailer with fold up ramps, dove tail AND WDH. The ramps are heavy and not very easy to adjust. They are also quite limiting with respect to length of your overall load (i.e tractor with loader and bush hog attached). If I had to do it all over again, I'd buy one with slide out ramps and straight deck. The dove tail also complicates matters while loading more equipment towards the back. For a bumper pull, I like the PJ 14k buggy hauler style. However, my next trailer will be a goose neck. That's just my personal experience.

 

[meburdick]

They are also quite limiting with respect to length of your overall load (i.e tractor with loader and bush hog attached).

This is why it's wise to understand the max length of what you want to haul and add length to it to determine trailer length. A 16' trailer to haul a 16' load of cargo (unless you're talking about lumber) is not the way to do it. You want your trailer to be slightly longer than what it is that you need to haul so that you have the room to adjust the cargo.

 

[SMOKEEATERFF]

I believe the spare is extra but I may can talk the salesman into throwing it in since it is a 2 1/2 hr drive. Not sure on the load range of the tires but I will check. Leaning towards the flat rear deck. I don't see me hauling any types of cars or anything. I have a lot of 4x4 scraps laying around if needed to place under the ramp supports. Tractor length with bush hog is around 18 ft not including the tail wheel which I can stick out the back.

 

[meburdick]

If you're getting a 20' trailer, I see no issue with transporting if the trailer has the beaver tail. Keep in mind that you'll have a steeper approach angle to load with if you don't have the beaver tail. Or, to keep the loading approach angle the same, the ramps would have to be two feet longer.

 

[JoeBuyer]

I personally like a flat deck and slide in ramps. This gives the max usable deck space and wiggle room for load balancing. I do not care for a deck over, like low boys. I had a deck over and could not load many cars due to the steepness of the ramps ant it was ver uncomfortable to load tractors and such on.

Chris

This is my preference as well.

 

[Diamondpilot]

As DiamondPilot indicated, a completely flat deck gives the most flexibility for load movement, but it is highly unlikely that you would load with the rears of the tractor that far behind the axles. If I were to back my tractor up against my ramps, my front tires would barely be at the rear axle of the trailer.

This is true but when I bought my flat 18' low boy to haul my tractor I would have never realized how many other jobs I had for it. My trailer was bought in 2004 and maybe had my tractor on it 50 times but its had that many cars and trucks. Probably 20 loads of mulch, 15 trips to the lumber yard, dozens of loads of fire wood, hay, ect, ect, ect.

Don't just look at the tractor.

Chris

 

[Runner]

"Will a wdh work with this trailer?"

Back to this question for a moment, you can make a WDH work with just about any trailer, but be aware that you may have to do a little engineering to get the chain hangers to work. Typically, the hangars just clip onto the tongue and are held in place with bolts, but on mine, the crossmember holding the tongue jack was right in the location I needed to place the chain hangers. My solution was to fabricate new chain hangers that had two bolts and spanned across the 6 inch crossmember.

There are also chain hangers that can be welded onto the outside of the tongue, if you want to go that way.

 

[pat32rf]

Removable (slide in) ramps are the only way to go unless the trailer is dedicated to hauling one configeration only. Sooner or later you will want to haul something that sticks out where the ramps fold up. In my case it was a free 20' section of floating dock that had been donated to me.....had to sawzall those durn ramps off first however.

As far as wd hitches, I've always thought of them as a way to stretch a trailer/tow vehicle slightly beyond their design limits. If you NEED one, you should have bought/borrowed a bigger trailer/truck or found a better way to position your load.

 

[Diamondpilot]

As far as wd hitches, I've always thought of them as a way to stretch a trailer/tow vehicle slightly beyond their design limits. If you NEED one, you should have bought/borrowed a bigger trailer/truck or found a better way to position your load.

I feel this way about overload springs and air bags but not a WD hitch. If you understand the physics behind them you would see there is more benefit than just keeping the rear end from sagging. It really helps in the stability of the truck, steering, and braking.

Chris