Trailer advice needed for a newbie

[wdchuck]

Keep the toy
get the 5x8 trailer

Every so often, get a 10cord load from a logger to ensure you stay two years ahead with good dry wood.

Overall, your expenses will remain reasonable, and your time away from home will be more of a 'want to' instead of a 'need to' .

 

[indiansprings]

I'll go against the grain, I just don't like the single axle trailers. Load capacity usually sucks, tend to walk all over behind the truck if slightly overloaded.
Safety issues, blowing a tire. Around here you can get trailers cheap, just bought a 6x12 trailer with 18" sides with tandem axle's, slide out ramps for 300.00 from a wood customer. Last year bought a 16' car hauler off a customer for 450.00. That toyota will drag around a cord easy, if your buying, get one bigger than you think you'll need as you'll be using it for other things. If you dead set on a single axle just look for a trailer made out of an old pickup bed, for years you could buy them for 100-150 in this neck of the woods. I found a bank repo 95 dodge 3/4 ton 4 wheel drive cummins automatic with a rough interior and paint job, but mechanically perfect for 1500.00 a couple of years ago. I've put 90.00 in one part and other than a battery and oil changes that's all I've spent. You got a good truck, just get you a big enough trailer, you don't have to load it to capicity everytime that way. Also if buying a new trailer,make sure it dosen't have those damn chinese made tires on it. We bought a 28 foot gooseneck tandem axle/duals
flatbed to haul equipment on, and I didn't realize the tire were the cheapy chinese tires, talk about blowouts.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

Whatever you get, make electric brakes a mandatory item to either come on it or get retrofitted onto it before you use it much. You can pull more than you can stop.

Ian

 

[banshee67]

You can pull more than you can stop.

!

 

[wdchuck]

I may have missed it, but many rental stores have trailers up to 16feet long, dual axles.

It might be worth the money to rent a couple different trailers, go get some wood for the day, and see what you/truck are comfortable with.

 

[KMB]

Whatever you get, make electric brakes a mandatory item to either come on it or get retrofitted onto it before you use it much. You can pull more than you can stop.

Ian

:agree2:

Kevin

 

[kimcoulee]

seeking opinions

Trailer opinions...let's hear what you think about this one. I have 20 acres of tops and several farm fence rows free for the cutting but I need a trailer. After looking for months I've come across a converted tandum axel boat trailer. 24" bed heigth, 52"x13' diamond plate bed , ramps, stake pockets for custom sides I'd plan on making out of 2x8's attached to steel tube uprights. Great safety chains, hitch, cable winch, tounge jack, D rings.

In the field I'd cut to 48" lengths and load, transport home then roll off each each log to a roller conveyor, cut 16" pieces and drop into an elevator then to a corn crib. Getting old(er) and trying to work smarter than harder.

The trailer is big/long enough to take an ATV and a small trailer to the cutting site to get into hard to get places. The only negative I can think of is 12" tires (their new and C rated) and no trailer brakes. I'd pull it with a 4Runner. Pretty sure a G note would buy it. Opinions please.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

I don't like the looks of it, so I think I'd pass and look for something better/cheaper. I saw a new 6x12 tandem with brakes around here for $1200 last year. How thick is that diamond plate? Seems like that would make for a heavy trailer.

Ian

 

[giXXer]

Trailer opinions...let's hear what you think about this one. I have 20 acres of tops and several farm fence rows free for the cutting but I need a trailer. After looking for months I've come across a converted tandum axel boat trailer. 24" bed heigth, 52"x13' diamond plate bed , ramps, stake pockets for custom sides I'd plan on making out of 2x8's attached to steel tube uprights. Great safety chains, hitch, cable winch, tounge jack, D rings.

In the field I'd cut to 48" lengths and load, transport home then roll off each each log to a roller conveyor, cut 16" pieces and drop into an elevator then to a corn crib. Getting old(er) and trying to work smarter than harder.

