Gooseneck trailer

77olie88

New User
Looking for opinions on axles. I am looking to buy a new trailer and I was wondering what the pros and cons are on torsion axle vs. leaf spring? I am looking at either a 7K or 8K axle.
 
If you are on the road and have trouble with a leaf spring chances are there is going to be a shop close that can change a spring out for you. A torsion spring is a different animal and good luck finding somebody to do it for you. You will find the 8K axles are going to be a lot heavier than the 7's. Bigger brakes and lug bolts, heavier bearings also. Well worth the little extra. Then have them put a set of 9k springs on them and you will have it about perfect. Look into them heavy springs and you'll see the advantages besides the heavier rating.
 
Torsion axles give a very smooth ride on the highway,but are not as durable as the spring setup. If you are doing a lot of highway hauling.I'd go with the torsions. If you are going to haul off road ,in fields etc,I'd get the springs. Torsion axles are not repairable if you damage one and they are expensive to replace. 2- 8000# axles hooked to the right tow vehicle could get you into CDL territory.
 
I will disagree about torsion axles giving a smoother ride.I had a tandem gooseneck with torsion,rode like a lumber wagon when empty.Loaded not too bad,bought a tandem dual spring ride,its rides way better empty or loaded..
 
Appearently whoever built the trailer did not get the axles placed right. I have built a lot of trailers and have used both types and have pulled both types a lot of miles. I had a 48ft 3 car hauler and hauled auction cars to and from dealers. It floated along like a feather. I have 3 trailers now. 1 torsion and 2 without and there is no comparison as far as I am concerned.
 
ive got both styles leaf springs on my haulers and torsion on a horse trailer, [ 4 horse gooseneck], they ride ok loaded but the torsion seems a little stiff when running empty, it may be just a light trailer though, my biggest concern would be breaking something and not finding parts when on the road,, a trailer is something to carefully consider when purchasing do it right and you'll have it for as long as you care to pull it if you maintain it, get it wrong, and i did a couple times, and you wind up with a miserable experience, and a trailer that wont do what you wanted it for and then you either change to make the trailer work or sell it, lose money selling it, and lose more money when you buy another that will do the job, consider all present and future likely needs for it, as well as what you have for a power unit, you may need to upgrade the power unit to a larger truck if you need more chassis to run leagle, as seen in other posts, the days of a 1 ton pickup dragging 20 grand of weight behind it is rapidly coming to a close, your engine may pull the load, but the whole rest of the truck is still a 1 ton pickup, thats why they make medium duty trucks , the whole truck must be matched to its job to be safe,and to last and give a long service life, you not only got to pull the load you have to stop it too as well as handle the weight, i cant be the only man who has seen a 1 ton with the cab and the bed touching due to hooking too big of a load,or carrying too much weight, and tweaking the trucks frame , careful planing means you have to drop the money only once to get what you need or will need in the future
 
I have had the torsion axles for over 20yrs on several trailers, I wouldn't have the spring axles if given the choice. A trailer mfg told n me in the many years he has used them he has had one failed axle, said customer admitted to being severely overloaded. This mfg sells hundreds of trailers every year and has been in business close to 40 yrs.
 
Our 16ft goose neck came new with springs but after thousands of miles they were shot even mounting brackets woreout so we had a welding shop put new torsion axles under and have ran thousands of more miles with no problems.The trailer will bounce more empty but works great loaded.
 
Have had both with no problems and the torsions do give a little bettter ride.Nothing compared to a semi trailer w/air ride.I prefer tandem axle dual wheel 32ft. trailers with 12000# axles.I realize it gets you into a a different class,but I only haul farm stuff for myself.I get stopped once in awhile and the last DOT officer was surpised when I told him to look at section 383 as it pertains to agriculture and he was a bit surprised at how it read.Told me to drive safely and I said Thanks!
 
I got my first torsion axle trailer in 2005, It is a 20 plus 5 deck-over gooseneck. Corn-pro brand. It has 2=7000 lb axles. It pulls really good, and if you are not careful, you will forget it's back there. One thing it is particular about is the height of your 5th wheel ball. It needs to have just a little preload on the ball. If you don't have enough weight on the truck empty it will shake you pretty bad. We have to move the hitch between my Ford and the sons Dodge. The easy work it gets is hauling antique pulling tractors. The hard work is hauling 14 bales a load out of the field.
 
We have a 24' deck and a 4' beavertail on our homemade gn trailer. It has 3 axles and has hauled a 20,000lbs backhoe with our half ton pickup with ease. We can haul 14 round bales of hay with it easily.
 
(quoted from post at 03:46:31 03/13/13) We have a 24' deck and a 4' beavertail on our homemade gn trailer. It has 3 axles and has hauled a 20,000lbs backhoe with our half ton pickup with ease. We can haul 14 round bales of hay with it easily.

all flat ground was it ?
 
(quoted from post at 17:25:55 02/02/13) Looking for opinions on axles. I am looking to buy a new trailer and I was wondering what the pros and cons are on torsion axle vs. leaf spring? I am looking at either a 7K or 8K axle.

torsions do not last to good at 30 be low
 

I think the biggest difference is in the equalizer. A spring axle trailer that isn't perfectly level will still load the axles pretty evenly, a torsion axle needs to be as close to level as possible to evenly load the axles. My wife's gn horse trailer will pick up the front tires when I unhook it from my flatbed truck, while a spring ride would keep them on the ground.

Also for tire changing, spring ride have an axle to place the jack under, torsion can be more challenging.

Tommy
 
'We have a 24' deck and a 4' beavertail on our homemade gn trailer. It has 3 axles and has hauled a 20,000lbs backhoe with our half ton pickup with ease. We can haul 14 round bales of hay with it easily.'



must be on flat ground for that to work mor than once or twice
 

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