Weight Distribution Hitch Question

[SMOKEEATERFF]

I am in the market for an equipment trailer to haul my tractor on. I will purchase a wdh to help with the load. One of the trailers I am looking at has an adjustable trailer tongue that moves vertically. Will a wdh work with this trailer? The tractor I will be hauling is a Ford 4000 and a 5 ft bushog. Plan on going with a 20ft tandem axle, no dovetail. I borrowed a buddies 20 ft tandem axle trailer and had a bad experience loading the tractor. It pulled fine. When I pulled my front tires onto the trailer the tongue of the trailer and the back of my truck came off of the ground and the ramps kicked up towards the bottom of the tractor. I was afraid it was going to come unhitched. Needless to say I didnt use the trailer again. I loaded the tractor and bushoh as far back as I could with the tail wheel sticking out between the ramps.

 

[bcp]

Not the trailer's fault, just physics. Any trailer will do that with a heavy load if not blocked up at the rear somehow. People use wood blocks, fold down stands, jack stands, tongue jacks, ramps with stands, etc.

If there is a 200lb tongue weight when empty, then you put 2000 on the rear...

View attachment 275649

Bruce

 

[s219]

Agree, it's not the trailers fault. You should have blocked the rear end if the ramps didn't have built in stands.

 

[wolfpack2]

A WDH will work fine with an adjustable hitch.



Another solution for the ramps is to not have any. This is another reason I bought a tilt deck.

 

[SMOKEEATERFF]

Thanks Wolfpack for the info and pics. I called etrailer one day last week and spoke to a woman about the adjustable hitch and wdh. She said they would work but she did not seem confident in her answer. I just wasn't sure if it would install and I didn't want to waste my money. The ramps did have supports on them but they didn't look like they were in the correct spot. Some home made weld up job. If the trailer I purchase does this I will install some type of support.

 

[SMOKEEATERFF]

One mor question. Dovetail or flat deck? Gonna load the Ford 4000 and 5 ft bush hog. Dealer would have to order the flat deck. Dovetail is the usual 2 ft. I figure I am going to have to load the equipment as far back as possible.

 

[dodge man]

You don't want to load it to far back,you want to make sure you get some tongue weight. Dovetail or not? Thats a debate that goes on often here. Its just a matter of opinion. I don't think there is a right or wrong answer.

 

[Diamondpilot]

I personally like a flat deck and slide in ramps. This gives the max usable deck space and wiggle room for load balancing. I do not care for a deck over, like low boys. I had a deck over and could not load many cars due to the steepness of the ramps ant it was ver uncomfortable to load tractors and such on.


Chris

 

[meburdick]

Here are the questions that I had to ask when I picked out my trailer...

- What will I be towing it with? What is the max GTWR and max tongue weight of the tow vehicle? My truck is rated, as configured, for 9800lbs / 1000 lbs tongue weight.
- How long is the equipment I need to move, at its max configurable length? For me, that means FEL plus forks on the front and ballast box on the back. My tractor came out to about 15'. I added 2' to get 17', and that meant an 18' trailer. Getting the right length is about having enough room for the full load with flexibility to move forward or backward to adjust the weight distribution of the load.
- With the equipment on the trailer, "properly centered", what is the expected tongue weight? This is important to understand to ensure that you get "the right" WDH if one is necessary. Putting on a WDH rated for 1500 pounds then only realizing 1000 pounds on the tongue will actually make the load too light on the tongue and it won't tow correctly.
- Does having the beaver tail (which makes it easier to load because of a gentler incline) cause me any cargo loading issues? This is basically about where the rears will sit on the flat deck and what needs to rest on the trailer behind them. Your entire brush hog may not need to rest on the flat surface of the deck to be stable. In fact, at most, only 2' of it *as most* would be unsupported with a beaver tail. This is likely the lightest portion of the attachment and not susceptible to any sort of instability.

As DiamondPilot indicated, a completely flat deck gives the most flexibility for load movement, but it is highly unlikely that you would load with the rears of the tractor that far behind the axles. If I were to back my tractor up against my ramps, my front tires would barely be at the rear axle of the trailer.

 

[SMOKEEATERFF]

The dealer has the dovetail trailers in stock, would have to order the other. Same price either way. I would rather have fold up ramps than the slide in. I will add a link to the trailer if I can.

Equipment Trailers | Flatbed Trailers | 10,400 GVWR | Alabama