OT: Gooseneck Flatbeds?

[Casey in Ky]

I m in the market for a good flatbed gooseneck. I searched and didn t find many previous posts. There s a couple of good used Gatormade s around me, 20+5 s, one with mega ramps and one without. They look good, but I ve read about a lot of problems with them online. They re priced $3500 with the standard ramps and $4750 with the mega ramps. It s also a newer and maybe a slightly better looking trailer. Also found a Keifer 17+5 with the life up dove tail for a total of 22 . It s a good looking trailer, but all the way out in Missouri. It s be $3600 by the time I get it here. Kaufman has a brand new 20+4 with stand up ramps and a full pop up dove tail, there deluxe gooseneck(suppose to be made a little heavier) for about $6200 brand new. It s about 5 hours away though and delivery is $1.90 a mile. Also know of an older Hurst 20+5 with stand up ramps and fixed dove for $3300, it s loca, and looks good, just older. Any suggestions? I m a little skiddish if the gators, though they seem to be priced reasonable.

 

[Casey in Ky]

All of the trailers have 7k lb axles as well...

 

[M Nut]

I?ve had two, first one was a PJ and I thought it was an excellent trailer. Liked everything about it, but I foolishly borrowed it to a relative and it was
ruined in an accident. His fault, but at least no one was injured. I replaced it with a Starlite, and it has been good too, but I think the PJ was just an all
around better built trailer. I?d not be afraid to buy either brand, but I think I?d pay a little more $$ for the PJ if I had the extra to spend.

 

[bmack95hd]

I?m also looking for a gooseneck equipment trailer for my J/D
5203, FEL with loaded rears. About 8,000lbs. I?ll sit back and
listen. Thanks for posting the topic.

 

[mtf]

Have you tried trailer world in bowling green? The trailers
they sell are very well made and priced competitively.

 

[Crookedwrench]

I have been well pleased with my Sure Trac gooseneck. It
has 8000lbs axles and full ramps. Workmanship and detail are
very good. Check them out online. I special ordered mine to
get the options I wanted including the wide ramps, 8K axles,
and a receiver for portable winch. Don

 

[JayinNY]

I second that, my brother has a suretrac gooseneck dump trailer and a suretrac equipment trailer, both are very well built trailers, I just have a tandem pequa, it?s been a good trailer ever since I bought it in 1998.

 

[Destroked 450]

Of the ones you listed I'd go with one of the Gatormades.
I have a 20+5 and wouldn't want one any shorter but for my use over 30 ft would be hard to maneuver it some of the places I go.
4 ft dove is to short and steep, had a trailer with standup ramps, when loading long material they were in the way, I can load on top of my lay down ramps.
If you can afford new I'd get one with 8k axle and 17.5 commercial tires, but we're talking about a $10K trailer.
I get poor service life from the 235/85-16 E rated tires my trailer has.
I had a 14k rated 18+2 equipment trailer with stand up ramps, it hauled my 12k lb skid steer and attachment ok but the 16" tires were squashed, again I'd upgrade to 8k axles and 17.5 tires.
If you do any off road work stay away from trailers with torsion suspension.

Gatorade's are built in Monticello, Ky so not far if you have a issue, nephew has one but it's still fairly new, I have a older Eze Trail but their no longer made.

 

[Tony in SD]

I know it?s not a gooseneck. I know since you are specifying a gooseneck neck, a bumper pull may be out of the question. I know this is probably too far away but you may have a dealer near you. That said, I have had 2 goosenecks with ramps in the past. Both good trailers, did a good job for hauling skid steers & materials, bales and acting as a stage occasionally. They pulled great, ramps were no problem at 40, climbing on and off the deck was no problem at 40. But now that I?m older, I have a tilt bed bumper pull (they now make tilt bed goosenecks). Not having to mess with ramps is the biggest plus. Just unlatch the locks, stand on the tail to lower the bed, drive on. As you pass center of the tilt, the bed is leveled and usually tongue weight ratio is good too. Also the bed is lower so I can haul a higher payload with a lower center of gravity and I don?t have to climb on the trailer to tie down the load. The front 6 feet is handy for materials and/or extra skid steer attachments. To give you a reference, the tilt bed is long enough to load and haul an F350 crew cab with an 8 foot box. My $2.00 (inflation you know).
Tilt bed

 

[r.w.b.]

