Has anybody moved a mobile home?

kc5dlo · Apr 30, 2003

After several years of working on a new house, I'm ready to tear down my old mobile home. I would like to move it a couple hundred feet away from the house to finish tearing it down.
All of the appliances and furnishings are out of it and all of the interior walls have been removed. The size is 14x66 with three axels.
My neighbor thinks he can move it with his tractor (35hp). Does anyone have any experience moving one of these a short distance on flat level ground without hireing a mover?

rwl · Apr 30, 2003

We moved a 12X60 with a F-250 with a hitch ball on the front bumper about a quarter mile. It was full of furnishings etc. The truck was slightly light in the rear but it moved easily in four wheel drive. Not what you are asking but use it for what it's worth.

Bird · Apr 30, 2003

Maybe if you've stripped enough out of it, it might be light enough, but I've got some doubts about a 35hp tractor handling that job. I watched a neighbor move what I would estimate to be a 12 x 50 old mobile home about 2 miles with a Farmall M, and I hired a guy just to move my parents' 14 x 52 into place because it was too muddy for a truck, but we were placing mats of 3/4" plywood under the wheels and he had a big 4WD John Deere; don't remember the model but there was room in the cab for me to ride with him and he had a FEL on it, used a 3-point drawbar that picked up the front end just fine, but backing in mud he bent his drawbar.

Anonymous Poster · Apr 30, 2003

You were not on any hills were you ?

Nothing to do with a hill,but I learned a lot about moving a mobile home....the hard way,snagged an outrigger on a small stump and bent the frame. Got that all fixed and about a week later had it hooked to the tractor(truck) and the stinking tongue give out on it and the trailer(mobile home) set right down in the middle of the road with the tongue still hooked to the truck /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif...I never wanted to cry so bad ......... /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Bird · Apr 30, 2003

Fred, that reminds me of one we saw in '72 enroute to Alaska. You know they used to (I guess still do) pull mobile homes all the way to Alaska. In fact one of my brothers made one trip up there driving the pilot car in front of a couple of mobile homes many years ago. Oops, I digress; the one that caught our attention in '72 had the frame bend right over the rear axle, and everything above the frame broke in two and the back end was dragging the ground. I guess it just couldn't stand the bouncing on that rough road.

Taylortractornut · Apr 30, 2003

When my brother had his dirt moving company we did alot of work for Belmont Homes/ Cavalier homes and had to move alot of trailers on lots or move them into tight spots. We took the blade of his D31P Komatsu dozer and cut a square hole in both sides of the blade and welded in some reciver hitch tubes and mad cover plates and hitch plates for them. That way we could pull them or push them where you needed them plus the swxway blad added that extra articulations. I movved one a few weeks ago that had been drug into position on a ledge with a dozer and then the ledge bladed off to leave the toungue over hanging the drop off. to move it i made a set of dollies out of the axles with angle iron runners to cup the frame. then torched the tongue off mounted the dollies towardt the front of the trailer and weled the tongue on the rear. I then got a load of dirtin my F600 Ford dump truck for traction and lowered the hitch down onto my pintle hok and dropped the latch down on it. drug it 3miles to and old gravel pit for final teardown.
Ie sen them moved with a smaller tractor that had a homemade dolly from a 2 ton truck front end. ti took up the tonge weight and the truck axle brkes were hookedinto the tractors auxhiliary hydraulics for emergency stops. Id suggest hire a 2 ton dump truck with pintle hitch to move it. The caounty has moved them for others here shrot distnces like i mentioned

ScottAR · May 1, 2003

Dad used to move them occasionally with an 730/830 Case. (I don't remember which right now) This was about 70-80 hp tractor. I wouldn't try it with my 1050 which is around 35hp. Find a bigger tractor or truck.

bgott · May 1, 2003

It'll probably move it just fine if it'll handle the tongue weight. Stopping might be a problem. Do it slow and easy. You want to weigh down the front end. I moved a couple of 36' travel trailers out to the local dirt track for a friend of mine a few weeks ago with my pickup. When I got the second one there we had to spot it with a tractor due to the mud. The guys at the track hooked up a MFWD compact to it and the TPH wouldn't lift it, the front end of the tractor just popped up. The hydraulics would have handled the tongue weight and it would have pulled the trailer with 3 or 400 lbs on the front. They hooked the 231s Massey to it and didn't have any problem.

knucklehead · May 1, 2003

Steel Wheels - I know that feeling.

"KC" - the one I moved was not much bigger than a travel trailer, but heavier. My main concerns were the condition of the tires and frame, and tongue weight. I got a piece of pipe and put it under the tongue with a rock as a fulcrum (it was low to the ground). I moved it around until I could sort of balance my bulk and the tongue across the rock, and did a quick and dirty calc for the weight. Then I cranked it up, backed the old W250 Dodge under it, and cranked down, hoping the springs would stop before they hit the axles.

Early Sunday morning, I slipped the transfer case into creepy crawler and eased it out of the hole it had sunk into over 20-odd years, and out onto the pavement. I took it through the middle of town, to a park a mile or so away, backed it in next to another trailer, and was leveling it up when my new neighbor came out with his coffee. He hadn't heard a thing. No tears that time.