Adding length to 16 ft trailer

[bucktaker]

I have a pretty good heavy duty tandam 16 ft trailer with 1 brake axle.
My tractor/fel and mower will not fit. Is it feasble to add a 4 ft tail to it to make it long enoug? Properly sized and welded.

Should i relocate the axles rearward for this? The "Tail will only hold the mower not really any weight.

???

 

[radioman]

I guess you could- but costwise? just the price of metal to add on alone will be more then selling and buying another trailer that is longer already.

 

[JimRB]

I had a two axle trailer with only one set of brakes. After a spinout I replaced the bent axle with a new Dexter axle with brakes. Having 4 brakes makes thing much safer. My only question is if you have enough brakes for what you haul? Some say the truck should be doing some of the trailer braking but I believe the trailer should have enough brake to control itself.

 

[deepNdirt]

yes you could add to the tail end of it, although not sure if would go through the trouble of adding 4 ft. and then having move the axles etc,etc,....perhaps if you were only adding say 2 ft. maybe you wouldn't have to move the axles. does your trailer have a complete flat bed? I had a 12 ft. trailer with flat deck and was a bit short, as well as difficult to load with short ramps, so I add a dove tail of 2ft. to the rear and give a bit more room as well as easier to load, I have a CUT tractor and at the time thought I could get buy with just adding to the trailer, when hauling the bush hog the tail wheel would still hang off between the ramps and i had to rest the bucket on top of the front rail, I made do for a while, But many time I found myself needed another implement and had no room to transport it,
Is when I decided to trade the trailer for a larger one 16 ft, although it was also a flat deck and I modified it into a dove tail, didn't ad anything to it just mad a few cuts and drop the tail and reinforced it,
so yes adding to the rear can be done, but to limit your expense and effort of moving axles, you might have to limit the length of add on
the picture shows where I add to the rear extending the top rail & floor and add a diagonal bracing, after adding the rear cross iron 2 x 3 plus shifting the weight of the ramps further back had the trailer almost equal weight over the axles, I could easily lift the tongue when empty, Note: which is not really a good thing

 

[bucktaker]

I had a two axle trailer with only one set of brakes. After a spinout I replaced the bent axle with a new Dexter axle with brakes. Having 4 brakes makes thing much safer. My only question is if you have enough brakes for what you haul? Some say the truck should be doing some of the trailer braking but I believe the trailer should have enough brake to control itself.

My tow vehicle is a 07 GMC diesel dually with a brake controller.
I will need the 4 ft to keep the tail of the mower on the trailer. While buying another trailer is a option I have newer tires and a pressure treated deck on this one.
Any one have a 20 ft plus bumper pull if so what is the distance from hitch to front tire? Just wondering if moving the axles back is really required. My balance would remain the same as I would not haul the tractor on the tail

 

[deepNdirt]

My tow vehicle is a 07 GMC diesel dually with a brake controller.
My balance would remain the same as I would not haul the tractor on the tail

I understand what you're saying but
you don't think 4 ft of Pressure treated boards along with the additional weight of steel and ramps being moved further back will add more weight and throw the balance off... ...
Perhaps provide some Specifics on the trailer and someone here who builds trailers could better advice what your options are.... length of tongue? how much frame front of the axle? how much frame rear of the axle? etc,etc,

 

[tommu56]

My tow vehicle is a 07 GMC diesel dually with a brake controller.
I will need the 4 ft to keep the tail of the mower on the trailer. While buying another trailer is a option I have newer tires and a pressure treated deck on this one.
Any one have a 20 ft plus bumper pull if so what is the distance from hitch to front tire? Just wondering if moving the axles back is really required. My balance would remain the same as I would not haul the tractor on the tail

When I built my trailers (yes more than one) scrounged steel and my time and scrounged mobile home axles (I don't want to hear the critiques) I'm cheep!