The trailer is big/long enough to take an ATV and a small trailer to the cutting site to get into hard to get places. The only negative I can think of is 12" tires (their new and C rated) and no trailer brakes. I'd pull it with a 4Runner. Pretty sure a G note would buy it. Opinions please.

One disadvantage is you'll have to leave the quad and trailer at the cutting site because it doesn't look like there is quite enough room to haul the wood as well. I feel the same about the 14" tires and no brakes. It may indicate that it is intended to be a light duty trailer. If you can find out what type/weight of boat it was built for that may be advantageous. Since you are using a 4runner to haul it, if you don't have to travel a long distance, you could just do light loads. Also, if you are considering a trailer with brakes, does your 4runner have an electric brake controller? Is that something that you are willing to install? Granted, the price on the controllers have come down substantially, but it's still an expense. The removable sides, however, might be the ticket for you since you want to roll the wood off the trailer.

I firmly believe that there is a seat for every hind end and since you have a very capable, durable truck, but not exactly the heaviest duty, this lighter duty trailer may work great if you are willing to load it accordingly. I typically try to "supersize" things a little so I am not running at my equipments' limits and I still seem to find a way to find the weak link. If you plan on keeping the trailer for a while you might want to wait a little bit, keep your eyes open in the paper and craigslist to find something that will last a long time and you don't have to worry about overloading.

 

[indiansprings]

I'd pass on the boat trailer conversion. Everyone needs to remember a axle rating doesn't mean it can carry that as much as cargo, the weight of trailer itself is included in that capacity, if the axle is rated at 3500 lbs and the trailer frame/flooring/fenders etc weigh 1000 lbs your load capacity is now down to 2500 lbs, most do not take this into account.
Always, always get more capactiy than you think you'll ever need. Most almost always wind up exceeding the trailers capacity.
Tandem axle is the only way to go for safety in my opinion, think of blowing a tire going fifty mile an hour with a cord and a half on the trailer, it'll whip your azz to death, could over turn the towing vehicle. On the farm we use many different trailers, gooseneck tandem duals, stock trailers, everything down to little 5' x 8' mesh floor trailer set up to pull our welding equipment. In the wood business, we use a 16' tandem trailer with 7500 lbs axles and 18" sides we can get a little over two cord on it safely with out any danger of wood falling off. We use an old 71 chevy half ton bed and frame converted to a trailer to pull wood out of areas that are too rough or confined to use longer trailers in, we can load a full cord on it, but it is overloaded, we've used it in this manner since 1978 and had no issues.
Around here you can buy new 16' tandem trailer's with 18" sides with two 3500 lbs axles for a 1000.00 bucks anyday of the weeks with ramps included.
Used anywhere from 450.00 to 800.00 bucks, shop around and get a good trailer, boat trailers are pretty dang light to start with.

 

[gwiley]

boat trailer may be bad choice

A friend of mine bought a converted boat trailer with 2 axles and brakes. He went to load a skid steer on it and promptly turned it into a beavertail

Be careful , especially with converted trailers. All of the components need to be up to strength for hauling heavy loads - strong axles with a tin foil frame won't accomplish what you are looking for.

 

[A. Stanton]

E,
Get a trailer big enough for all the toys you will be buying in the future, but don't know yet. Like a tractor.
Figure 7K towing capacity.
Good Luck.

 

[gwiley]

E,
Get a trailer big enough for all the toys you will be buying in the future, but don't know yet. Like a tractor.
Figure 7K towing capacity.
Good Luck.

If you follow this advice (buying for the future) might want to go 10K...small skid steers weight around 5,000, trailer weighs 2,000 - doesn't leave any margin for attachments or gear.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

One more bit of advice for searching CL. People can't spell worth a crap. Search using common spelling errors. I found a 12' tandem axle goose neck flat bed trailer for $650 today under "trailor". Too bad I don't have $650 available or it would be mine.

Ian