Bronco car trailers

[ntsqd]

One of the features of the U-Haul car hauler trailers that I really like is how those ramps work and are stored. They slide under the trailer from the rear, but they are blocked from being easily removed. Pull them straight out until you hit the extension limit and then set your end on the ground. Fast, simple, and you're only ever lifting one end of the ramp.

Then there's my friend who typically doesn't use the ramps at all when he's loading a 4x4, only when he's loading a passenger car - which is rare for him. He just drives on in low range. A beaver tail would make that even less abusive to the TR's parking pawl. His trailer also has a serious anchor point centered at the front so that the vehicle can be winched on, but the trailer deliberately doesn't have a winch itself.

 

[ssray]

In my area tilt decks during winter are a death wish

That's probably how I should of worded it in my post. It can be bad here with snow. Fresh snow needs to be swept as the sun after the storm will start making a nice layer of ice on the deck underneath. Way too much work then.

Something interesting I found for folks out west and north. I assumed there would be manufacturers closer out there that would be more prevalent due to shipping. Skimming three dealers out there (Nampa IA Richland WA Hendersen MT) I ran across 7 manufacturers. UT 1 MN 1 OK 1 IA 2 IN 2
Kinda surprised me.

 

[ssray]

Trying to think of potentially fending off problems in the future when I get old...lol... ( I'm old now, but i'm doing dang good

Kinda crossing posts here as I was composing when you posted. Been nursing a wounded shoulder for a while now. Not even sure what I did but I suspect I over worked it taking down trees.
I was gonna drop a line about an H & H dealer in Henderson MT that has some steel tilt decks listed. Looks like 800 lbs more than Al. Around $10k. I think mine was north of $7k back when I got it and steel would have been less. They really have gone up.
I'd mentioned cattle panel before and it just hit me the other day strips for each side could have pieces welded on to just drop into the stake pockets so you could just pop them on when needed in the winter. I'm not recommending them in leu of cleaning the deck, just that I found it doesn't take much snow on skid steer tires to set things in motion in a bad way. I'm thinking the mesh would have enogh bite to work. Whether it would be hard on the deck I cant say.
Mines getting hooked up today to haul a big pile of small branch trimmings to the dump.

 

[Yeller]

One of the features of the U-Haul car hauler trailers that I really like is how those ramps work and are stored. They slide under the trailer from the rear, but they are blocked from being easily removed. Pull them straight out until you hit the extension limit and then set your end on the ground. Fast, simple, and you're only ever lifting one end of the ramp.

This is how my single axle ramps work, don't often get used but nice when they do. This particular trailer typically hauls just vehicles but occasionally hauls steel, lumber, etc. The dove tail is 4' long and drops 4", the trailer is fairly low in the rear at 16" to the top of the rear rail. It does occasionally drag, but it has plenty of skid plate, I added some AR500 pads to the outside rear corners, it just glides along LOL

 

[ntsqd]

Rebuilt a boat trailer for a 390 Mid-Riser powered jet boat as one of the projects when I was working at the racing engines shop. SBC wrist pins were over in that 55 gallon drum along with all of the other used wrist pins. Grabbed two of them to be drag rollers fitted into the bottom of the rear-most cross-member in the trailer frame. Didn't know about AR500 then. BTW, that stuff sucks to try to machine!

 

[gnpenning]

I was gonna drop a line about an H & H dealer in Henderson MT that has some steel tilt decks listed. Looks like 800 lbs more than Al. Around $10k.

I haven't checked for a few years, the last I checked this manufacturer had terrible reviews. The reviews were centered around warranty work. He was in the Bitterroot valley at the time and I had stopped in and looked at his trailers at one point. Don't know if anything has changed since.

 

[nvrstuk]

That's probably how I should of worded it in my post. It can be bad here with snow. Fresh snow needs to be swept as the sun after the storm will start making a nice layer of ice on the deck underneath. Way too much work then.

