more trailer ?'s

I am finally getting around to getting my own open flat bed car trailer. I have been thinking about this a while and decideded if i was to get one i was going to have to build it my self. it might not be the fastest or cheapest way to go, but i'll be able to do it as funds allow. I picked up 10'x 30' twin axle frame from a tool crib/constuction office cheap friday. it has 8"Ibeam mains and solid cross members. what i am thinking on doing is cutting it down to 8' wide with a 20' to 22' deck with a 4'to 5' dove tail, and keep it a deck over. my debate is bumper pull or goose neck, witch would be better? it curently has 14.5 low boy tires on it(no where do they say mobile home on them)and i was wondering what dot reg# says i cant run them on the interstate. b.s.ing with my local weighmaster and he said that he did not know of an issue with runing them provided they were in good shape and were not overloaded. Thanks for the help. Trout

 

As far as bumper or gooseneck. What do you have to haul with? A deck over gets the hauled vehicle way up in the airstream above the tow vehicle. Not sure about cutting the axles down and having the right arch to them. Axles are not straight in case you didn't realize it. If you decide to replace the axles there is a place in Hudson which is south of Jackson that has good deals on new axles. I bought a pair of 6500# axles and springs from him this spring for $500. Local dealers wanted more than that for 3500#. The 14.5 tires if you were going to travel any distance would concern me due to the fact that they are not availible just any place. Nice thing about doing your own trailer is you build it the way you want it. Put lots of tie downs on it as you can never have to many. My 24 ft trailer has a total of 28 on it.

 

I have built a few trailers and see nothing wrong with your start.
In my opinion the gooseneck will handle heavy loads better due to where the pivot point and load will be setting on the tow vehicle. the disadvantage on a gooseneck is a more expensive hitching assembly and the fact that not every vehicle can hook on to it . Not being able to loan it out because of the gooseneck may or may not be an advantage.
One thing about trailers ,the lower th center of gravity the better they will handle. With a 8 inch I beam on top of springs it will set very high.
Do you have a building you may need to back it in loaded?
People really overreact to the mobile home axle thing, when they finish delivering a mobile home the axles are stored until there is a load and then returned to the mobile home manufacturer. They are then used on another and so on till they are worn out. I have owned three trailers with mobile home axles and have towed thousands of miles without any trouble. The wheel and tire size can be a pain.
Best of luck

 

Thanks guys, i guess i should of put more info on the original ?.I have a '99 f350 diesil crewcab 4x4 dually, it already has a gooseneck hitch in the bed. I wasant planning on narrowing the axles, but good point about the ark(i forgot about it totally).good point about the garage(its 11' and 15' celings)i think i would have more of an issue with lenght(31' deep) if i need to park it inside over night.
I see deck hight to axle with being another thing to add to the stabillity factor. i am shoting for a deck hight of 30/31"(my enclosed has a deck hieght of 18/19") with 100" out side to out side tire mesurement. i am planing this trailer based on all the stupid stuff i have done in the past aka the 9'x25' skid blocked up to clear the fenders on a regular car trailer or the the 14' cube van on a 16' flat bed.
phat rat, would that be tri state surplus? you are right on the tie down points. were did you find your sleeper at, and what would you say it wieghed.
Thanks trout

 

Yes pretty sure that was the name. It's right on 127, east side of the road just north of town. I got the sleeper from Neal Trucking on Chicago Dr. Not sure what it weighs but 4 guys had no problem at all putting it on the trailer without sliding it. Not trying to be negative, but have you thought about the angle of approach if the bed is 30" or so tall? Could be a real problem for a low car. I had a real problem getting my cpe on my trailer when it was broke. Mine sits about 19" high, I've got 4' beavertail, 4' ramps and it isn't enough to make the job simple. Regular cars or trucks no problem just winch them up.

 

sounds like the place. nope, your not being negative just pointing posible issuse. i did not think that the angle would be that bad but . i guess i need to do some trig. the trailer i am using as a guide has a deck hight of 36" with 5' ramps and dove. the angle did not look to bad. i'll have to see what the angle is on my enclosed is, as it works good with really low cars. i would like to do this once. how low would you say the coe was?
Thanks for the time, Trout

 

COE?? Are you talking about the one I was doing? If so you have the advantage of me as I don't know who you are. But you obviously know me or been doing research here. It was as low as the cpe as I needed to be able to get it in a 7' tall door. It also was never on the trailer except as cab only when I bought it. My trailer sits about 2" taller since I redid it over the winter.

 

My mistake, i thought i read it as coe not cpe(by the way what is a cpe?). i don't think i know who you are. I own the right hand drive s10 blazer that has been around GR forever. as for the coe, i remember seeing it in one of the threads on coe's. hope i did not offend you. Trout

 

Don't worry no offence taken. I just thought you must be someone from down there that knew me when you asked about the COE. A cpe is a coupe. I drive this 41 Ford cpe, it's low enough that a 12 oz. can set upright will not go under the front bumper

 

First off, I'd go with the gooseneck for better stability, and turning (especially since you already have the spendy part of the gooseneck). Secondly, what is the current axle width? If you are going to cut and rebuild the trailer, is it possible to put the tires outside of the bed and make fenders for the tires? This would lower the deck considerabley. High trailers are kind of a pain. IMHO I think getting the deck as low as possible is the most important issue.