Starline out of oklahoma is building well built
hi quality gooseneck trailers.

I was in the factory 3 years ago strick quality
work.
They said they are selling in many states.most
locals around me are buying starlite

 

[Butch(OH)]

Building trailers is pretty basic and
straight forward work, so is selling
them. Thus both are working with slim
mark ups. What this means for a buyer is
you are pretry much assired of getting
what you pay for. Best advise I can give
is get under them and look and find out
how they prep the steel prior to
finishing it which is especially
important if you plan on using it on
salt. There was a good looking and
cheaply priced dump trailer line sold
around here about 15 years ago. They sold
a bunch of them but they started rusting
on the dealers lots and the ones used in
the winter were totally rotted out after
year 5, I paid almost 2x for a top of the
line dump but still in good shape today
so who made the best buy, me or them?
Back to your question I have a 6 year old
P&J tilt frck and a 25 year old Moritz
flat both have real Dexter axles, not
china junk. They have been very good,and
still look good but neither has seen
salt.

 

[showcrop]

It is surprising that you don't see much on here. I have seen lots about them. I have a PJ that is 15 year old and still in very good shape. From what I have read about them over the last 15 years they seem to be very well liked, except for the powder coat. There are a lot of negative comments about powder coat on any trailer, because once you scratch through it the rust spreads VERY fast under it. Again from comments here It appears to me that Kaufman is a very highly rated brand as is Kieferbilt. The kiefers are of course Aluminum. I believe that Kaufman does not use powder coat. To me flip over ramps on a beavertail are very desirable, If you want to haul a lot of something light you can load on them. Even with tractors if you need more length you can squeeze them up to the front, flip the ramps up then back partially onto the ramps in order to get your load spread how you need it.

 

[RobCons]

I think the major brands are close together in quality. I have a 20+4 and really like the length. However the dove tail is wood and gets slippery if its wet or the tractor tires are wet. Ramps are standup style and work fine for me.

 

[agonair]

Check with Larry at Kate's Kars in Arthur, IL. They sell trailers in every state across the lower 48. He has about a 40 acre
selection plus service.

 

[jddrawbar]

I bought a Starlite trailer about 12 yrs. ago and it was wire welded. After adding about 20 lbs. of rods it is an ok trailer.

 

[bmack95hd]

Haven?t seen anyone post about Texas Pride or Big Tex? Any
opinions on either. They advertise all over C/L here in AZ.

 

[IHC pickups]

We have had good luck with Titan goose neck trailers. made 40 miles North of me Waterville, KS.

 

[Destroked 450]

(quoted from post at 21:40:20 11/24/19) I?m also looking for a gooseneck equipment trailer for my J/D
5203, FEL with loaded rears. About 8,000lbs. I?ll sit back and
listen. Thanks for posting the topic.

Probably more than you need but I saw this one today.
I like it!

Load Trail brand, he said it had a 23' deck with 3' dove, fold over ramps and drive over fenders.
Told him if it had 8k axles and 17.5 tires I'd borrow it from him.
Long term ! :lol:

 

[bmack95hd]

Is a dove tail to decrease the sharp angle of the trailer itself?
What is it?s main purpose, I see trailers with and without?

 

[showcrop]

(quoted from post at 10:08:28 11/25/19) Is a dove tail to decrease the sharp angle of the trailer itself?
What is it?s main purpose, I see trailers with and without?

Deck over trailers need a beaver tail due to the height of the deck. Without a beavertail the ramps would be eight feet long.

