Any idea what this rig is for?
The owner tells me he built this himself because he had sold his old trailer. He said it shook a bit till he got up 20 mph after that it pulls real smooth. Also needs a lot of room to turn. I left before he did cause I didn't want to share the road with that.
With idiots like this why does DOT need to bother anyone else.
Someone just took an old design and updated it to newer tractor with a wide front end, those setups were pretty common years back, anyone who moved a tractor used them, and pulled it behind a pickup. Its been a few years since I've seen one used, but I've seen dozens of dolleys on sales in the past few years, they also made them for widrower's so someone could pull a hydrostatic drive machine miles down the road to the next job, also behind a standard pickup. In my state its still perfectly legal to tow those behind anything, just like in the pictures, not even tied down.
He's still towing a 10,000 lb backhoe behind a p'up with no trailer brakes. Those 4500s are very nose heavy and he's got tiny hubs and car tires. If it has a power reversing transmission and he isn't pulling the driveline disconnect, he's killing a nice looking old tractor. I don't see a good idea there.
I've got more pics but no patience for re-sizing.
Around here if it is farm related it would fly but not a backhoe. I would not pull that much with a single wheel truck without trailer brakes.
I just realized another problem, with the bucket locked down he is pulling a full trailer w/ no steering! If somebody pulls out in front of him and he jerks the wheel, it's just gonna push that pickup sideways. I can't believe that little axle is gonna take that much side stress for long. The old tricycle tractor dollies used the tractors steering like a fifth wheel and were just like pulling a wagon. Those tractors were light in the front end, too. (Is he going down the road w/ the dipper out to lighten the front end?) I now see his foot on the clutch, so it has no torque convertor, at least. 287, did you get any sense how long or how often he's been using this? I bet he hasn't used it much, I can't believe that little frame and axle would be that straight and smooth for long. Thanks for posting this, it's always fascinating to see what you can get away with if you're too dumb to know better.