Trailer - school me some

Here's mine. Wouldn't mind a gooseneck but I really don't have a need for one right now. I have some marks on mine from various cars and equipment for tongue weights. Trailer works well for what I do.

 

Keep in mind that with a gooseneck trailer you need to pay close attention to the payload of your truck and the Gross Axle Weight Rating on your truck. A goose neck usually puts a significant load on the truck when compared to a bumper pull causing the trucks payload capacity to get maxed out long before you reach the max pulling weight of the trailer and this is especially true for half ton trucks.

 

Growing up we had a lot of goose neck grain trailers, stock trailers, and flatbeds. I like them for some things and dislike them for others. It is really a personal choice. The hardest thing for me to learn to backup was a haywagon attached to a baler attached to a tractor............ That one took a while but our older neighbor sure did make it look like a piece of cake

 

I have one and the only thing it lacks is enough stake pockets. Those are easy enough to add though.

Be careful - it's pretty easy with a large trailer to overload it with firewood. Keep in mind the weight of a cord and the empty trailer weight.

Having an oversized trailer is rarely a downside - the brakes are more stable, it dances less when empty, and is definitely more versatile. Unless it's a deckover, see if the fenders are removable since that makes loading things easier with a forklift.

I dunno about ramps. I considered a tilt deck and went with a pair of slide-away ramps and they work well for me. I've hauled my tractor, mower, and cargo with it - in fact everything but the sportscar I bought it to haul.

I know you have a budget, but I opted to avoid the affordable steel trailer and spend for aluminum. My reason was because aluminum never seems to go down in price and steel trailers eventually dissolve into nothing of value. So if in a few years I decide mine isn't ideal, I can probably get out of it for about what I paid. Bonus: lighter trailer = more weight capacity.

 

Backing up a wagon is an art. I still can't do it (well) after all those years baling hay. I know an old timer who can back two wagons into the barn with a beer in one hand. You could give me all day and all I'd have to show for it is a smoked clutch.

 

I might as well describe my trailer. It is an 18' aluminum utility trailer. It is a 7000 lb rated model, brakes on both axles and has the slide in ramps. It has stake pockets, although I have never put sides on it.
The slide out ramps allow me to hang things over the back. When I have my bush hog on my tractor, I let the tail wheel hang over the end. Contractor ramps would not allow me to do this.
My trailer weighs 1200 lbs empty, giving me a payload of 5800lbs, which is more than I need. If your truck can pull a 10k trailer, I would recommend for future uses. It doe not cost thT much more to get a 10k trailer. Now that I have new truck, I wish I would have got the heavier trailer, although I don't have a current need for it.

 

I have a 16ft car hauler dovetail type. The dovetail makes loading easier but you loose the use of that 2 foot sometimes depending g upon what it is cause it may hit the road if it overhangs. Also they drag off road bad and pulling into parking lots from road sometimes.

My tractor is right at 2000# I haul it a 500# bush hog and a 500# disk and sometimes the box blade as well. Its an economy model and only a few stake pockets but has paid me back in useful less.

 

Around here its looking like $3k new for a 16' 7k car hauler, wood bed, slide in ramps. A couple hundred more for 18' and a whole lot more to step up to 10k.

Might save a few hundred down south.

Used prices are anywhere from $1k for junk or $2800 for a 10 year old unit. Pretty much as everyone thought.

Inventory looks slim at the end of the year, just got a text from my wife's friend who has paying tractor work plus a good size oak coming down. "But I want it nowwwwww daddy." I will drag my feet or take a trip depending on how anxious I get.

 

Dont buy a used one. They hold value or people think they do for some reason!!!

I honestly would get the 18 if only a few hundred more. There are times where I wish I had that bother two feet.

You can get a new landscape 16 foot with sides and two 3500 axles, no brakes no ramps ( and when i looked they welded a 5000# coupler on a 7000# trailer effectively downgrading it to 5k???)down here for $1400

 

Find me a car hauler with brakes and stick to 16'.... How far is SC in hours, gotta be 20 or so from southern MA?

 

Yea about that. I think when we were In NH it was like a 17 hour drive. We flew but parents had driven it before. And when I went to kittery I thinking was an hour or two up the road? So just at 20.

I'm just above augusta GA. Right on the stated line of SC/GA.

Find you one down here and I will put you up for the night...hope you dont mind playing with a toddler!!! And you can tow it back

 

Well a 7000 pound coupler and trailer is still only a 5500# trailer. Still have to take the weight of trailer out.

I didnt say I would buy one. Just what I saw.

I dont have brakes on my car hauler. There sold all over the south without them. One day I will put them on an axle.but....

 

It's a little too soon right now, but I'll be selling mine within the next year or two for a dump box. Whenever I do drop mine I'll post it here for a little less than what I would want elsewhere.

 

I would look for E rated tires. Our 16ft stock trailer is a 7k trailer and that's what we run. My smaller utility trailer has actual trailer tires as in not for vehicles or whatever stamped on the tires. They are also E rated.