Something interesting I found for folks out west and north. I assumed there would be manufacturers closer out there that would be more prevalent due to shipping. Skimming three dealers out there (Nampa IA Richland WA Hendersen MT) I ran across 7 manufacturers. UT 1 MN 1 OK 1 IA 2 IN 2
Kinda surprised me.

What trailer outfit in Richland Wa?

I found a trailer that checked off all the "wants", but it's only made in Pennsylvania... that's over 2k miles each way... lot of fuel & rest stop sleep overs! lol


I'm going to have to find a Uhaul dealer & check out those rear facing ramps... that would entirely rule out the need for a tilt deck.

 

[ntsqd]

Yeller's picture pretty much nails that feature, but there's a lot to like about the U-Haul car haul trailers. The more that you look at their design, the more interesting things pop up. Not all of them are desirable for a owner/user, some are really only desirable for a rental trailer.

Something that MISF did with that utility trailer build was to put a 7 blade RV light socket in the side of the tongue. Jumpers to go from that to any other tow rig light socket live in the tongue box. This also keeps the lighting pigtail from laying in the dirt and being exposed to the weather. We tell new borrowers that if they cut or splice an existing jumper to make it work for their tow rig that it will be the last time that they borrow it. The cost of borrowing the trailer is to build the needed jumper if there isn't one already. I've a couple friends who will, on occasion, loan their trailer(s) and each has at least one story of that happening to the light connector.

 

[ssray]

I didn't see them the other day but they are an H & H dealer. Only one listed, a split deck tilt. Never have run across those around here. Might be useful to have some deck space that doesnt tilt in some cases.
Gravity tilt
They show 7 brands. 2 more that are from Indiana, but Look Trailers has 6 regional plants. Seems like a lot of Suretrak around out there..

Washington Trailer Center

Washington Trailer Center
(509)420-5665
1947 Saint St
Richland , WA 99354

What trailer in Richland Wa?

 

[nvrstuk]

Checked out the site, will call tomorrow. thx!

 

[Broncobowsher]

Gravity tilt isn't as good in person as it looks on paper. It's best used for loading tractors. Knew one person who got one and go rid of it for a rgular trailer in less than a year.

 

[nvrstuk]

Gravity tilt isn't as good in person as it looks on paper. It's best used for loading tractors. Knew one person who got one and go rid of it for a rgular trailer in less than a year.

Gravity tilt with a hydraulic cylinder or just like an old farm tilt trailer meaning Ka-BAM when you get past center???

Just this afternoon I looked at two brands of 10K trailers and they both were running 5 lug wheels and 15" tires... that to me means they are skimping... one was built like my current one with 3" x 2" angle for cross pcs but supposedly a 10K trailer... NOT!

 

[bmc69]

If you are going to drive in CA, make sure that your trailer is de-rated. As soon as you hit 10K GVWR, you need a Commercial License here. Doesn't matter what you actually weigh.

If you have a modern HD pickup, it will easily push you past the 26K combined limit, and I think that's nationwide.

I sold our 20K 34' hydraulic dovetail gooseneck last year because, at 68 yo, keeping my class A CDL was becoming too much of a hassle. Our tow rig is an F-450, 14,000 GVW.

It was a sweet rig though...the dovetail would lift the front of a trail rig nicely to make repair work easy.

 

[Broncobowsher]

Gravity tilt with a hydraulic cylinder or just like an old farm tilt trailer meaning Ka-BAM when you get past center???

Just this afternoon I looked at two brands of 10K trailers and they both were running 5 lug wheels and 15" tires... that to me means they are skimping... one was built like my current one with 3" x 2" angle for cross pcs but supposedly a 10K trailer... NOT!

It was the Ka-bam model. We looked maybe adding a shock to smooth the action. But the action was still only controlled by gravity and where you are stopped at on the deck. No control.