I went out and measured the built ones for my axle placement.
for the flat beds with no gate or ramps the axles were all in the 53/55% of the bed in front of the axle not counting the tongue.

The ones with the gates and ramps I couldent come up with a number
probably because the weight of them changed the center of ballance and they used that to set axle correctly.

That being said cutting the spring perch's off isn't all that hard to set the axle's at the correct point if you are capable of adding the frame section.


tom

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

Just raise the loader and drive the front wheels up against the front rail of the trailer, you should have plenty of length. I haul a Ford 5610 4X4 with a loader, brush grapple on the front and a 6' Rhino heavy cutter with the 105hp gearbox on the back. Tractor has 3/8" belly pan and water in all the tires plus a full cage. The Rhino cutter is a very heavy commercial one. I wrote all that because the tractor is over 10k loaded out this way. It weighs almost 10,400 lbs, and its been hauled many times on a 16' bumper pull trailer. Twice I have snapped the Bull Dog coupler off the front but I had a backhoe on it. Funny, but both times the coupler snapped, I hit a rough bridge close to the house. Each time I made it home hanging by the little tab that sticks up for the lever that slides the collar back. That was all that was holding it. The trailer has a couple of six lug bull dog drop axles with transport tires. I recommend always using trailer tires on trailers, a lot less trouble than using passenger tires on a trailer.

 

[TravisTractor]

I had a two axle trailer with only one set of brakes. After a spinout I replaced the bent axle with a new Dexter axle with brakes. Having 4 brakes makes thing much safer. My only question is if you have enough brakes for what you haul? Some say the truck should be doing some of the trailer braking but I believe the trailer should have enough brake to control itself.

in mud or snow, one non brake axle is preferable to me as lessens to chance of trailer trying to skid with gravity into the ditch, or pass you on a down hill.

 

[schmism]

My 20' flat deck trailer.

14' from tounge to first axle (give or take a few inches)

mine matches the specs of big tex etc (go look up there trailers online to get all dimensions for 16' flat, 16' with 2' dove, 18' flat, 18' with 2' dove and 20' flat)

I find it highly unlikely youll be able to tack 4' on the back of a 16' trailer and still maintain a good ratio front to back.

Not being able to load enough weight weight at the front can cause serious issues.

 

[sandman2234]

I have added as much as ten feet in length to the rear of a trailer. I wasn't happy with the way it pulled, and told the owner. He said it would be "OK". I made him pull the trailer down the road unloaded and then loaded. He agreed with me and I moved the front axle to behind the rear one. (I would have just added another axle, but it wasn't my call). He later wished he had agreed with me on adding an axle.
With the right tools, knowledge and experience you can pretty much modify one to however you want. I had a 45 foot fifth wheel boat trailer that is now a twenty foot flatbed pintle hitch that the rear twelve feet dumps.

It is just steel... nothing a torch and welder can't fix, lol!!

David from jax

 

[Rustyiron]

I have a pretty good heavy duty tandam 16 ft trailer with 1 brake axle.
My tractor/fel and mower will not fit. Is it feasble to add a 4 ft tail to it to make it long enoug? Properly sized and welded.

Should i relocate the axles rearward for this? The "Tail will only hold the mower not really any weight.

???

I had a 16' Hudson that needed new decking, while I had the deck (wood) off I decided to put 4' in the frame in front of the axles. Properly reinforced and welded, it served me fine. I would not add it behind the axles, you may as well just let the mower hang off the end.

 

[bucktaker]

I had a 16' Hudson that needed new decking, while I had the deck (wood) off I decided to put 4' in the frame in front of the axles. Properly reinforced and welded, it served me fine. I would not add it behind the axles, you may as well just let the mower hang off the end.

In my comment about balance I didnt take into consideration the weight of the tail section I was only thinking that the tractor will reside in the same spot on the trailer which is with the bucket just past the front rail.

Essentially no my mower hangs almost 4 ft off the back now so the tail will just keep the mower on the deck.

