Answer to trailer design flaw

jon f mn

Well-known Member
Several have aske what the answer was to the design flaw question yesterday so here it is. The trailer was designed for a customer that had an employee hurt his back lifting ramps. Some trailer builders had started to put together tilt trailers to address that problem. The fault with those is there was no where to put attachments and other stuff and still be able to get the skidloader on and off. So this was my answer. You can put all your stuff on the front and still load and unload the skid from the back. It was designed to back the loader on which would position it correctly over the axles. It has had 3 owners so far and ALL of them have refused to back the loaders on. I don't really know why, but they won't. The first flaw was made worse by this and that is that the ramp part is to steep. You can easily get on if you back on, but driving forward was tough if the deck was slippery. So to fix that I took out the straight axles and put in 4" drop axles. That lowered it enough to work great no matter how they loaded. The other problem was the 4" tube across the back. When they try to drive on the front wheels climb it easily, but when the rear wheels hit the tube it would try to tip back. So I cut the tube off and replaced it with a 2x2x1/4" angle to support the boards and moved the lights to the side. This eliminated the center ID lights which makes it technically illegal, but it's been through several dot inspections and has never been ticketed for that.
Also some asked about the tilt. The rear section is made to almost perfectly balance with just a slight preference to the rear. So when it's empty and you want to load you pull the spring loaded latch and it will just drop down in the back. If you want to bring it up for transport you just walk up it and it tilts down and latches. When you load the skid loader you just drive or back on til it over centers and it drops down and latches. Yes you do have to go slow and cautious when driving on and off right at the tip point so you don't go to fast.
As for the axles being to far forward that some mentioned that's because of the length needed for loading and all three owners knew and had no problem with thinking of that part as just ramps and not for hauling so the axles were in a good spot if you take that into account.
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That is strange that they wouldn't take your word for it about backing the machine on, but they would take your word for it about not loading things on the tail end of the trailer...
 
I think they were afraid to back it on, altho that
doesn't make sense to me either since I feel safer
backing. It also puts the bucket on the front flat
which uses a quite a bit of their hauling area.
 
Another problem with the trailer is if you put a large car on it or truck the bed wants to tilt up behind the front wheels when backing it off,before you get the car on the rear section,you can keep the lock on and get the car on the rear and release it,but then it is hard to disengage.Also driving on is very steep with any vehicle.
 
It was designed as a skidloader trailer so cars and farm tractors were never a consideration. However it does work for cars if you drive them on, they will JUST tip down. Not for pickups tho they are to heavy in the rear, don't know about the heavier diesels as far as I know that's never been tried.
 
The trailer looks so oddly proportioned I would never buy it if it was on an auction or something... I'd think it was just a screwup from the manufacturer...

With your explanations I see it is a very purpose-built trailer and likely would work for that, but I'd want a more universally usable trailer not so special built for one job.

In the other thread I noticed that bottom lip was awful tall to drive over, but the thread was kinda ugly by then so I didnT want to get involved.

Paul
 
Anybody that drives a skid steer on a trailer forward is a squid unless they have a heavy attachment on the front. With just a bucket you'll tip backwards onto the frame. I'm surprised that isn't enough to scare people into backing them on. Driving down the road with all the weight on the back of the trailer would have the tail wagging the dog and be really scary.
 
I always backed mine on when I hauled it around. It seemed like the trailer pulled better with more weight on the front.
 
Around these parts you almost never see a skidsteer backed onto a trailer, all of them are driven on, backed off. Argue good bad, stupid, ignorant or whatever you wish but the people who are doing the work want to drive them on the trailer and back them off. I cant say why others load that way but I can tell you why I do, ease of alignment. Only a first day skidsteer operator is afraid of a little wheelie however backing one on a trailer is almost blind work, you dont know where the ramps are or how you are squared with the trailer. If you drive the skid steer on the trailer. You can access alignment two ways to unload. By looking before you get in it and by looking at the boards on the trailer as you back off. My Dynaweld skidsteer trailer was built to accommodate one loaded front forward via placement of axles and tie downs as are most others.
 
Where do you put the License plate and the light to the License plate?

For the what it's worth, I put springs on my ramps. I'm getting old and they are getting too heavy.

I modified the knees on my ramps so the ramps would not kick up. I also made the knees shorter so when I'm driving my backhoe on the trailer, the springs on the trailer are compressed a little making the incline angle safer and easier.
 
(quoted from post at 11:49:06 03/22/13) Where do you put the License plate and the light to the License plate?

For the what it's worth, I put springs on my ramps. I'm getting old and they are getting too heavy.

I modified the knees on my ramps so the ramps would not kick up. I also made the knees shorter so when I'm driving my backhoe on the trailer, the springs on the trailer are compressed a little making the incline angle safer and easier.

Most I have seen are on the fender.
 
Looking at the pics, there is no bracket or light. Is it legal to put the plate on the fender without a light?
 
Might not be legal but I've never been pulled over for no light on the license plate or ever been dinged on an inspection.
 
A lot of times you carry another bucket or attachment at the front of the trailer. If you drive on your weight is too far back. If you drive on and then back off, isn't that blind too with the added danger of abruptly falling backward on the skid steer frame a foot or more off the ground? A long wheelbase machine will drive on easier than a short wheelbase machine but around here only the newbie's ever drive them on the trailer.
 
I've never found a plate light that will hold up for more that a few months and my thoughts are that a broken light draws more attention than no light, so I don't use them. To my knowledge no one has ever had a problem with that. In Mn. small trailers, less than 3000 lbs, don't use plates anyway only a tag on the tongue. On this trailer they just bolted the plate to the fender.
 

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