 

[Yeller]

If gravity tilt doesn’t have a hydraulic cylinder to hold it up they are nothing but a pain, often literally.

Problem with most gravity tilt trailers is whatever is being loaded has to be shorter than the fulcrum, with a cylinder and valve hold it up that helps but not always enough.

Have a Freind that has the typical 22’ gravity tilt with a cylinder to hold it up. He couldn’t haul his dent side on it, even with the cylinder. It also has 6’ of non tilting deck on the front. He had me weld up the tilt and we took the cylinder off, added a pump and made it tilt at the tongue. Harder on the rear axle, it takes all the weight when tilted but is much happier.

 

[Broncobowsher]

If gravity tilt doesn’t have a hydraulic cylinder to hold it up they are nothing but a pain, often literally.

Problem with most gravity tilt trailers is whatever is being loaded has to be shorter than the fulcrum, with a cylinder and valve hold it up that helps but not always enough.

Have a Freind that has the typical 22’ gravity tilt with a cylinder to hold it up. He couldn’t haul his dent side on it, even with the cylinder. It also has 6’ of non tilting deck on the front. He had me weld up the tilt and we took the cylinder off, added a pump and made it tilt at the tongue. Harder on the rear axle, it takes all the weight when tilted but is much happier.

That's exactly what I was talking about. On paper, great idea. Super cheap tilting trailer. The ram was a retrofit idea we had discussed, but had not seen. The end result my friend had was the same. Ditch the split deck gravity tilt and go full tilt trailer. The only people I see running gravity tilt trailers are construction crews. And I am sure that they didn't spec the trailer, it was the company bean counter shopping for the cheapest tilt trailer that the company could buy.

 

[nvrstuk]

I sold our 20K 34' hydraulic dovetail gooseneck last year because, at 68 yo, keeping my class A CDL was becoming too much of a hassle. Our tow rig is an F-450, 14,000 GVW.

It was a sweet rig though...the dovetail would lift the front of a trail rig nicely to make repair work easy.

Same issue with commercial up here with F450's. Hard to get insurance on 450's & up w/o a commercial license.

 

[ntsqd]

Sleeper with a commode, a bed, and a hot plate. Now it's an RV........

Guy down the street bought a dark teal Volvo Class 8 that was registered in Ohio as an RV, and somehow managed to get it registered here as an RV. Even though it's in the age range that the CARB is trying to purge from the state. Built a flat bed on it with an RV 5th plate at the very rear. Hauls his red TJ on Tons on that and puts the hot tub in the back of the 45' triple axle toyhauler. If you see him at Sand Hollow tell him I said Hi!

 

[nvrstuk]

If gravity tilt doesn’t have a hydraulic cylinder to hold it up they are nothing but a pain, often literally.

Problem with most gravity tilt trailers is whatever is being loaded has to be shorter than the fulcrum, with a cylinder and valve hold it up that helps but not always enough.

Have a Freind that has the typical 22’ gravity tilt with a cylinder to hold it up. He couldn’t haul his dent side on it, even with the cylinder. It also has 6’ of non tilting deck on the front. He had me weld up the tilt and we took the cylinder off, added a pump and made it tilt at the tongue. Harder on the rear axle, it takes all the weight when tilted but is much happier.

So in a 16ft wouldn't that make it load easier because the frt would get past the pivot quicker but maybe worse because if the WB was too long it would never get past center right?

 

[nvrstuk]

Sleeper with a commode, a bed, and a hot plate. Now it's an RV........

Guy down the street bought a dark teal Volvo Class 8 that was registered in Ohio as an RV, and somehow managed to get it registered here as an RV. Even though it's in the age range that the CARB is trying to purge from the state. Built a flat bed on it with an RV 5th plate at the very rear. Hauls his red TJ on Tons on that and puts the hot tub in the back of the 45' triple axle toyhauler. If you see him at Sand Hollow tell him I said Hi!

That is a beast!

Great hauling combo tho!