I guess I could build it then try it to see if the axles need to be rearward any

dont think I will be loading 10k plus on this 7k trailer lol

Thanks for the ideas

 

[Diamondpilot]

Sell the trailer you have and get the right tool for the job. Adding 4' to the rear is going to make it pull awful and be tough to maneuver with that much rear overhang versus short tongue.

60/40 split is pretty much the standard starting point on front/rear of axles geometry.

Chris

 

[Iplayfarmer]

I have to strongly suggest that you follow the advice of others and sell what you have to buy a different one. As DeepNDirt pointed out with his experience, you can do it, but the results will likely be less than optimum.

Here's a thread that shows my experience with a simple re-build on a trailer that cascaded into some serious work. Lots of time. Lots of expense. I didn't even change my trailer much from the original design. I think you'll find that no matter how simple the modification seems it will be a bigger project than you think, and you'll end up with a result that you're not pleased with.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/trailers-transportation/177216-what-axle-do-i-have.html

Used trailers are pretty common and really pretty cheap vs. the cost of steel.

 

[kenmac]

If you decide to add .You may want to Add to the front for tongue weight when empty. I added 2 ft to the front of my trailer to make it an even 20'. It pulls great. I already had the materials. My cost was in Wire, elec. for my welder & grinder

 

[clemsonfor]

Just raise the loader and drive the front wheels up against the front rail of the trailer, you should have plenty of length. I haul a Ford 5610 4X4 with a loader, brush grapple on the front and a 6' Rhino heavy cutter with the 105hp gearbox on the back. Tractor has 3/8" belly pan and water in all the tires plus a full cage. The Rhino cutter is a very heavy commercial one. I wrote all that because the tractor is over 10k loaded out this way. It weighs almost 10,400 lbs, and its been hauled many times on a 16' bumper pull trailer. Twice I have snapped the Bull Dog coupler off the front but I had a backhoe on it. Funny, but both times the coupler snapped, I hit a rough bridge close to the house. Each time I made it home hanging by the little tab that sticks up for the lever that slides the collar back. That was all that was holding it. The trailer has a couple of six lug bull dog drop axles with transport tires. I recommend always using trailer tires on trailers, a lot less trouble than using passenger tires on a trailer.

My God! Any you keep doing this? I think you should have learned something the first time you busted a coupler! And a hanging loader is not really safe either!! Your lucky to be alive and at least have your equiptment undamaged!

 

[clemsonfor]

You can do it but i agree im not sure i would spend my time on it unless you just cant get rid of the trailer for reasons like "it was my dads" or something. You will ahve a lot of time and material in doing it.

Around here i see old carhauler or landscape 7K trailers for anywhere from $600 to 800 used in various conditions but mostly usable. Id sell what you have for say $600 and see what you can get, may even trade for one st8 up or for like trailer + $100. I can get a new landscape trailer now for $1200 Says its a 7K trailer, i guess because of the 2 axles but i looked and the coupler is only for 5K so its really a 5K trailer!

 

[jsheeshee]

Rusty: this is exactly what I want to do. I have a 16 bumper pull 10k trailer that I would like to add 4 in front of the axles. Do you have any photos of the project, or of the finished project? Can you describe to me how you braced it? Do you still have the trailer that you could send me some pictures of the undercarriage?

I am interested in how you spliced the side rails, and what other reinforcing you used beyond continuing the typical crossmember design through the 4 extension.

At what location did you cut the trailer to add the 4?

What is the distance from the front of your bed to the center of the two axles?

Does the trailer have fold up ramps?

Did you flip the trailer over to complete the welding in a preferred position?

Did you use any bolts?

Ever have any issues after you extended it?

Sorry for the 1 million questions, but very interested in your input before I get into my winter project.

Thanks in advance
Joe

 

[nikerret]

Do you realize this thread was from 2011? Some of these people may not be on here.