Your towing rigs and trailers

ning · Jul 29, 2018

BigBlue1 said:
It's weird to me that you folks have trailers that have issues when backing them up. I've used various 10K equipment trailers from places I've rented bobcats from in past years (4 or 5 in the past 10 years) and they all had surge brakes and I had zero problems backing them up anywhere. My dad also had a big old Larson inboard/outboard boat back in the 70's that had a trailer with surge brakes and he never did anything special to back it up. Admittedly I don't have tons of experience with trailers with surge brakes but given what I know I'm surprised.

Rob

The problem isn't backing them in general - it's backing them up a (steep) hill; the slope in that direction looks like enough deceleration for the surge brakes to engage.

farmer2009 · Jul 29, 2018

aczlan said:
Tractor Supply and Runnings both run specials on them in the $7-10 range from time to time.

Can you point me to the law saying that (or at least the town/city where it is illegal)? People have told me that, but I have never been able to track down a town that has that ordinance.

Aaron Z

No I can’t point you to the ordinance. But I will say there used to be signs at the city limits of Russellville, KY. I haven’t been down there in a few years but I presume they are still there. Seems like I’ve seen them other places also but I can’t put a name to it.

farmer2009 · Jul 30, 2018

ptsg said:
All mechanical. A lever + cables that will get the pressures even in each wheel and a strong over-center spring to keep it either locked or unlocked.

Here is an overview of the system:

I think my trailer does what you mentioned. I've backed up fully loaded onto a steep hill and after a bit of struggling to get it to start to move, the surge brake just fully retracted and after a slight bump the trailer just felt like it was not braking.

Some surge brake systems will fully release when they sense reverse. Problem is it takes some time. Others had a lever that you got out and pulled when backing. This released the pressure on the system. Only ever used surge brakes on anhydrous ammonia tanks and liquid nurse tanks. They all had the manual release. Never had one with a parking brake.

BMan2005 · Jul 30, 2018

16' Ram 3500 Dre, Aisin transmission, 4.10 gears with a 35' + 5' dove tail, dual tandem trailer with triple ramps.

aczlan · Jul 30, 2018

farmer2009 said:
No I can’t point you to the ordinance. But I will say there used to be signs at the city limits of Russellville, KY. I haven’t been down there in a few years but I presume they are still there. Seems like I’ve seen them other places also but I can’t put a name to it.

As of April 2007, surge breaks are legal anywhere in the US: http://www.rentalmanagementmag.com/Art/tabid/232/ArticleId/10591
Before that, it was legal some places, but not in others on the commercial side.

Aaron Z

3930dave · Jul 30, 2018

BMan2005 said:
16' Ram 3500 Dre, Aisin transmission, 4.10 gears with a 35' + 5' dove tail, dual tandem trailer with triple ramps.

View attachment 564730

Nice setup !

Rgds, D.

3Lfarms · Jul 31, 2018

BMan2005 said:
16' Ram 3500 Dre, Aisin transmission, 4.10 gears with a 35' + 5' dove tail, dual tandem trailer with triple ramps.

View attachment 564730

What does that 40’ trailer weigh? If it has 12k axles, would you feel comfortable putting 20k lbs on it?
I want a 40’ gn, but as the length goes up, the weight capacity goes down.

4570Man · Aug 1, 2018

Taking a quick look at the Big Tex website their trailer with 12k axels at 35+5 long can’t haul 20k. Its payload is 17k and weighs 8900 pounds.

BMan2005 · Aug 1, 2018

3930dave said:
Nice setup !

Rgds, D.

Thanks man, I hope to be driving the same rig 10-15 years from now. Figure buy once cry once. Lol

3Lfarms said:
What does that 40’ trailer weigh? If it has 12k axles, would you feel comfortable putting 20k lbs on it?
I want a 40’ gn, but as the length goes up, the weight capacity goes down.

It's a PJ classic flat deck trailer and they don't list the weight with dove tail just straight deck. If I remember right they said about 8,500 lbs. So that's 16,500 lbs capacity left. The hitch is the limiting factor on mine at 25k lbs max rating.

But, I believe you can get an upgraded GN hitch rated for 30,000 lbs & twin 15k lbs axles which gives you a GVWR of 30k. That would leave you 21,500 of capacity on this specific trailer.

Bowhunter1527 · Aug 4, 2018

My rig 14 Ram Outdoorsman and a 20' Big tex/12k limit trailer. Tractor is a Ck3510SE (2734lbs) FEL (840lbs) with filled tires (235-250lbs/tire). The Bbull (604lbs), Bblade (514lbs) and I brought home a Lpride tiller (362lbs). This adds up to 5554+2800 for trailer is 8354lbs. I pulled her 200 miles each way at 55-60mph with no problems at all. It did squat down a bit and definitely more on the way home with tiller in the box. Im hoping my other tires and adding some airbags will help to mitigate that issue.

