I went and looked at a lowbed today. 1979 Cozad. Tandem axle (11r22.5 regular tires). Mechanical Detach. Live roll at the rear. The underframe clearance was ~30" just ahead of the axles. This means that the upright part of the neck isn't very tall. The front of the deck was sitting up on some blocks, but I estimated that if it was sitting on the ground (for loading), that the kingpin would have been 14" off the ground. So how the heck would you hook up to that trailer??? Would need some awful long ramps on the truck wouldn't you? And to top it off, horizontal distamce from neck to kingpin is only 78", so no room for long ramps on the truck. Would this trailer require a winch truck to lift the trailer up? I didn't have the camera with me, so no pics unfortunately. Andrew
It should only require a set of short steep ramps (45 degrees) to take out the slack in the neck and then slide up standard ramps to the 5th wheel. Hard to explain and I dont have pics either. I would find the previous owner and check out his ramp setup.
It's at a trailer dealer. He buys and sells mostly flat decks to farmers to use for hauling hay and/or equipment. So he doesn't have a truck set up for this trailer. The front of the deck was up on blocks when I was there. 14" is pretty close to the ground though. I'm guessing that the bottom of the ramp would have to be below the bottom of my frame rails. I don't think I've seen one that low??? I'm not at my yard to measure my truck frame, but I'd guess the top of the frame is 30" plus? So that's minimum 16" of rise. Even at 45º, that's an additional 16" sticking out the back of the truck. Andrew
I can't edit my original anymore.... It's not a Cozad, it's a Scona. Andrew
It may be a mechanical detach and you have to let the air out of the truck to get under it Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk
Yes, it is a mechanical detach. But I've never seen a mechanical detach with 30" of ground clearance before. Which means that the neck drops very low to the ground for loading. Andrew
Basically, it is a single drop lowbed. ie: no drop from the axles to the deck. Hence the 30" of clearance. Which means that the kingpin is going to drop slightly more than 30". My airbags will give me 4" (KW 8 bag setup), so the ramps would need at least 26" of vertical. That's going to mean the bottom of the ramps needs to be around the center line of the diffs wouldn't it?? Andrew
With a live roll at the rear, its likely designed for a truck with a power tower and winch setup, to winch the trailer onto the tractor.
That's what I'm thinking.... After much browsing around, I came across this picture which is similar to what I was looking at. Imagine this kind of ground clearance with a mech detach neck: http://trailersearch.com/resize.php?image=/uploadedimages/6195/13204177_1.jpg&height=400 Andrew
The trailer may have a landing gear that might be broken or something or it is designed for a winch truck Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk
I'm thinking a winch truck would be needed. Definitely a mech detach neck with no landing gear. Andrew
Look something like these trailers ..... www.truckpaper.com/listingsdetail/detail.aspx?OHID=4546561 www.truckpaper.com/listingsdetail/detail.aspx?OHID=3963091&LP=TRK Looks like you will need some good frame ramps and a winch on the truck to make it work .
Yup, that's close. The problem with this one is that the neck->kingpin is only 78". I'm still at the in-laws for Easter. I'll measure my truck when I get home, but I don't think there's enough room with that short of a neck..... Andrew
What would be the point of a detach with a deck that high? Why wouldn't you just hang a set of ramps off the back? The only detach I have ever seen were the double drop style. I'm just not real sure what the use of one of those is. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk
Well, I got home and measured my truck. Never mind issues of hooking up....the trailer has neck->kingpin of 78". My truck from the center of the 5th wheel plate to the corner of my tire is 84". I'd have to move the 5th wheel right to the back every time I wanted to use it... Andrew
I suppose another option would have been to weld the ramps on the front of the neck of the trailer going up into the air. Oh well, wouldn't be able to turn anyways... Or, if the trailer was really cheap, maybe a guy could re-work the neck??? Andrew
Yeah Andrew_D , That might work . My old Lacrosse lowboy had a short neck on it from the factory . Had to have the fifth wheel at the rear to pull it .I really like the trailer so a few years ago I cut the short beams off the neck & added longer ones to fix the problem .
I made that mistake once. Got hire as a shop hand at a local construction company and the foreman comes out and says go get a truck and hook up the tilt deck for a roller so I said ok. Went out to the first truck, got in and hooked up to the tilt deck. Come to find out I was supposed to use the old single axle ih truck because they would up having to cut the 5th wheel off of the truck in order to get things unhooked. The lengths must have been just right so the 5th wheel would lock to the kingpin but the back tires were against the trailer neck and I couldn't back up at all to relieve the pressure to pull the release handle. Lucky for me the guys there were pretty nice and understanding so I didn't get in trouble and all they asked me was "did you learn not to do that again" Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk
Impressive that they couldn't push the trailer into the truck to relieve the pressure on the 5th wheel.
