Tiltbed or Dovetail w/ramps???

Hey guys! So I'm in the market for a trailer and I'm looking at 18' bumper pull trailers with 10,000 GVWR. This will handle 90% or more of what I generally haul. What is either too heavy, or too wide to fit on this trailer, I can borrow my dad's gooseneck deckover for. Anyway, I've only ever used dovetail trailers with ramps, but the tiltbeds seem pretty slick. Im really leaning towards the tiltbed but am looking for some input from people that have them or have used them. I guess my biggest concern is ease of loading a tractor on one (tilt angle too steep?), and the fact that the axles are moved forward on the tiltbed trailers.

What do you think? Which do you prefer and why???

Pictures are representative of what I'm looking at. Thanks!
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I have a 5 ton tilt bed and absolutly love it..Make sure your trailer is well balanced so that you can tilt it with your own weight--also when you load a machine on it won't overload the ball hitch--only down fall is its only 69 inches wide between fender wells
 
I had a P&J 24 tilt trailer. It was a over the wheel tilt. I liked how it was easy to load but the axles where centered to allow it to tilt correctly. That made it almost balanced when empty. It really hammered the ball and made for a general rough ride. I traded it in on a flat with just a hydraulic tail.
 
The last trailer I rented was a 20 foot bed trailer. Only 16 foot actually tilted, the other 4 foot was rigid at the front of the trailer. The tilt section was perfectly balanced, pull the pin and step on the back and it came down with only my weight. Worked great, if I was going to buy one it would be this configuration.
 
Use a tilt bed at work, haul at least 1 piece of equipment a week pulled by a 2500hd with a 6.0. Tractors have to back on or the front comes up. Skid loaders can drive up if they have a bucket and no rear weights, if they don't have a bucket they wheelie to the point of you back down the trailer or flip it. No weights and a bucket and they drive up fine. Can also drive up lawn mowers with no problem. This tilt bed is hydraulic cylinder. Pivots in the middle, have seen some pivot at the front tongue area, would think there would be less angle with that. Oh tractors with loaders can drive up as well.
 
You get a tilt bed you better put a winch on it. At several tractor pulls last summer we had several guys come in with tilt bed trailer. several of the pulls got rained out and the guys with tilt beds had trouble loading. The only one that didn't was the one that had a winch. The guys that had wood cover dovetail also had problems.
 
I have a 18 ft Hawk hydraulic tilt bed trailer with the cylinder under the bed absolutely love it.Put on a 12,000 electric winch (300$ from Harbor Freight) and its the most handy thing around.Great not have to fool with ramps and I can drag equipment on no problem
 
Only one problem with that trailer is once you put one tractor on trailer you can't tilt it to put another one on trailer.
 
I love mine bought it in 2014.. Its a 10k, Electric tilt with wireless remote(works great with a hand clutch tractor), the fender width floor i feel gives me more confidence trying to hit my mark plus its nicer to be able to walk around while loaded. My friend also bought from Craig after seeing mine and watching me use it.
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What length is yours? No issues driving the tractor on? Ever load with a wet deck? I would probably just go with the manual tilt for now. Thanks for the pictures! Nice to hear some first hand experience from someone with basically the exact same trailer.
 
No you can't with a trailer that he described with the 4 foot that doesn't tilt. Now yours the whole bed tilts.
 
Told beds are handy to load a tractor, but are a pain to load or unload more than one item. My customers who only hauled a tractor liked them, those that hauled implements didn't. The slippery bed can be an issue too, I ended up bolting small channels down for traction on the tilt beds.
 
(quoted from post at 03:29:17 03/18/16) Did it tilt like this? I was really wanting to go with the tilt to eliminate messing with ramps but now I don't know...
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no it titled like this
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I agree with John F. I have attachments for my compact track loader that I haul. That would be a disaster for loading for me.
A contractor I know has a bigger trailer with a tilt bed. If it's a little wet the 4 wheel drive backhoe loader spins while loading.
DWF
 
I have a 28 foot PJ bumper pull tilt trailer (bed over the wheels) that I use for hauling non running vehicles. Pulls nice, doesn't jerk the truck. I just need to devise a place for a winch. Been using a 4 ton come-a-long to get stuff on.
 
I bought a PJ drop axle trailer. It gets me pretty close to the ground for loading. The rear gate is really solid on these units and I drive my 2,500 lb. tractor on without problems. I had a guy watch as I loaded it the first time and he said it didn't flex when I did it. My only regret is I should have bought one with the winch mount. Mine was special ordered since I wanted a 5,000 lb. axle.
 
I have a manual pump tilt bed from Hull back when they were still called H&H. Yes it's nice to not have ramps, but if you have to tilt it with something on it, you will regret not having the power tilt. If the deck is wet, you will have trouble getting anything on it without a winch. I would not think twice about having them install a winch and power tilt if I had it to do all over again.
 
