am looking at buying a different lowboy, 35 ton. i'm really liking the fold down gooseneck vs. the detach. any of you own either? the pluses/negatives on either?
We have a hydraulic detach, but rarely use it. We sideload 99% of the time, unless we are moving our bigger stuff. When we do detach it, it takes about 5 extra minutes.
In my opinion, folding necks really s*uck. You have to get the necks folded back up get htem pinned in place, some use a machine to pull the necks up or a complicated winch your king pin is down in the mud you ahve to clean all that off or get grit and sind in between your 5th wheel and trailer. Get a detach gooseneck its waht all the pros use. A NON GROUND BEARING is the best. you can unload them in wetter more unfavoralbe conditions and still get under htem and get htem picked up. Ground bearing if unlaoding in mud can be real hard to pick up. NOn ground bearing in mud arent fun but better then ground bearing.
sideloading :spaz :spaz...I don't think I could ever do that to my trailer. Hyd. detach, I have never use the folding neck but I can't see how it would work nearly as well as the detach, for reasons listed in the post above ^^
35 Ton Detachable. I'm using an Eager Beaver 35 Ton Detach Croucher. I think it's the cat's meow myself. It takes 60 seconds to unhook, the same to put it back together. They come in all sorts of configurations and sizes, this one I have is a 102" wide with a 22' well, and spring assisted ramps on the rear for the easy stuff. It has a hydraulic "leveler" that keeps the gooseneck in position on the truck frame, but it works out better for me to not use it, just put a hardwood 4X4 across the rear of the truck's framerails, deflate the suspension, and pull away. The neck doesn't drag on the ground this way, and it's not steel to steel, with a greater tendency to slip sideways out of alignment.
Mechanical detach. In ca i can legal a 637 on 5 axles if it barely has any fuel in it. clean with no fuel in it. i can move the ejector to the front get 59,700 on the rear 16 tire 2 axle group. But that's out here in CA were one of the WASHTO states. we are allowed 20 K steer 46 K drives and 60 K on 16 tire 2 axle rear axle grouping spread to 10' wide. our trailers are Low profile units. Most anything but paving equipment goes over the back. we have short 6' ramps for skip loaders and short WB equipment. Big 2 manufacturers of CA legal trailers are Murray and Cozad. The new CO in town being Rackley Built. Murray 2 frame wide neck Is the Cadillac, and the only trailer that will legal a 637. the advantage of a mechanical beyond just weight savings is Its less complex. No separate motor on the trailer to power the Hyd. fold or Hyd. lines to disconnect from the wet kit to the trailer. If i had to have a Hyd. Unit i would just get a beaver tail or a sliding axle trailer.
No way our trailer would legal a 637...thats a 7 axle load...a 627 no problem as long as you have a 22'10" deck and the machine is out of fuel I know this is a old post but for a 35ton trailer we have two models that would work great. the "Easy Load" and the "Easy Tail" the "Easy Tail" has a AIR powered folding tail on the back (we were the first to come out with this in 2001..) and advantage to this is the reduced weight from not having the Hydraulic motor on the trailer or a PTO on the truck and would be able to use the tail with ANY truck!...both the "Easy Load" and "Easy Tail" have mechanical detach necks but as said above...they are not difficult to use and the weight savings vs. the hydraulic neck. Our web site has pictures of both http://www.murraytrailer.com