What is your opinion on Butler style trailers. with just a piece of square tubing for tongue, compared to A frame style tongue? I have a little A frame tilt trainer that I have had for over 30 years 12' X 5.6" Just wide enough for my 60" Z turn mower. I have had it all over the U.S in 30 years hauling golf carts, utv's , mowers, engines, tractor parts, lumber, erc. It has been the handiest trailer I own. Steel deck, no wood rot. and I have kept it inside. It is only rated at 3,600 gvw. I recently bought one of those China mini excavators and it weighs 4k Needing a trailer to haul it all I could find was a 12" x 5" PJ utility trailer. It has a stronger frame than most trailers that size. I put a 6k axle under it with brakes, 6 lug wheels It pulls and works fine (not a tilt) but I figure my load with trailer weight is 5,200. The e rated tires are 5,800. I just feel that is not enough safety margin. I want to stay with single axle trailer because I keep it inside and I have to jockey it around by hand to get it in a hole out of the way in shop. Almost all single axle tilt trailers are 3,500 gvw. I ran on to a Butler style trailers with 7K axle, tiilt 12' Heavy duty with stake pockets and rub rails. I am wondering how just the square tube will hold up and is it safe?
I have a tandem axle butler tilt trailer for my chinese excavator. Even with one axle it would be rough to move around by hand. I don't know if they spec different tube wall thicknesses for the square tube but the one on my trailer is massive and is not a safety concern.
I see no reason to think the square tube hitch post won't hold up, the question I have is how it's connected to the trailer, to me that would be the weak point. That being said the trailer looks to be heavy duty so likely it's connected well.