I am buying a 24 foot tilt deck trailer to haul my 135 excavator. It will be a 20ton trailer. My question is about loading and unloading the excavator. My plan is to hire a fellow with a gravel truck to tow my tailer when I need to move it. Is it possible to load or unload the excavator when it is not hooked up to a truck? I have loaded an 8000lb forklift on an unhitched tilt deck trailer but my excavator is 30,000 lbs. It would be handy if I could do it.
I would NEVER Do that myself. And would most likely fire an employee i seen trying it also
I have never seen it on a tilt deck, but I have seen it done on a tag trailer. The thing is, the tag trailer was equipped with two jacks at the back. Same jack as the tongue jack. The guy would lower all the jacks so that they were on good ground. Then he would drive right on.
I see that some trailers have 2 jacks on the front. This would provide stability at the front and the deck is on the ground at the back until you reach the balance point. I would consider making a stand to support both sides of the frame (drawbar). I would think that would be good as long as the ground is solid.
I've loaded a 20,000lb excavator onto a T-40 Towmaster tag before with no problems, the tongue only lifted about 6". I would say just hook the safety chains up to a truck and leave the pintle unhooked and see what happens. Time is money and it's your money so you'll have to make your own decision.
No Guts No Glory If you never try it you will never know. :cool2 That sounds right up my Alley. I'd do it.
I think as long as the front landing gear is solid and you are not crazy slamming is down you would be fine. I know it is a lot less wieght, but I load our skidsteer on our tilt without anything hooked up from time to time and have never had an issue. The one thing I do though is make sure it is sitting level and chalk the tires.
Never load on a trailer not secured to a truck. it is unstable and unsafe and rough on the landing gear. I wont even load if connected to a truck that is not shut off and in gear with the brakes set. Never load on a hill, slope, or on soft ground. I also would can an employee if I seen them do it, if I had an employee LOL
If the landing gear has good support I don't think it will be a problem. Vans are left in the loading docks and the tractor returns after it is loaded. I think I will add some extra support that can be removed after it is hooked up and give it a try. Thanks for the replies.
the comparison between vans and the tilt deck are not fair in this scenario. a van trailer is DESIGNED to be loaded like that. Even then it has maybe 1/10th of the capacity put in it in a single pass. Not so with the tilt. I tried looking on Youtube of all the video's of people trying this very thing. even though i have seen atleast 10 of these videos that would be considered EPIC failures i couldn't find them with a quick search. is it really worth the 30 min MAX time savings of trying to do this without the truck. Givin the very likely chance that your machine AND your trailer could be damaged?
I would try putting a jack stand under the rear of the frame, and make sure tires are chocked very well
My trailer should be here this Friday. I am thinking of building a small ramp and making a tripod support that would also serve as a lock for the open pintle hitch on the trailer when it is unhooked. With extra support under the hitch and loading level I think it should work out fine. The best part of this is that I am the owner and boss and I can't get fired!! Main reason I would like to do this is to save space as I only have a small area for parking.
You are right you can't get fired. But you have to pay or be the one spending time repairing if something goes wrong like me. When hooked up to the truck the trailer cannot roll nor can the tong go up in the air and come down when the load goes over center causing a hard jolt on the tong jack. Is the tong jack rated for the load you will be putting on the trailer? I have seen several jacks collapse because they were rated for the trailer but not with a load on it.
sounds like a accident waiting to happen
Thanks for the thoughts and cautions. I appreciate that it may not be such a good idea. The point is I would like to be able to do it but safety comes first.
I WOULD NOT do it. I seen a person, trying to do this and some how, he was coming up the tilt bed and he must have over steered and twisted and when he did, he twisted the whole trailer, throwing the tongue, into the side of his truck. He then really over reacted and got side ways (still at a tilt) started to swing around, got over balanced on the side and turned over. What a mess, Luckily besides his truck, nothing was damaged, we took his Komastu 300 and turned the excavator back up (25,000lb exc) There are so many things that can happen, in this situation, so I would not do it. Let us know
We misread - not whether he should -but how should he do it
Short answer is yes BUT! you have to consider ALL the comments that have been made and come to your own conclusion. When attached to the truck the trailer has a lot more support and stability. When disconnected it becomes a completely different animal. You will need to KNOW ( not think or assume) that the trailer cannot move, wheels chocked properly, brakes applied ( if air there is probably an over ride ! CHECK ) if manual DO THEY WORK ? CHECK, as already mentioned that the drawbar supports can handle the load. Place rear supports or blocking to stop the trailer tipping. But remember that once loaded the trailer will sit lower so DONT block it too tight before loading. IF ! you do it and it works out OK. DO NOT GET COMPLACENT do it right each and every time and you should be ok. Do it as little and as rarely as possible. It will take a few minutes to do it when attached and that has to be your safest option. ON edit. I missed the fact that it is a tilt deck. You would have thought the title was a big clue :Banghead How do you operate the TILT when not attached to the truck? Please dont tell me it gravity :bash