Gooseneck with a single dually axle?

[kthompson]

First it does look different and not sure with the picture but there looks like there is factory tag on the hitch leg so that ought to be helpful to verify. Second the axle looks to me really far back, if so then it is putting good bit of load on the tow truck. Third I have seen this design but only in picture and then only for sale..

If I had any real interest would ask for info off the label and verify it's capacity and such. The company MAY still be in business.

 

[LD1]

How do we know it is a 12k axle? Hard to tell from the pics but those tires look big like 22.5's. Semi trailer axles can be good for 20k per axle. My 53' spread has two spread axles and I can scale 40k on the trailer axles.

Load balancing really isn't much different regardless of the number of axles. If you place a load on that trailer and weigh the weight on the tires and tongue and then replaced the single axle with a tandem setup centered where the single axle was your weight on the tires and tongue will be very close to the same.

It dont look like a big axle to me. Looks like 16" tires and a 12k axle jsut like the pair under my GN.

And the axle looks like its positioned where my rear axle is....not centered between where a dual tandem would be. I could be wrong.....but thats the way it loos to me

 

[LD1]

Actually if you loo at the pic that Xfaxman kindly posted, it looks like the single axle is centered about right where the dove starts.

Thats even further rearward than my 24k dual tandem. And my trailer is 1'9" shorter if his measurement is correct

 

[GLyford]

To me, it looks like someone took an old (50's? 60's?) 5th wheel semi flatbed and added a goose. The only stickers I see are the reflective ones like you can find everywhere from HF to TSC.

He says "tires are 8.25x20". About all I can find online that size are bias ply, rated 3500-5000 ea. (not including the derate for use as duals). So 14-20k on the axle, plus whatever you think that goose can hold. Aren't most 20" rims split-ring? I can't see the axles well enough to tell if they are cast hubs or steel rims.

So I guess my first question would be, just how OLD are those tires? How bare are they, and how many plies are showing through?

 

[aczlan]

Interestingly, it looks like it has a jack on the coupler to adjust the ball height (see the handle on the top of the gooseneck coupler tube).

Aaron Z

 

[kevinwak]

Looks like a semi trailer axle to me. There are some local companies around here that have similar trailers to skirt around the proper drivers license. They will pull a large gooseneck trailer with a single semi axle running electric brakes. In Alberta you only need a class 1 license if the trailer has air brakes. So they basically run around with five tons with hydraulic brakes pulling these weird looking trailers that run electric brakes.

 

[Xfaxman]

Interestingly, it looks like it has a jack on the coupler to adjust the ball height (see the handle on the top of the gooseneck coupler tube).

Aaron Z

Yep, I have seen that type of jack, but never built in to the coupler by any trailer manufacturer. There are square tube couplers available, they aren't all round.

The gooseneck frame is very light duty, another clue that this was a homemade conversion.

 

[LD1]

If that was indeed a jack, with the bottom of the leg chopped and converted to accept a ball, I don't think I'd be caught dead towing that. Jacks are typically alot thinner material than would be on a gn tongue.

I missed the part about 8.5x20 wheels. Maybe the axle is up to snuff, and maybe there deck is too? But the hitch.... certainly isn't as the guy claims "....24k and more"

 

[DT86]

The jack for neck adjustment is something I've seen before on factory built trailers. They're built plenty heavy, this one...who knows.

 

[Renze]

How do we know it is a 12k axle? Hard to tell from the pics but those tires look big like 22.5's. Semi trailer axles can be good for 20k per axle. My 53' spread has two spread axles and I can scale 40k on the trailer axles.

It says 8.25-20 tires. Those are rated 7800kg at 7 bar pressure. Or about 17200 pounds. Counting a 5k for the trailers empty weight, and 3k hitch capacity, it still comes short for a 24k load, and because of the expected age of 8.25-20 tires i wouldnt try either...

Load balancing really isn't much different regardless of the number of axles. If you place a load on that trailer and weigh the weight on the tires and tongue and then replaced the single axle with a tandem setup centered where the single axle was your weight on the tires and tongue will be very close to the same.

Between 2005 and 2008 i designed plenty of them. Only problem with load balancing was with an enclosed box trailer with a hydraulic loading tailgate. Dead weight of the tailgate meant that the axle has to be put to the back to get at least some 5th wheel load when driving empty, and because of the nature of the box (opening at the rear) one would start loading it above the 5th wheel, which would overload the tow vehicle with a half load.