Roll back truck and trailer question

[blue924.9]

Good afternoon, I had what I believe to be an off the wall question about hauling two tractors. I will start by saying the normal approach would be to get a 25 to 30 foot flatbed trailer, and with the price of new trailers I would get a tandem dual or triple axle so I won’t have to worry about out growing the trailer.

What I am wondering is if anyone has used a roll back or flatbed truck and and bumper pull trailer and made ramps of some sort to drive between truck and trailer. So unloading would be drive tractor off trailer, then drive 2nd tractor from truck to trailer and then off trailer and loading would be be reverse process.

Locally a 90s truck would be cheaper than a new or used in good shape trailer and I have a trailer that could be modified to use behind.

 

[J.Wondergem]

Good afternoon, I had what I believe to be an off the wall question about hauling two tractors. I will start by saying the normal approach would be to get a 25 to 30 foot flatbed trailer, and with the price of new trailers I would get a tandem dual or triple axle so I won’t have to worry about out growing the trailer.

What I am wondering is if anyone has used a roll back or flatbed truck and and bumper pull trailer and made ramps of some sort to drive between truck and trailer. So unloading would be drive tractor off trailer, then drive 2nd tractor from truck to trailer and then off trailer and loading would be be reverse process.

Locally a 90s truck would be cheaper than a new or used in good shape trailer and I have a trailer that could be modified to use behind.

I was a tractor show and some guy had a tractor on a rollback. I watched him unload it with a cable and winch from the truck. I assume he reloaded it the same way without a trailer.

 

[caterpillar guy]

I use ramps to get from the dock for a flatbed to the top deck over the fifth wheel on my detach to get the 6th tractor on when I hauled tractors to the bridge with it. I have also used ramps to get to the lower deck on the tail of my detach from the top deck over the fifth wheel. The only thing I see that might be a concern is if the tongue jack sticks up very much so you have to clear it. Would you be able to modify the tongue so you could unload the trailer then jack knife truck to the trailer so you could then unload right from the truck to the ground rather than onto the trailer? Just a thought since you could just unload them both in one swoop that way. Other wise with the roll back it might be possible to slide the bed back enough to just roll right on to trailer from truck bed without any ramps if there is no box or anything in the way for it. Other wise a set of ramps about 8 feet long would probably work to just drop a tractor right on down to the trailer without moving the bed.

 

[Rob Mo.]

We used to haul a tractor on the rollback & put another on the trailer behind the rollback. People would stare as you pulled up to pulls. Instead of using ramps between the rollback & trailer, it was safer to unhook the trailer to take the tractor off the truck since there was a 6' gap over the hitch & tongue to get to the trailer bed. A person might have been able to drop the bed & slide it to meet the trailer deck, but we thought the trailer jack would interfere.

 

[showcrop]

I did that for a few years. I put a hitch on the back of a box truck and pulled my bumper pull trailer behind it. I had a pair of ramps made up exactly the right length to sit on the back edge of the truck body and extend to the floor of the trailer. The ramps had a projection from underneath that engaged a front bar on the trailer so that the ramps could not move. The ramps were around 66 inches long, and I stowed them in the truck body under the tractor.