Sorry its been awhile. My Hull Trailer is a 18 ft. 10k full electric tilt with wireless remote a 2014 model. Never had a problem loading anything at anytime. Bought the wireless for that reason. I can pull up onto the trailer and if i need to I can lower the deck to make it easier. Ive also have a winch, I installed to load anything that isn't a running or driving thing.
Talk with Craig and work out your needs.. He's a good man.
 
I've got an 18 foot tilt bed, and love it. To address the drawbacks listed by others:
Once tilted, you can't get another tractor on it. Not a problem, because with an 18 footer, you can only haul one tractor anyhow.
Wood deck is slippery when wet. Yes, it is. Put strips of expanded metal on each side, where the wheels on the tractor will run. Or the economy solution is to nail on some asphalt shingles.
I like mine better than yours, because it has a better tilt setup. It has a hydraulic floor jack mounted under the front, instead of the cylinder, and the front of the bed just rests on the business end of the jack (of course, it has pins to hold it down). The advantage? Just unpin the front of the bed, drive the tractor up to the back of the trailer, give it a little nudge, and the bed tilts, and you drive on. Once you are over-center, bed comes back down, and you're done. With yours, you have to get off and lower the cylinder, and lots of tractors will have trouble staying put while you do that.
Even so, you'll like the tilt bed a lot better than ramps.
 
Have a guy that I know that goes to a lot of tractor shows a year and bought a Sure Trac 20 ft. ( electric hydraulic) tilt low pro file deck over. He used it one season and has traded it off for a 24 ft. low profile deck over with ramps. He said it was a pain in the neck to load two tractor and did like loading when wet even with expanded metal on floor.
 
One more thing to think about is that most of these old tractors don't have the greatest brakes. When driving up on to a hydraulic tilt trailer, that could be an issue. Usually you can get stopped with no problem once you get on to a flat trailer with a dovetail.
 
I have never been around one of the tilt trailers but it looks like I would have issues with them due to the points others have brought up. For safety and convenience reasons I wanted to put full width ramps on the rear of my gooseneck but then I would have a problem due to the weight of the ramps. So, I decided to put a hydraulic lift on the full ramps to solve both issues. It is really nice to be able to load/unload without worrying about ramp alignment or wrestling with the ramps at the end of a hot day. I have had them on there for about 4 years and they work great.
Hope the link below works.

 
Thanks for getting back to us. Went ahead and ordered an 18' manual tilt, 10k with winch plate, rub rails and mounted spare. Figure I can always convert to hydraulic tilt later, and add a winch if I find I need it. Now just have to wait 14 weeks to get it! :(
 
Good for you.. The winch plate is a smart move.. I ordered the same in 2014 and didn't install a winch until last month. If you're trying to save a few bucks i understand, but adding hydraulic tilt to it at a later date. Im sure it will cost more and be a pain is the butt to do it. My advice is do it now, PLUS you'll have a nice big battery set up for a winch down the road... Just my 2 cents worth.
I did see they are 14 weeks out.. when i ordered mine it was 6 weeks. Melissa runs a tight shop over there it will be on schedule. Its a great trailer and certainly get more for your money doing business with them.
By the way I live over 500 miles away from them and even with the 1000 + miles it still was a better deal than everywhere I looked. I also have 2 friends wafter seeing mine work and being used, have bought from them and did the 1000 mile trip too.. so that says something.
Best of luck to you...
 
I have both types and each has it's good and bad points. My tilt bed a low bed type P&J with a 16' tilting section and 4' of stationary floor, 14,000GVW. It is the perfect companion my for regular type goose neck equipment trailer. I added power tilt, it is a very easy and worthwhile addition.
 
Friend of mine has a tilt deck trailer. He may move equipment 3 or 4 times a day, that's why he prefers them. My dovetail trailer with ramps hasn't been used in over 3 months. A lot less money and works fine for me.
 
Good to see you decided 0n what you wanted. I see it still takes 14 weeks to get a new trailer. I bought my deck over in 2012 and I was told by all dealers the same thing except one dealer that had a stock order trailer that was coming in and he called factory and changed trailer to what I wanted on it and had it in 5 weeks. I looked at a lot of different trailers before I bought the low profile (31") deck over . Somebody said ramps are hard to stand up but with the new spring assist ramps a woman or 10 year old kid can lift them.
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Wish I'd seen this discussion sooner because when you're talking about low-profile trailers with the deck between the wheels, there really isn't a huge advantage to a tilt deck in my mind.

A fixed deck trailer with a short BEAVERtail has such a low load height and load angle that a full tilt deck is really just unnecessary complexity and expense. I'm glad you guys who have them like 'em but they're just not for me.
 

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