My custom Nichols trailer
I had Nichols build me a custom trailer about three years ago. It probably has more things in it than you would want to consider, but perhaps it will give you ideas about just how good a trailer Nichols could build for you.
Over the last three months working in my woods I have hauled 50 sawlogs and about 30 cords of wood out with this trailer. I am pulling this with a Polaris Ranger and there are certainly times when the Ranger is about maxed out. When it comes to moving wood out, I haven't found a better combo that has minimal impact and can get the job done quickly. With two of us working together in the woods on our best days we moved 3 cords out to the landing.
My Nichols trailer is a tandem axle with a 3 foot by 8 foot bed. There are a couple of key enhancements that make all the difference. First I have electric brakes on all four trailer wheels. That means when I have a full load of about half a cord, the trailer brakes will stop everything (Polaris, Trailer, and the load) on a 15 degree downhill. That's a very comfortable feeling to have that type of control with a load. I never use my Polaris brakes which are worthless in these type of conditions.
Second I have huge turf tires on the trailer. They run in the same line as the Polaris tires. The big benefit is that when my Polaris tires dig in for grip, these trailer tires follow along and smooth out everything. No more tire ruts in the wet areas.
Third I have an electric dump body. So when we get back to the landing with a load, I raise the dump body and start driving forward and most of the time the wood slides out for me to pick up later. Of course the dump body is useful for dumping materials and I'm constantly moving fill or rocks to improve the wet areas on my trail network.
Forth I have a boom and electric winch up front so when I want to get sawlogs I can use this combo to pull them into and up on the trailer. With my 8 foot trailer deck, I have successfully moved 12.5 foot pine logs out by wrapping the winch cable to the log end hanging out back. Most of the time I'm moving 8.5 foot hardwood logs in. When I'm gathering firewood I leave the boom behind and just cut the firewood into lengths that I can lift into the trailer.
This trailer is my lifetime trailer. It is used mostly with my ATV, but given it's capacity I have also used it behind my tractor. I have gone through half a dozen trailers before this that usually broke down at some point, or left big tire ruts on my trails because most of them had narrow width tires, and none of them had features like the boom or dump body to really help my productivity in moving wood. Now I have just one trailer.
Nichol's business is producing trailers of all types. And they are very capable of doing custom features for your needs - could be something as simple as big turf tires, or more detailed like what I had done.
Here are some pictures of my setup.