 

[hadley]

(quoted from post at 05:17:08 11/25/19) I know it?s not a gooseneck. I know since you are specifying a gooseneck neck, a bumper pull may be out of the question. I know this is probably too far away but you may have a dealer near you. That said, I have had 2 goosenecks with ramps in the past. Both good trailers, did a good job for hauling skid steers & materials, bales and acting as a stage occasionally. They pulled great, ramps were no problem at 40, climbing on and off the deck was no problem at 40. But now that I?m older, I have a tilt bed bumper pull (they now make tilt bed goosenecks). Not having to mess with ramps is the biggest plus. Just unlatch the locks, stand on the tail to lower the bed, drive on. As you pass center of the tilt, the bed is leveled and usually tongue weight ratio is good too. Also the bed is lower so I can haul a higher payload with a lower center of gravity and I don?t have to climb on the trailer to tie down the load. The front 6 feet is handy for materials and/or extra skid steer attachments. To give you a reference, the tilt bed is long enough to load and haul an F350 crew cab with an 8 foot box. My $2.00 (inflation you know).
Tilt bed

I don't understand your comment about loading a crewcab longbed on that little tilt trailer. I have a crewcab longbed and my last truck was a crewcab longbed and my truck before that was supercab longbed so I am rather familiar with the length of them and going to tractor shows I have seen many guys with trailers just like you linked to and I can't for the life of me figure out how you could possibly load a vehicle with that long of a wheelbase on one. The front wheels of the truck would be at the very front of the tilt part and be making it come down before the rear wheels even touch the deck.

And for what its worth I have a 20+4. 14k gooseneck, and other than crawling up and down to chain stuff down it does anything I need to do.

 

[Destroked 450]

The main thing a dove trail does is reduce the length of the ramp needed to drive up onto the deck.
The ramp is the most dangerous part of loading, the shorter the ramp the better, it also reduces the weight of the ramp.
On a deck over with 5' dove you only need a set of 4-5' ramps, without a dove you'd need a set of 8-10 long ramps that would need to be built strong enough to handle the entire weight of your tractor.
Ramps that size would be man killers.
On a low platform dove isn't as big of a deal but it still reduces the size of the ramps and can reduce the approach angle.
Most folding ramps on dove tail trailers have support legs to contact the ground when loading heavy equipment, without those support legs the trucks rear tires can be lifted off of the ground.
On trailers without support legs on the ramps addition jacks or blocking is needed to support the back of the trailer when loading.

This is a photo of a 12k lb equipment trailer I had with 2' dove and pin up ramps, notice the support legs on the ramps.

You can tell from the tire squat that machine over loaded the trailer, thus the reason I sold it.

 

[dhermesc]

That's an awfully long low hanging tail on that trailer. I could never pull it into a field without the rear end dragging and hanging up on everything.

 

[Shetland Sheepdog]

You're right Colin! My 24' deck over (no dove tail) has exactly that! And, at 80 years young, them suckers are HEAVY! Also, when loading my 5610's, I put a block under the ramps, so I'm not spanning the whole 8'!
Dave

 

[8NChris]

(quoted from post at 18:17:44 11/24/19) I m in the market for a good flatbed gooseneck. I searched and didn t find many previous posts. There s a couple of good used Gatormade s around me, 20+5 s, one with mega ramps and one without. They look good, but I ve read about a lot of problems with them online. They re priced $3500 with the standard ramps and $4750 with the mega ramps. It s also a newer and maybe a slightly better looking trailer. Also found a Keifer 17+5 with the life up dove tail for a total of 22 . It s a good looking trailer, but all the way out in Missouri. It s be $3600 by the time I get it here. Kaufman has a brand new 20+4 with stand up ramps and a full pop up dove tail, there deluxe gooseneck(suppose to be made a little heavier) for about $6200 brand new. It s about 5 hours away though and delivery is $1.90 a mile. Also know of an older Hurst 20+5 with stand up ramps and fixed dove for $3300, it s loca, and looks good, just older. Any suggestions? I m a little skiddish if the gators, though they seem to be priced reasonable.

prefer the flat 7 plug socket, they don't tend to burn out as often as 6 round. It is a common plug and adapters are common. There are a few wire arrangement standards. I prefer the National. Most everything is wired that way. When I worked in an East Texas shop off of I-45 new Lufkin and Big Tex would come in directly from purchase with unmatched
truck and trailer plug wiring. Most of the time I was setting the plug to National to match the customers other trailers.

 

[mcrow4117]

Lawrimore trailers is a good trailer and prices aren t that bad. They been in business for prob 40 years built local where I am in north Alabama but has dealers in several states including Ky. I have had several bumper pull trailers made by them that I use everyday with my landscaping business and just bought a gooseneck in May.