That's how my trailer was 1466IH . 1951 25 ton tandem lowboy with the short neck designed for a single axil tractor . Pretty common setup in the 1950's . Had to have the fifth wheel plate at the rear when using a tandem tractor with it . Made my old White 4000 manual steering rig feel like it had power steering after we loaded the dozer . Got a little light on the front .
Well, we missed a couple of trailers today..... Dad was watching an online auction but had to step away from the computer for a bit when he came back the 2 trailers were already sold. 1) Tandem axle lowbed. 30ton, so not huge or anything. Sold for $6,000. 2) Move-All. Hydraulic tail. Tandem Axle. Sold for $4,000. I told him he should have bought them both and re-sold 1! Andrew
Yea it was the owner of the company's first truck and trailer. Used to haul around a straight 580. Nice trailer though it was a hydraulic tilt and about the only thing it ever gets used for anymore is hauling around rollers and miscellaneous materials. I don't know what year the stuff was but it was a gas truck with a 5+2 trans/rearend. I was green as could be. The trailer didn't even have air brakes. They were vacuum. The trailer was backed into a shed so there was no way of pushing. All they did was cut the huck bolts holding the 5th wheel on with a torch then pulled the handle and drove it to the shop and put new bolts in so it wasn't that big of a deal but I thought it was at the time. It was my first job in high school right after I started so I was a little nervous when I had to go ask what I did wrong Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk
I bet your'e looking at a scissor neck float. Bob
Nope. Definitely a short neck mechanical detach. Found a link to the place with some pics: http://www.trailerguy.ca/listing.php?itemID=40176 Andrew
Just curious, but dont most of the old school oilfield winch trucks have the 5th wheel at the rear of the frame? I remember seeing a few like that, I think.
Yeah RZucker , 5th wheel just ahead of the tailboard . Helps prevent truck frame from binding with trailer in off road conditions .
That could explain the short gooseneck. By the way, Cool truck you got there td25c. Read the thread awhile back.
Thanks RZucker . Still got a few odds & ends to add to the truck but she is pretty near complete . From what I can tell the Scona trailers look purpose built for oilfield & rigging . The more I think about it if I was looking at that type of trailer I might just go with the winch & tail roller arrangement on the tractor & leave the trailer as is . Something like these tractors www.truckpaper.com/listingsdetail/detail.aspx?OHID=5005715 www.truckpaper.com/listingsdetail/detail.aspx?OHID=4941631 www.truckpaper.com/listingsdetail/detail.aspx?OHID=4265237
With the rolling tailboard on it, it was definately designed and built to be pulled by either a winch truck (bed truck or rigup truck. I've heard several different names) or a winch tractor. With the short neck, probably a bed truck. They work good, but for moving equipment you better have a really stout winch (Tulsa 64 or prefferably Tulsa 80), and run it off a power tower. I stripped a bull gear and blew the PTO off the side of the transmission trying to winch a dead track loader up the dovetail of a lowboy once... It was a Tulsa 34. And we had lifted some pretty good loads with it previously. 2 Case 580 backhoes or a 580 Case and 450C JD sideboom on a 40' float. Or you can run your equipment back over the tandems, lift and hook up, then move your equipment to where you need it to haul it. We used to do that when hauling a sideboom on the floats. Did it many times with TD-14 and TD-18 sidebooms. Tried hauling one of the D-7"s on a float once... Ended up re-building the float when we got it back to the shop... But loading and unloading that method worked fine...
That makes sense handtpipeline :thumbsup What you call the "Power Tower " , is that a reduction box between the winch & pto drive ? When I set up the FWD winch truck we installed a reduction box between the pto & winch drive . My pto is a Tulsa brand two speed reversing unit and the winch is a Garwood . It's geared pretty slow . http://s1016.photobucket.com/user/td25c/media/100_2807_zps030d0791.mp4.html?sort=3&o=5 First wrecker I operated had a Tulsa 100 behind the cab . Old International B 2000 with home made bed . That Tulsa would sure pull
A power tower is a pto that mounts to the top of a spicer auxiliary transmission. Allows you to change speeds with the main transmission.
Thanks for the answer Heavy Metal as I was not familiar with the term . My 4x4 boom truck is set up similar with the pto mounted on transfer case . Found a picture of a " Power Tower " PTO for a spicer auxiliary . That's interesting . http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y71/Freightman/Aux7231-11-15-08033.jpg