This is the way I haul mine, but with the arm down of course. I put a little more weight on the front of axel center. The image is from the manual, and image 1 is just showing where to pivot the machine once on the trailer. This next image seems to be instructing me to put 9300 lbs on the tongue. I tow with a 2020 3500 cab and chasis tradesman with Schelzi Contractor body. It has 18,000. trailer weight limit on the body frame. I think I'm 9300 lbs with all the options on my Case CX37C, long arm, angle blade, quick attach, Cab, and then add 3', 18", 12" buckets. I haul with a 20' Diamond C low profile 16,000 load capacity. It weighs about 3500 lbs. It looks like image 2, without the recessed bed in between the tires and tongue. It's a flat bed, but with raised fenders. I am trying to find the sweet spot for towing. Yesterday, it seemed a bit bouncy, and I moved it forward just a bit ago, and it seemed a bit better with more tongue weight. Loading it like they suggest just seems like my front tires would be off the ground. lol. I can flip it around and give it a test, but should I? Maybe do a youtube excavator tow fail? Just kidding lol. I just want to be safe really.
Welcome to the Forums Patrick! Take a moment and tell us about your operation and what you use your mini-ex for. Well it looks like you have plenty of truck and trailer for your mini so you need to adjust where you place the load on the trailer to where it's comfortable for you. The diagram you posted of the mini all the way forward is not a configuration I would want to pull with a 3500. Now if I had a tandem dump with 50K pintle sure but that's too much tongue weight IMO for your rig's set up. FWIW I always turn the boom to the rear and fold the boom in as low as it will go just like hauling larger hoes.
I should have retired last year, but covid jerked the slack out me. So, I bought some 31 acres with a 3 acre lake, a one acre pond, about 20 acres of meadows, and the rest forest at the edge of the civilized world in the Sierra Nevada mountains. I'm a licensed building contractor, but I want to sell my home and build on this land 1.5 miles from my residence. I figure I can live off that land, fish, farming, and wildlife, if things got bad, or just have a great place to live. Either way, and hopefully the latter. So, the excavation equipment . . . . . . are the tools of my operation. I bought them to develop my property. I have 2 parcels on the 31 acres that I will build spec homes for survival families to share the farming. One is 1/2 acre, and the other is about 3 acres, give or take. The property has 10 million gallons of appropriative water rights that I can use to resource ranching and farming needs here. That's one part of my operation. The other is my existing business, HomeSculptor. I operate a contracting business, and now that I have the equipment again, I'm being pestered to go out and do other peoples stuff, which allows me to create a windfall compared to my paltry $650 per month Social Security retirement. I do mountain roads on poeple's property, switchbacking down slopes. I just did about 3 acres of brush removal over a pond swale valley. It was a ton of blackberry's and these trees that lay on their side. The place was so thick. I found a boat and another pond that the people didn't know they had. I do footings, trenches, you name it. I mostly have the equipment for my uses. But I just hate to turn down the hourly pay I can get. I also have a monetized YouTube channel that pays me more than social security. I don't know hat Daffy Duck was talking about in that cartoon so long ago. So, that's my operation. I think If I flipped the boom around on that diamond C trailer, I'd be poking out the back, but I'll give her a try and see what it feels like. This Diamond C has this huge Tongue box, like I never saw before. But you can barely do a cul d sac turn without tweaking your bumper. I have to be darn careful where I drive this too. Or I'm backing out all the way.
Not enough tongue weight and the trailer will sway causing the truck to sway. Trucks have rolled because of not enough tongue weight. Very scary when it happens to you. You can't just put the brakes on. I think if you moved ahead so the front of the tracks were about where the blade is and then swung the boom to the rear and tucked it in would pull nicely. Pulling with the cab to the rear can also limit broken windshields from tires throwing rocks.
