Hello all, I'm hoping somebody here can point me in the right direction. I'll try to keep this brief. I recently bought a mobile home park in Illinois and need to buy a truck to tote some homes. I will not be towing everyday so it kills me to think of buying a mobile home toter just because of its one and only use. Do you think I can get away with buying a single axle dump truck to do my pulling? That way I can still get plenty of use out of the dump. I cannot tell you exactly how much the homes i'll be towing weigh. I can tell you this, there is three 6 or 7k# axles and six tires/rims rated at 3k#'s on a mobile home. So i'm pretty confident that I will not have to tow anything over 12 tons. I have no idea about tounge weight. I will never have to tow more than 100 miles. What size or class truck would I need? How about axle ratings? Airbrakes? I know I need a short frame to stay within length limits. The guy I hire to tote now definately has air brakes and some huge springs on the back axle. I've paid him more than 6k bucks over the last six months. I'm hoping to spend less than 20 or 30k bucks on this truck if that is possible. I'm working on getting my cdl now. Let me know what you think. Thanks for your time, Mike
I don't know for sure but I think totes have things that make towing easier and setting up the homes..i.e. hydraulic hitch, very short wheelbase......A dump would work but you wouldn't have the hyd. hitch, but in your case it might work out because you don't need to tow 100% of the time and the dump would come in handy.
Sure itll work, put some wide mirrors on it and put some sand in the back for traction and away you go. Just find one heavy enough (they are out there), and air brakes are a must (for stopping power).
I have zero experience with toters, so take this for what it's worth--It looks like they have the hitch at the very extreme back of the truck, and that there's nothing anywhere above it. A dump would have the hitch tucked under the rear of the bed a little bit. I'd be very cautious to be sure that the corners of the bed didn't contact the front of the mobile home in really tight turning situations...
What size dump would you need to match the specs of a toter? It seems to me that the weight that the mobile home places on the toter is placed differently than what a tag trailer puts on a dump truck. If this is true then just comparing the load capacities of the toter and the dump truck might not work.:beatsme
I'm still trying to find the actual specs for the toters. I was also worried about the hitch being tucked in too far on the dumps. I have seen some that are almost flush with the back of the box. I really shouldn't have to do too much tight manuvering, just as long as I could safely turn corners. I'm going to try a mock up w/ my small truck before I buy anything. Thanks Mike
http://www.truckpaper.com/listings/...=0&pg=1&guid=7A07B1945CDC41DCA401E3B41E72B11C second truck down. Its only $8950. Thats cheap enough.
You need the short wheelbase so you can pull trailers and your overall length isn't too long. A mobile home truck is usually shorter than a single axle dump also with the dump body your not going to have the turning radius because the box sticks out too far. If you want to move mobiles you need the proper truck because you use the truck to lift the trailer up to get the dollies under it. You also use the truck to carry the dollies. You need a truck with a winch for pulling and lifting. It sounds like you have no experience with mobile homes and its better to have a pro move them or your going to have big problems. What year are these mobiles ? In my area if a mobile is past a certain age it can't be moved down the road I think its 1970 can't remember exactly. You better check if your area has those kinds of rules. I hope you know that old mobile homes have a tendency to snap in half when you least expect it. The chassis under them gets weak from rust or just old age and once you start lifting them they decide they don't like that and crack in the middle. The structure of the trailer gives the trailer its strength so when the wood gets old and rotten the steel chassis can't support the weight. Your asking for big troubles I hope you like to be on the news that you had a accident with a mobile on the freeway.