Weight Distribution/Sway - Loading

[burnetma]

All,

I just upgraded equipment and I finally have enough truck and trailer to haul my tractor safely. My equipment includes 2008 F350 Dually, Econoline 7 ton deck-over tilt and the Reese Strait Line 1700 hitch set-up. The tractor with the FEL weighs 10,200 lbs when full of fuel.

For those of you with a TAG trailers and weight distribution & sway control, what is you experience loading your tractor on the trailer? Do you wait until you get the tractor on the trailer prior to hooking up the spring bars and sway control or do you have the hitch all set before you load?

I am thinking that I will wait until I get the tractor loaded, then I will lift up the spring bars and hook up the cams. The trailer jack has enough capacity to take the load off the hitch to assist with spring bars.

Thanks,
Mark

 

[George2615]

Load the trailer first then adjust your bars. The load and / or position may vary requiring a different setting from time to time. If you carry the same load every time then once you get it set properly you can use the same setting again and again. Sounds like a nice setup.

 

[Builder]

All,

I just upgraded equipment and I finally have enough truck and trailer to haul my tractor safely. My equipment includes 2008 F350 Dually, Econoline 7 ton deck-over tilt and the Reese Strait Line 1700 hitch set-up. The tractor with the FEL weighs 10,200 lbs when full of fuel.

For those of you with a TAG trailers and weight distribution & sway control, what is you experience loading your tractor on the trailer? Do you wait until you get the tractor on the trailer prior to hooking up the spring bars and sway control or do you have the hitch all set before you load?

I am thinking that I will wait until I get the tractor loaded, then I will lift up the spring bars and hook up the cams. The trailer jack has enough capacity to take the load off the hitch to assist with spring bars.

Thanks,
Mark

What is the empty weight of your trailer?

 

[George2615]

I was going to question that also. Below is Econoline specs on the 7T tilt trailer which lists it as having 2 7K axles but has a GVWR of 16,100? I'm confused as to how they can rate a trailer that only has 14K rated axles to have a GVWR of 16,100. 16,100 GVWR minus the 4500 weight of the trailer leaves 11,600 for load (which would be OK for his tractor) but it still only has 2 7K axles.

I see it as a 14K trailer that weighs 4500 lb. so that leaves only 9500 for the load and his tractor weighs 10,200. What am I missing.


Econoline Trailers - Viewing 7 Ton Deck Over Multi-Purpose Tilt (16,100# GVWR) Technical Specifications

 

[Builder]

I was going to question that also. Below is Econoline specs on the 7T tilt trailer which lists it as having 2 7K axles but has a GVWR of 16,100? I'm confused as to how they can rate a trailer that only has 14K rated axles to have a GVWR of 16,100. 16,100 GVWR minus the 4500 weight of the trailer leaves 11,600 for load (which would be OK for his tractor) but it still only has 2 7K axles.

I see it as a 14K trailer that weighs 4500 lb. so that leaves only 9500 for the load and his tractor weighs 10,200. What am I missing.

Some trailer companies like to play games with their customers. One game is to build a trailer with 2 7K axles, yet rate the trailer higher than 14K. What they do is assume that the maybe 10-15% of the trailers weight will be borne by the truck in the form of PIN (tongue) weight.

So in the example of a trailer with 2-7K axles and a GVWR of 16,100 lbs, they assume 2,100lbs will be carried by the truck itself.

 

[burnetma]

OK, here is the way I am figuring it. Trailer weight 4500 + Tractor weight 10,200 = 14,700. Tongue weight = 10% of 14,700 = 1470 lbs. Total weight on trailer axles = 13,230 lbs or 6,615 lbs/axle. So everything should be OK.

More concerning to me is the tire capacity. The tires are 8-14.5 low profile 14 ply load rate G. The max rated load for this tire is 3,070 lbs at 110 psig inflation. According to that, the axles may be rated at 7,000 lbs but the tires can only handle 6,140 lbs. So, the trailer is actually tire limited.

I looked at a couple of other deck-overs and the situation was the same. Tire capacity did not match the axle capacity.

In light of all of this, I also do not understand how they rate their trailer at 16,100. I do plan to call Econoline tomorrow and get some answers. I will pass on the response.

 

[Builder]

OK, here is the way I am figuring it. Trailer weight 4500 + Tractor weight 10,200 = 14,700. Tongue weight = 10% of 14,700 = 1470 lbs. Total weight on trailer axles = 13,230 lbs or 6,615 lbs/axle. So everything should be OK.

