I'd like to haul both my Mini Excavator (2 ton) and CUTractor on one flat bed. The tractor weighs about 2500 pound or less so a 5 ton trailer should do it. Weight isn't the concern. It's balance and trailer wheel placement I am not sure about. I'd like to be able to use the trailer to haul one or both machines. A lot of trailers have the dual wheel located closer to the back of the trailer and that, in my way of thinking, would put a lot of weight on my marginal tow vehicle (Siverado half ton). Has anyone experienced the same trailering needs and what has been the a reasonable solution to this. Thanks!
sorry man but no way would i put 10,000 pounds behind a half ton. (4,000 mini Ex + 2,500 CUT+ 3,000 for a 5 ton tag trailer= 9,500) I pull 10,000 to 16,000 behind my one ton regularly and if its not loaded just right i have been jerked all over the road by 10,000 pounds.
Your towing plan may be a little light, as mentioned above, even if your trailer is within its GVWR - the truck may not be. I'm as much worried about stopping as all of the other variables combined. The TB25 in the trailer is a 3-ton class machine, and it with the ramps, chains, bear traps, battery in the toolbox etc. bacially brings this outfit to 9,600 pounds. It is well balanced behind the Chev Duramax tow vehicle, but even that truck is approaching its limits. The trucks GVWR is 9,200#, and the trailer is 10,000#. Empty weight on the trailer is 2,800#. It was a bit of a challenge on the grey matter to figure out what to do with the boom/bucket - you can see the result, which worked well. The hitch weight is probably 800-1000 #. It has brakes on all four wheels. The other problem you may have is chaining everything down safely - too much equipment can block off the tie downs. Hope this snapshot helps.
Hi John, I've pretty much figured out that my tow vehicle is under powered. I do love how you've stuffed that excavator into the dump trailer. I stuff my 2 ton excavator into a 10foot dump in exactly the same way but mine looks a lot more comfy that your's does.
Botabill, Let me know if you do try your combination, so I can be sure to stay off the roads that day! (Just kidding, I think you've realized it might not be do-able at this point.) I hope that you realize with either of those units on almost any trailer, you will need to have a yellow safety sticker? Guessing your truck weighs 2000kgs, the mini ex 2000kgs, and the trailer will be 500kgs or more. Total weight of 4500kgs requires a safety sticker on both the truck and the trailer. A safety checklist I believe would also be required at that point, log book I'm not sure of, it can vary depending on how far you're driving and some other factors. Back to your original question, in order to tow both at the same time, you'll need to upgrade trucks. Depending on the trailer and distribution, you might be able to do it with a 3/4 ton, a one ton would be better. What I would look at is the most practical layout for the machines while on the trailer. With the weight of the two of them you are saying, I suspect the compact tractor go on first, to one side, then the mini on behind, and offset the boom so it goes up alongside the tractor. If you do this on the ground, you could measure off a rough size to give you an idea of the trailer deck size you would need. Also, by guesstimating using the weights you already know, you could picture where the machines need to be in relation to the axles for balance. You could easily find that they would fit in a 5x14' space, but would need an 18' trailer to get them positioned to give the proper tongue weight. I've only got a 5' x 12' tandem trailer for my mini ex, but I've shoehorned a lot of stuff on with it and got the weights/balance to work by shuffling things around. Let me know if you want, we could meet for a coffee and maybe I can come up with some suggestions for how you could make things work better. Drop me a PM too, we could have used a CUtractor a few times this year on a couple jobs, always good to knwo who has what equipment in the area.
I have done it before, just put the majority of the weight on the axles and the rest as close to the axles as possible. you should be ok as long as your truck fenders arent sitting on your tires.
Hi, i have a 99 chevy z71 its a half ton, and ive pulled a 30 foot triple axle gooseneck and hauled 10-15'000 pounds with it before , it does pretty good considering its only a half ton but the weight has to be pretty much perfectly balanced on the trailer, a couple weeks ago i went to pick up my new back hoe a Case 580 ck, and it weights about 12-13'000 pounds i got lucky and borrowed a friends 20 foot gooseneck trailer and we loaded it right over the triple axles it did alot better than i expected the weight was balanced great and didnt have to much tongue weight, so my suggestion would be find a good trailer thats long enough and rated for the weight, the third axle is always nice , i have two ideas one being you could move the axles more toward the middle or i have always wondered if a spread axle setup would work very well i know it would be hard on the tires turning but it would help out alot with weight distribution , i worked in a metal fabrication shop for several years and the rule of thumb i was always taught in building trailers is put the axles 60/40 , 60 percent from the front and 40 percent from the back
I don't see anything wrong with that. Just put the heavier piece on the rear and the smaller piece up front will give you the tongue weight you need, but not load the truck too much (I am assuming gooseneck trailer)
+1.
If I was absolutely stuck with the half ton truck, I would try to outfit myself with a Gooseneck trailer for this endeavor. You can always take the G/N hitch and trailer to a larger truck when the time comes.