 

People always claim that a 5th whl is more stable. I've hauled all kinds of trailers. From 2 horse to 30' travel trailer and all have been bumper pull. I've never had a problem with any of them. I believe that if you have the set-up right and a decent built trailer it will handle fine. I even hauled Caddys on my 16 ft car trailer using an 87 Ford Ranger with a V6 stick. I used that truck for 3 years and made two trips out west bringing cars back. The current configuration of that same trailer is 24 ft and the load in the pic here was run as fast as 80 mph on the way home from Mt. I have never had any problem with it tracking good or with sway. How is turning easier with a 5th whl? I know you can jacknife it backing up

 

that thing sounds way too heavy. id start cutting and scrapping stuff from it. there is no reason to have to haul all that extra wieght with you. my trailer has kumho 14.5's, i hate the fact that they are so hard to find in case i lose one. they dont say anywhere MH only.

 

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I don't know the official answer to the question, but I do know that the Mobile Home trailer axles I used long ago didn't keep tires on for long. The rims are an odd size so you couldn't use "ordinary" tires on them. They wore out fast even though I couldn't find any bent axles. I was also told at a car-and-tractor tire store that those tires were only made for a limited use for a limited time (I think something was even written on the tire to that effect), are somewhat short-lived as far as mileage and wear, and that most of the ones they dealt with were mostly blowouts.

I don't know if that is why the ban on them for trailers, but I can see where a manufacturer would want to make them as cheap throw aways (they are meant to be discarded upon home delivery) without the need for the chemicals to protect against UV deterioration, or long travel high speed heat, or extra long tread wear, etc etc.
On anything meant to be a cheap throwaway, there are usually things that are left out of the recipe.

Not knowing the official reason... At least that's what makes sense to me after what the tire store said...

 

not to sound rude, but i see/know problems with this.
1.modular home frames and tires are run tens of thousands of miles before they are replaced. i tryed to by one andwas told that they are returned to manufacture for reuse.
2. they are dot aproved and were use as oem tire/rim on other type of trailers.
3. they must handle the heat desent, or they would not run mobile homes and modulars down the road at 50 or 60 mph.
4. i'll give you the wear issue, out of the all the trailers we have had with them on over the years, we only have had problems with one.
with all that said, i consider trailer tires a pain in the ass, it seams that i have more problems with them for the amount of use they see. 2 summers ago, i went 6 quailty tires in a 2 months on the same trailer do to varius reasons.
thanks for the imput. Trout

 

actual i dont think it is that heavy right now, but i could way wrong. i would have to wiegh it to find out . i can pick up the tounge, where i have a hard time picking up most regulare car trailers.
Dan 10, i am not to worring about the deck height to much as i own a enclosed car hauler for the real low cars. my game plan is more gp flat bed.kind of o/t, have you tried to drive a 4x4 over fenders on a regular trailer, it kind of sucks . so i want to have no/very short fenders and the 8' deck width.
phat rat, thank for the info and the pic of the car, i under stand now. my blazer is only 6" to the bottem of the bumper when it isall the way up.
my 2 cents on bumper vs gooseneck, a well built and prop loaded trailer is the key. a gooseneck is less likly to wag the truck,more of pain to hook up, and if you are in an acident and jack knife it could hit the cab at head hight very hard(i have seen this happen and it was not pritty). bumper pull, more tow vehcal selection,cheaper hitch cost, shorter hitch assemble, a little lighter on the wieght, turns corners tighter, more people want to borrow. i have never owned a gooseneck but have owned and towed a lot of bumper pulled units.
Trout

 

QUOTE- ".... i consider trailer tires a pain in the ass, it seams that i have more problems with them for the amount of use they see. 2 summers ago, i went 6 quailty tires in a 2 months on the same trailer do to varius reasons.... "

It sounds to me like that pretty much sums it up.
They didn't hold up well for me either when I had some many years ago. The tire stores told me to switch. I hear some states outlaw them for regular use...

 

in the 15 years I've had my car trailer I've probably put 40,000+ mi on it. Never had a problem with tires. I've had everything from takeoff 225/70X15 car tires to 235/75 6 plys when it was a 16 footer. Now as a 24 ' the bigger axles are 8 lug and I have 245/75X16 10 plys. they match those on the truck I pull with

 

Not going to get deep into all this because all the ideas are pretty good. All ends up being in what you want based on what you heard. But, low boy tires and mobile home tires are two different animals. Been down that road before. Mobile home tires do have not for highway use molded in them. Don't know why cause they do carry the load and are used many times byu the factory as stated. Goose neck is the best overall if using it a lot and and or long trips.