how to center tractor on trailer

[Big Bri]

ok so i've found another trailer. 20' goose with WOOD deck. The center of the two axles (space between the tow axles) is 104" from the front of the deck.
my center of my tractor would fall at that spot plus or minus 6" with the blade fel touching the front of the deck. the center of my Rear tire is 144" from the front of the FEL. would the weight be shifted to far to the rear of this trailer?
I have a kubota mx5100 with fel, and filled rear tires (water) will also always have ether a 850 lb box blade or a mower of some sort on the back of the tractor when transporting. total length of tractor fel and box is 16'6"
thanks again for help finding the right trailer
brian

 

[radman1]

A little difficult to determine what you are asking. With an overall CUT, FEL and boxblade length of 16'6" you should be able to obtain a reasonable balance on a 20' trailer. Ideally, 10-15% of the load wt should be on the GN hitch. Sometimes to get the right balance, I will load the tractor backwards. With the fluid filled tires and box blade on the back, the back is heavier than the front. I would have to see the trailer and tractor together, but I would guess the rear tires would probably sit just behind or over the rear axle of the trailer with the load you describe.

 

[Big Bri]

A little difficult to determine what you are asking. With an overall CUT, FEL and boxblade length of 16'6" you should be able to obtain a reasonable balance on a 20' trailer. Ideally, 10-15% of the load wt should be on the GN hitch. Sometimes to get the right balance, I will load the tractor backwards. With the fluid filled tires and box blade on the back, the back is heavier than the front. I would have to see the trailer and tractor together, but I would guess the rear tires would probably sit just behind or over the rear axle of the trailer with the load you describe.

i guess what i'm asking is where would i want my rear wheels of my tractor to be. with this trailer they would be about 1 to 2 feet behind the last axle. I've never owned a goose so will that make me to light up front? i'd hate to buy the wrong trailer and not like the way it pulls. (this trailer is out of state so i'd be buying it sight unseen)

 

[Duffster]

i guess what i'm asking is where would i want my rear wheels of my tractor to be. with this trailer they would be about 1 to 2 feet behind the last axle. I've never owned a goose so will that make me to light up front? i'd hate to buy the wrong trailer and not like the way it pulls. (this trailer is out of state so i'd be buying it sight unseen)

What size of truck are pulling it with?

You would most likely be fine with that trailer if you back on.

 

[Big Bri]

What size of truck are pulling it with?

You would most likely be fine with that trailer if you back on.

i have a one ton ford.


backing on with a box blade i can under stand but if i back on with a 6' bush hog(i think my hog is 115" long ) i think the rear tires will be in the same place which would make it worse because now the whole tractor is behind the axle

i'm going to see if i can get him to send me a pic of the trailer so i can post it. that might help

 

[chh]

My trailer is a 25' with a 5' dovetail, triple axle that I currently pull with a F-350. I generally load my heaviest tractor(MF 5455) with the rear wheels just behind the rear axle, more or less centering the weight just forward of the axles. Having the FEL on or off doesn't seem to alter the distance very much. I like to see the back of the truck start to squat, but still not put too much weight too far forward. My lightest tractor(Montana T7074) I actually load a little farther forward to put a bit more weight on the hitch.
Actually my loading distances where arrived at by trial and error, so I don't know that there is a tried and true formula for every combination, except for the before mentioned ideal of 10% to 15% of the weight on the hitch. I don't know if I load technically correctly or not, but ride and braking are good the way I load.

 

[Big Bri]

Here's a pic of the trailer as you can see the axles are about centered on the trailer. . . is that going to be a problem?
Thanks again for all the help

 

[Duffster]

Here's a pic of the trailer
Thanks again for all the help

You don't want that trailer.

The axles are not placed right, especially for a gooseneck, and it will be about impossible to load right no matter what you do.

 

[radman1]

I agree with Duffster. The placement of those axles are strange, especially for a GN. Most GNs tend to place the axles much further back. (I often think too far back on some trailers.) You will have trouble balancing your load unless you set the FEL on the GN. Also with the flip up ramps, you probably won't be able to load your tractor, FEL and 6' mower. The mower may need to hang a little off the back and the ramps won't allow that unless they are removed after you load (unless you put the FEL on top of the GN).

 

[roadhawk]

If you have the July/August 2009 issue of Boating Magazine (CLICK HERE is the website but I don't see the article listed there yet), they have a good article by Dan McCosh on why to have your trailer loaded properly, and where the weight should be to get it loaded properly, along with illustrations. It starts on page 60 and is called "Shake, Rattle and Roll".
Even if you don't have a boat, it's a pretty good mag since they also test trucks with towing loads (have some of these on the web site).

It's copyrighted I'm sure so I'm not posting it here, but if you want a copy just PM me your email address and I'll send you a scan of it. Hope they don't mind....if you like it, subscribe . It's 4 pages and about 6.5 MB, so it might take a bit if you're on dial-up still.

 

[GATC35]

I agree with the others, that trailer doesn't look right.

Also, I don't like fenders. They are always in the way to me. You can't load sod, bricks, concrete blocks etc. over your axle with pallet forks. I may get flamed for this, but it's just my opinion. If you do get a trailer with fenders make sure a compact track loader and a mini-ex will fit between them. I learned that lesson the hard way.

Here's a couple pics of my gooseneck. It's a North Alabama brand 20 + 5 with 7K lbs axles.

Hope this helps with your question.

 

[Diamondpilot]

That trailer is not set up right like the others say. Skip it and keep looking.

Chris

 

[Gem99ultra]

Big State here in the Houston area tells me the first axle should be at 60% of the trailer length. Second axle follows as the spring set needs. So, just remember the 60/40 rule regardless of trailer length.

Your trailer 'looks' like it would be balanced, but I think you'll find out as others have said, axles centered will never load right.

 

[Duffster]

Keep in mind that an ideal tongue weight won't be a big concern with your truck and a gooseneck. Your trailer weight will be ~10k so you can have a lot more than 15% on the pin.

 

[Diamondpilot]

I dont think the problem will be tongue weight, it will be a light tongue. With the axles that far forward you can get the trailer tail heavy very easily and the tail will wag the dog so to speak.

Chris

 

[Big Bri]

thanks everyone, i'll let this one go as well. i'm sure i'll find the right one but it may take some time.

ya'll have been a great help
thanks
Brian

 

[tdan300]

Here's a pic of the trailer as you can see the axles are about centered on the trailer. . . is that going to be a problem?
Thanks again for all the help

It almost looks like that trailer was originally shorter, the back end added on. It is hard to tell . . . . .

 

[archerm3]

I would take the tractor and trailer to the scales and get an axle weight on every axle then post back with that so that we can crunch the numbers. Don't forget to get the tongue weight on the unladen trailer. Otherwise everything is just a WAG, not even a SWAG.

If you backed on and dragged your cutter on behind with the FEL bucket above it, you should be able to fit it and get the balance right. Or just put the FEL above the tongue like someone else said, it's wasted space anyways.

There is no substitute for 20 bucks of scale time and some simple high school physics to get it right though.

 

[taborekle]

What archem3 said, or find a buddy that has a tongue scale (lots of RV owners have these). It would allow you to position the tractor on the trailer and get readings as to the tongue weight. You can then mark off on the trailer (through paint or blocks) where to put the tractor to get a repeatable tongue weight. You could do this with different implements attached and put different marks on the trailer.

Tongue scales are only about $100 to buy.

Larry

 

[Duffster]

Why would he need to scale it?

The OP has way more than enough truck to handle that tractor.