Gale Hawkins · Aug 5, 2018

I am still trying to decide. I like longer and heavier but at some point if the trailer is really heavy the TV can be fully loaded by just the trailer with the tractor still sitting on the parking lot.

Tomorrow I was leading towards one with ramps but first thing in the morning I am going to look at a 18 tilt with 4 feet up front fixed bed.

I can see dogging down the tilt part varies from price range to price range.

Any experience with tilt equipment trailers? Ramps do make me nervous but so does hitting the tilting point in each direction.

Bowhunter1527 · Aug 6, 2018

Bc I may use mine in the rain or snow a tilt was not something I wanted. My father in jaw had one and it was slick to get up.

Navvet · Aug 6, 2018

I have a tilt bed (16k 20' +4' fixed) and yes, it can get a little slick in bad weather. But some of my needs will not allow me to use ramps so the tilt bed with the straight rear edge works better for me.

I bought my trailer with the thought of it being the last trailer I would ever buy, so I needed it to handle anything I need to haul. I have a John Deere AMT 626 (5 wheels) and a CanAm Spyder (3 wheels) so a trailer with ramps just won't work.

"Hitting the tilt point" is not a big issue with a better trailer, most have a dampening system so the tilting is slow and soft.

BigBlue1 · Aug 6, 2018

A tilt bed trailer seems like it would have one limitation that might be a big deal for some folks... Hard to load more than one drive-on type thing on a trailer like that. For instance, if you wanted to load a zero turn mower and then your CUT behind it. I'm sure they offer some good benefits but, as with anything, they aren't perfect for everyone.

Rob

DavesTractor · Aug 6, 2018

BigBlue1 said:
A tilt bed trailer seems like it would have one limitation that might be a big deal for some folks... Hard to load more than one drive-on type thing on a trailer like that. For instance, if you wanted to load a zero turn mower and then your CUT behind it. I'm sure they offer some good benefits but, as with anything, they aren't perfect for everyone.

Rob

Most can be locked in the tilt up position. Still a pain to load two things as you have said, but if it is a rare occurrence there are some workarounds. Way easier with ramps though.

We use no ramp trailers in our small delivery fleet anymore. We have three trailers for deliveries. A hydraulic dove on our 25,900 GVWR 32' gooseneck which is a FMax212 Diamond C. Then a 48HDT I beam frame tilt Diamond C rated at 9900 lb, and another 48HDT rated at 14,900 lb, both are low profile. Both 48HDT are 6' fixed deck and 16' tilt, 22' total deck.

DavesTractor · Aug 6, 2018

BMan2005 said:
But, I believe you can get an upgraded GN hitch rated for 30,000 lbs & twin 15k lbs axles which gives you a GVWR of 30k. That would leave you 21,500 of capacity on this specific trailer.

I was looking at a 15k axles 30K goose for our heavy delivery trailer. Did you know on a trailer with a GVWR of over 26,000 you have to pay a 12% FET? The trailer itself is a few thousand more than a 25,900 trailer, then add in the 12% and it was a show stopper for me.

We pull it with a 2015 dually Dodge 3500. These are very capable trucks doing what medium duties did a few years back. But I am a little uncomfortable running them right at max on a regular basis. That is probably just me, since I see hot shot guys pulling heavily loaded 40' GN all the time.

By the time we load the 25,900 trailer near max on the trailer axles (24k) and load the truck rear axles near max and get what we can on the truck front axle, all loaded up we can get very close to 40,000 lb. gross combined and be legal on all axles. In a perfectly balanced max load I think we are at 39,750 gross combined and tagged for 40k, but that is an awful lot of weight for a pickup. We have hydraulic disc brakes on the trailer and it stops well, but on any sort of regular basis I like to self limit our gross combined to the low 30's. 15k on the deck puts us at about 32k combined and it feels good there.

Gale Hawkins · Aug 13, 2018

This is the 2008 22' with 18' tilt bump pull trailer with two 7K axles that we picked up last Monday in Goreville IL that will be Ford Blue in the next 12 months. This was our first trip with the recent 205K mile 2010 Ford F150 with the 5.4 engine and six speed automatic rated to tow up to 11.2K per Ford due to the Max Tow set up at we picked up recently. I just got it back from the body shop for the rust, side wipe and cracked up windshield that it came. I am getting excited about the truck the more I learn about it and its condition. The tractor is the daughter's 1966 Ford 3000 with the 711 Ford one arm loader so we now plan to do the antique tractor show in Paducah KY next month.

I love the No Ramps feature and it handles well. The back up camera in the F150 sure makes a one man hook up go faster. The hitch is going to be white soon so it shows up well in poor lighting.

View attachment Ford 150 3000 22' tilt.jpg