I would swing around the house too, and pull forward probably 2' more, by swinging the house you'll loose a bit of tongue weight. Also considering the light load compared to the trailers capacity, a bit of extra tongue weight isn't hurting anything. Pulled a few trailers with too little tongue weight, and they just pull like crap it's annoying to drive.
Also, I think having that boom at the back creates some stabilizing momentum instead of all that weight in the center of rig. measured my trailer font and back from the pavement to the frame just to see how it faired with the change. it lifted up a bit in the front and I did move it about 2'. I'll get this figured out. I had a load of bridge beams that caused a whipping at over 30 mph. The loading crew was gone, and I had to drive the backroads 100 miles at 25 mph. If I saw head lights behind my I'd just pull off the road. But yes, that happens so suddenly. I squashed my trailer brake button and it stopped the oscillation. I never considered broken windows. I think this is great advice. Thanks. I'll do some testing on the position.
I tow like you do, forward. I tuck the bucket against the blade before I chain it down is the only difference. Just keep playing with till you find the sweet spot. I am lucky to have a set of state scales for balancing the load nearby.
I did that on my last backhoe. Had it dialed. I'm way up in the mountains away from those scales.
That tractor barely fits with the box blade, I haven't tackled that beast yet. The delivery guy brought up with a f150.
Hello, I wanted to get anyone's thoughts on the position I have placed my excavator on the 14 ft trailer. The trailer has 2 8K axels. The excavator is a 35G (8,135 lb) and the Trailer is 6500 lbs i think dry. Leo
I think if you swung it around you wouldn't have enough tongue weight. The truck you're pulling it with matters too. I'd think it would pull pretty good the way you have it.
That's quite heavy on the tongue. I'd move it back 16 in or so. I have the same excavator on 7,000 lb axles, and it is barely forward of centered on the tires.
Also I would invest in a heavier pintle hitch for the truck and pintle ring for the trailer. Just don't trust 2 5/16" ball setup when the weight gets over 10K but just my $.035 adjusted for inflation.
good catch
I've hauled several. Always like this: This was a dealer trade and which sold to the gent whom traded in the Clark BL700 TLB I now have.
Also that's a lot more truck and trailer than the above 2 truck and trailer combos.
Yes, but I was referencing how I haul them only; placement and chaining along with balance. Same on the skid steer trailer which is quite a bit lighter and smaller, but I use it from time to time for short hauls. I've had four of the mini ex's on that trailer with the units staggered and booms near each other's operator's compartments.
I'll take a pic of the mini next time I get it loaded.
One thing I don't see mentioned is how the machine is tied down to the trailer. I know some people have just carried machines in a dump trailer without tying them down thinking the trailer will contain them but that's really asking for trouble and deserves a big fine. I put a pintle hitch on my 14,000lb. GVW trailer and it is way better and simpler than a ball.
Yes I never have liked the minis being hauled in dump trailers like that because I always suspected that, Dave.
Hauled our new to us 305E last Saturday on our 15K pan trailer. Blade forward with swing boom knuckle about on top of of the rear axle. Folded boom in with 2' or so of boom overhanging rear of trailer, the ramp legs stick out about 1'. Pulled like a dream. I had 5K air bags installed on my 350 with the wireless adjustment so I was able to dial in the ride on the Interstate.
I had airbags put on my f250. U run through Birmingham on I65 you’ll wish u had them lol! Worst 10 mile stretch of road anywhere.
LOL - you've been here. I-65 from Malfunction Junction to I-459 is horrible. That stretch of 65 should be 5 lanes instead of 3 on each side with 14' wide shoulders, I'll never live to see it. . Now south of 459 on 65 is a dream - 4 wide lanes of new asphalt until you get to Alabaster.. FWI anyone traveling through Birmingham on I-20 east or west bound take I-459 no matter what the GPS is telling you.
Yes once u get south of 459 it good and north of I-20 basically. That’s some hated road fosho! We’re coming from the south. Always figure we good to go once we pass mm 265!