I want to haul a EX200LC-2 excavator with a hydraulic thumb back and forth between two farms 8 miles apart with a 50,000 gvwr tandem axle trailer. Im guessing the weight of the excavator with thumb to be 47,000 lbs. Before I get yelled at I will say that this is North Dakota these roads and flat with no bridges to cross and no pavement and also no traffic...at all. It would be maybe 5-6 trips a year. I'm not worried about being legal I just don't want to destroy the trailer. I haven't been able to find a better trailer in my price range locally. I guess my question is do manufactures rate trailers 5 10 or even 20% under what they could really haul for legal reasons? Thanks guys
Just an uninformed untamed donkey guess, but I bet you'd need over 200,000 to bend something sitting still. Without extreme potholes, or flipping it into the ditch, you won't damage the trailer. Tire and spring life may suffer.
Thanks Delmer, pretty good roads between the two farms and the trailer has new 12 ply tires but I don't intend on driving over 30mph anyway.
125IIIA : ….. I've hauled my 320CLRR which weighs in at 55,000 lbs (with full bush guarding, hyd thumb, and 66" & 36" buckets) on my TKT40 hyd Tilt deck over hundreds of bush miles with NO issues, the odd tire but that's normal even with the 14 tonne machine, so, depending on the brand of trailer and how it's load shared to the towing truck You'll never have a chance to wreck your trailer ……. JMHO …. cheers !
Thanks for the response Craft. You got me thinking about how the load is shared with the truck. This is a short trailer so the counter weight is going to be over the neck of the trailer. Would this be good or bad?
A smart man with mechanical sympathy and a 50,000 Lb trailer will do what an unthinking man using brute force cannot with a 100,000 Lb trailer. Our forefathers shifted machines using hopelessly underweight gear, both trucks and trailers. As long as you take it steady and think about what you are doing - if you see a problem, then solve it before progressing, you will be fine.
^ couldn't have said it better than that
"LMFAO" !!!! …… Good One !!! ………Don't Let Common Sense or Fear Stop You !!!!
No! …. neither ….. the off set will be that the boom and stick will be hanging low out the back ……. again we don't know what trailer this is ? , so in ratio or proportion to where the axles lie under the machine is what will determine the tongue and tail weight balance …. When I hauled the 320 LC it had to be loaded as far forward to the rub rail as possible, it physically consumed the whole deck …… when hauling the 312 (standard undercarriage) …. we have to load about 2-3" back to smoothen out the ride …. TOO much weight forward and not enough back ….. You'll have to be the Judge of what will be Safe and Correct ! …..as far as your original question goes, we feel that structurally the trailer will not be destroyed (Again not knowing the trailer you have there) As is in my case the TKT40 has the SAME frame structure as the TKT50 only longer and one more axle ….. Good-Luck with your Venture
You're getting good input here but one thing to remember is the accident that happens is NEVER planed ! All it would take is one mistake, bad timing, one other person on the highway and your life(along with someone else's) could change in less then a 10th of a second.
The lawyers always give fine detail to right from wrong, too much tongue weight can be as bad as to little. Once it starts to load weight onto truck thats usually pretty good for flat roads ,who cares where it looks correct on trailer. The load doesn't have to be up against the headboard with the hitch dragging to be safe.
First you might want to know what trailer you have and how the gvw is figured on it, most trailers are rated with the load in a given distance on the deck of the trailer, say spread out over the total distance of the deck, which is impossible to ever achieve with tracked machines, others are rated in a 10 or 15 foot span of deck length. Now that said, and I don't mean to downgrade any brands of trailers, but I've seen a witzco trailer loaded under the gvw by many thousands of pounds that never moved an inch and blew the side rails completely off the trailer and buckled the main frame after it was raised up off the ground and the driver was about to get chains out of the truck to go chain down his load, luckily nobody got injured in the ordeal with as many people as there were around at the time. Before I'd go doing much of anything, look up how the load is calculated on "your" trailer and see if your going to exceed the "deck span length" for their weight carrying capabilities, then proceed with caution, some trailers its not an issue what so ever, the cheap lineup of trailers...................wish you the best of luck and don't get hurt or anyone else hurt in the process. When the witzco blew apart that day, it creaked and groaned a little as it was raised up off the ground, it was one of their ground bearing detaches and it sat fine for a few minutes, the we all heard some snapping and sounds like gun shots going off and in an instant the side rails blew sideways off the trailer and the main frame collapsed into a heap and the machine fell to the ground and after the dust cleared and the reality of the situation sank into everyone and the driver, we all stood around with our mouths hung open starring in total disbelief at the scene. I was later told that even though he was under the gvw, he exceeded the load span capability of the trailer and wasn't covered by any warranty, don't know if it was the case or not, but its what I was told. If in doubt call the company that made your trailer and ask them, if they are still in business someone should be able to tell you if your going to damage the trailer if you tell them what your hauling and how your going to load it. If they are not in business anymore, ask some current trailer companies about your brand and how it's load was calculated, most all know about other brands and proceed from there.