Gooseneck trailer

I am looking at buyin either a new ford f350 of chevy 3500 and will need a gooseneck trailer to haul. I will be hauling at the heaviest an oliver 1650 with a loader. I will be hauling hay almost everyday in the summer, would like to fit 200 to 250 bales on at once. How long of a trailer am I looking for and how much capacity do I need?

24 foot tandem dually with deck-over-hitch and two trailer jacks.

What Ron in MD said... I've got a 20+4 and without loading the dovetail I run about 187-188. 214-215 if I brace and load the back too. Thats about all the weight I want on too. Personally I dont like to load over the neck. That just transfers too much weight to the truck. Reloading on the side of the highway is far worse than making an extra trip.

I'd agree with what kyhaman and RobMD said. Although I am not sure you need a dually. I have a 20+5 with 2 7k axles. My hay load is exactly what kyhayman described.

Weather you need duals or not is dependant on how much balast you have on your 1650. If your tractor weighs over 10k then the duals make sense.

Let me see 200 bales at 80# per equals 16000 lb plus weight of trailer, probably 6000 lb, makes a 22,000 lb total load. Might be a touch heavy for a one ton. My guess is that F350 is rated at a toal weight of 16,000.

Lets be honest- HOw many guys actually have bales that weigh 80 lbs? Our bales are packed pretty tight and at most they weigh 45 lbs., and those are heavy bales. One neighbor made slightly longer bales and his pushed just over 50-55 lbs.

Unless he's got a 3 string or a wire tie baler, theres no way guy's gonna want to handle 80# bales every day. Certainly not me.

Donovan from Wisconsin

Don't forget your ratchet straps...rehandling a shifted load or worse, having to reload a trailer when most of the load falls off while in motion is a real pain...especially as you'rea heck of alot more tired on the homeward bound leg after loading. Northern has a pretty good price on 27' straps which should secure 5 layers on an 8' flatbed.

So how many think I need a dual tandem or could I get by with single tandem?

Back when we 'did' that, we tried to average 55 or 60# bales; different parts of the country.........most folks around 'here' routinely haul 20-25,000 lb total weight w/a ton truck.

Never heard anyone say that they wished they'd bought a smaller trailer..............

I don't see why a single tandem won't serve you just fine. I have a 14,000lb trailer (2-7000lb axles) and I don't think twice about putting 12 1000+ lb round bales of hay on it. Also have hauled many tractors that I know were 10,000lbs+.

I've got two 7000 pound axles. I've never bent an axle. With 188 small squares I've never had any problems. With rounds a few times I've had tire problems, when I bought some 5x5's. 4x5's or 4x4s its never been a problem.

With that said, I really want to get a 24 or 26 footer with dual tandems. Not for hay hauling, what I've got is plenty. Mainly for hauling equipment. My heaviest tractor with loader and fluid in the tires runs right at 11,000 pounds. I rarely haul it myself. Same with the dozer, its 17,000 and I have to hire it hauled. Of course I can hire a lot of hauling for the cost of the trailer.

This forum is the land of opinions and few are exactly the same.

I have a tri axle 25' straight gooseneck...no dovetail, with 7,000 axles. I didn't buy it to play tractor-n-trailer..just got a deal on it and use it to haul my tractor on occasion, which might go 8500-9000 total. I yank it with my 4 wd 1/2 ton pu and it handles well enough. However, even if I had a ton truck to pull it with...I still wouldn't want to load it to the gills and have the tail wag the dog. I see it everyday out here in the country where I live. Neighbors go buy a dually and pretend their gooseneck is a single axle Mack with a Freuhauf tied on behind. Well...it ain't!

I do have a a couple of neighbors who have actually bought single axle tractors to pull their GN's with and it is a fantastic combination. They have power to spare, cheap to buy, generally use no more fuel than a dogged one ton or dually, the brakes are 500% superior and they just play with whatever load you can pile on a GN trailer. They never have transmission troubles either. That would be the way I would go if I wanted to have a great GN puller. Yellow Freight and similar outfits sell their older tractors that have lots of farm life left in them and usually for less than $5,000. My neighbor down the road bought 2 from Yellow...one for $2800 and the other for $3500. He runs the innards out them and his dually left the farm.

I would go with the dual tandem (I did). Rarely have to worry about overloading, tires last a lot longer, more stable, and if you blow a tire, you don"t have to stop until you want to.

That fellow at the bottom made a GREAT point about buying a heavy duty truck. You should be able to find a good single axle medium duty REAL truck from Navistar,Pererbuilt,Freightliner etc.
You will be WAY farther ahead. At the very least get a Dodge with the Cummins Diesel. Chevy likely won't be around after June 1

I will never own another tandum dual trailer. I now have a Donahue 29"triple axle trailer with the expandable deck rated at 21,000 and tow with a Ford F-350 4x4 with single rear wheels. I don"t tow big loads every day but once or twice a week is not uncomon. Truck weights 10,000lbs, trailer weights 7,000 lbs and hay or tractor weights 15,000lbs. That is just shy of 32,000lbs I am taged for 36,000 and run 14 ply tires on truck and trailer. My hauls are short distance usually less than 30 miles and it handles fine. The triple axle trailers have a wider frame and are more stable. This trailer has brakes on all 3 axles and stops the load great. If I was hauling farther or more often I would consider a road tractor, but the added cost of feeding and servicing another motor are not in the budget.

i pull a 39ft protrac from texas. it is a 102inch wide deck and deck over the neck. dual tamdems. have had no problems, love it. it is also a peirce frame model that will lower the deck hight from 36 inch to 31 inchs. with duals you will be getting a 20 to 25k rating and if you cut down or blow a tire you can still keep going. with a 3 axle every time you turn you put lots of stress on the rear axle and it slides the tires a lot more than duals.been there done it.
1) dual tamdens
2) peirced frame
3)30ft deck = you will be hauling more than hay
4)try and get one close for warranty reasons
5) radials no foreign tires
6) full brass valve stems no rubber
7)no 2003 and later ford deisels
8)single axle tractor would be like carring a stick 1 ton would be like caring a tree.
will need a cdl anyways go all the way and be lots safer. my take on trailers

Just remember that when you go over a 1-ton truck, you generally get into higher insurance premiums. Might not be worth it to you if you don't haul a lot that often.

Just my $.02
Scott