More concerning to me is the tire capacity. The tires are 8-14.5 low profile 14 ply load rate G. The max rated load for this tire is 3,070 lbs at 110 psig inflation. According to that, the axles may be rated at 7,000 lbs but the tires can only handle 6,140 lbs. So, the trailer is actually tire limited.

I looked at a couple of other deck-overs and the situation was the same. Tire capacity did not match the axle capacity.

In light of all of this, I also do not understand how they rate their trailer at 16,100. I do plan to call Econoline tomorrow and get some answers. I will pass on the response.

What they will tell you is that it is "acceptable" to factor the portion of the load carried by the back end of the truck to be factored into the trailer's GVWR.

I find this unacceptable and will only buy a trailer rated on what it carries alone.

You'll find the cheaper trailer companies play this game quite often. It's a way to sell you a trailer that appears to be rated at a higher weight than what you'd pay for a trailer with a lower "stand alone" weight rating.

Of course, if you really like a brand of trailer that plays that game, you just need to find the lowest common denominator (axles, tires) to find out what the trailer alone is REALLY rated to carry.

I'd say in your case you're borderline on the axles and maybe a hair low on the tires. You have to remember that your chains & binders & fuel are going to add weight. Also, you will have to balance your tractor perfectly to be legal on your trailer axles.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Builder has you pointed in the right direction. They are going to tell you just as he says, the truck or pin carries a portion of the weight. Your real issue here is the tires, being undersized/rated for the GVWR of the trailer.

Chris

 

[burnetma]

Well I talked to Econoline Customer Service this morning and as expected they did the math such that the tongue carries 15% of the load. So they figured it is still a 14,000 GVW unit.

So as I figure it, I will be over-weight on the tires by about 250 lbs/tire or 8% of the max capacity assuming everything was perfectly balanced (in who's world does that occur?). This does not make me happy!

I looked at two other deck-over tilt beds today. Both were rated at 14k. Both had 7k axles and both had radial tires rated at or above 3500 lbs, thus making the true capacity 14k. Now I have to ask myself if I want to trade or step up. I think I am going to load her up and see if she passes the eyeball and scale test (using a local commercial scale). Based on this I will have to weigh my options (no pun intended). I do have options. Simply taking the bucket off and placing it in the bed of the truck gets me most of the way there. I also have a 200 lb starter weight on the front end that can come off entirely. So all is not lost.

Thanks for the help.

 

[radioman]

Can you upgrade the tires ?

 

[Builder]

Are you sure your tractor weighs 10,200lbs?

Hate to see you go thru all that trouble if you're weight calc is off by 500lbs.

 

[Diamondpilot]

I would double check all the weighs and then make your decisions. As for being 500# over that is not much and too me would not be worth taking the bucket and other stuff off for.

Chris

 

[burnetma]

I asked Econoline that question and they told me the person I need to speak to is out of the office. So, I have to wait until Monday to find out for sure, but the tires on the unit are TIGHT to the frame.

This trailer is a 2005. The new trailers do have bigger tires, but I can not find that size tire listed anywhere to determine the load range.

 

[burnetma]

I drove the tractor down to the local transfer station and took it across the scales. I intend to do the same thing with the trailer to confirm that it weighs 4500 lbs, but I have no doubt in my mind that it does. The trailer is extremely well built. It is so disappointing that the tires are so suspect.

I agree that this is not a lot overweight. That is why I said that I will load it up and take a look at it. I just hate it that I spent good money thinking I was getting the safest possible set-up and ended up falling short.

Thanks all for the input. I will update Monday after I heard back from Econoline.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Yes, it is very sad they built a trailer that did not stand up to the specs. In reality they should make it right. File a complaint with the Better Business people if they refuse.

If I buy a 10K trailer for a boat I would expect the weakest link to be 10K rated or better. I think you have a legitimate argument if you bought the trailer new and its not what you paid for.


Just goes to show that with this post and the Big Tex wiring problems we need to check over the trailers we buy and make sure we no what we are getting.

Chris

 

[Highbeam]

You might want to check the ball hitch on the trailer side too. Those things have ratings and a 14000lb bumper pull trailer requires a bunch of rare parts at the hitch end. Your WD system for example is often rated to 10k.

I put on all the WD stuff and tighten the bars on the empty trailer and then load the tractor. I do it that way because I never remove the spring bars from the hitch head. As the rear end of the truck is lifted by the tractor weight on the back of the trailer, the spring bars get really loose.

I too just upgraded trucks to an F350 to be sure to have plenty of safety margin.