[hihi962]

There are a few different types of lowboys out there,
Mechanical RGN, Hydraulic RGN, scissor neck, and single drop.. There are more but these are the ones I am considering, as i don't know if the others really apply.

I want to move a cat and excavator with a tridem lowboy, and want to spend as little as possible as I don't have to trailer too far or often. I hear loading cats on single drops with beaver tails is quite scary, I don't really want to put a wet kit on my truck either.

Would a scissor neck work? I don't know much about them, doesn't the 5th pin get all dirty? Can the equipment raise and lower the neck?

Those older mechanical RGN's, how do you move around with the neck not dragging on the ground or getting hung up? Are these not an option as i don't have ramps on my truck?
Any suggestions,

Thanks.

 

[Snipe]

There are a few different types of lowboys out there,
Mechanical RGN, Hydraulic RGN, scissor neck, and single drop.. There are more but these are the ones I am considering, as i don't know if the others really apply.

I want to move a cat and excavator with a tridem lowboy, and want to spend as little as possible as I don't have to trailer too far or often. I hear loading cats on single drops with beaver tails is quite scary, I don't really want to put a wet kit on my truck either.

Would a scissor neck work? I don't know much about them, doesn't the 5th pin get all dirty? Can the equipment raise and lower the neck?

Those older mechanical RGN's, how do you move around with the neck not dragging on the ground or getting hung up?
Any suggestions,

Thanks.

A single drop with beaver tails will be the least expensive just make sure trailer is level and no snow on it. A scissor neck is nice but you will need a winch on your truck.

 

[Andrew_D]

You don't need a winch with a scissor neck, IF it's a hydraulic neck. As for the kingpin, it depends on the trailer, but many of them, the kingpin is removable before you fold it down.

When looking at hydraulic removable goosenecks, keep in mind that there are ground-bearing and non-ground-bearing. The ground bearing ones lift up by pushing down on the ground with a hydraulic cylinder. These are notorious for instead pushing big holes into the ground. Especially on soft ground. (ie. Anything that isn't hard packed gravel/cement. I've even seen them punch holes in asphalt on a hot day!)

We use a single drop, tri-axle, with beavertail for our farm dozer and excavator. Just make sure that the trailer is sitting level, clean off any loose dirt/mud, make sure the steel is dry (ie. don't so this when it's raining!) and you'll be fine.

I've never used a mech detach, but in talking to other drivers, they say that 4-way diff lockups are a must on anything that isn't bare, dry, compacted gravel. Add in a bit of snow/ice/mud/grass/etc and you'll have 1 axle spinning pretty quick.

Andrew

 

[agcoeric]

A hydraulic scissor neck? I've never seen one

 

[Northern Farmer]

Hydraulic scissor necks definitely exist, I couldn't tell you how common they are but way back in the early 80's we bought a cat from Ritches in Edmonton and the company we hired used a unit like that. It had a removable king pin and a deck engine built into the trailer that was started up to move the neck down to the ground after the truck was unhooked. So it took nothing in the way of a special truck which was nice but its all a lot more hassle then a single drop deck with beaver tail like Andrew mentioned. A local farmer has a trailer that's probably much like Andrews and he loads his cat and hoe all the time but he's also very handy at it and knows just how to manipulate the blade on the cat to control the transition as it comes over the tipping point onto the deck. I think his is a 9 foot deck width but another neighbor has a really old and heavy unit that has an 11 foot wide deck .. its quite the beast but he hauls his D6 on it.

 

[SWFarmService]

A friend has a hydraulic detach, he put a set of hose couplers on his hoe, and a long set of hoses on the trailer, kind of a pain to have to mess with it like that but he don't need a wet kit and can pull it with what ever truck he pleases, since he is just using it for his own stuff on the farm he don't use it alot so it's not a big deal.

Also there is air detach trailers out there but I have never seen an old one so maybe this is sort of a new concept?

 

[hihi962]

Is it possible to just use the equipment to raise or lower the neck of a scissor? I don't understand how that couldn't work? Just hook up to the excavator or cat and either move the hydraulics or drive it forward or back. Or am I missing something?
Even with the cat off, couldn't i just push the neck up?

Good to know about the RGN's , thanks!

 

[Northern Farmer]

I think the issue with the mechanical scissor neck is that there is no means of lifting the front of the trailer up to hook up to the truck even if you pushed or pulled the scissor up into the locked position as they don't typically have dolly feet with a crank system or ones I happened to be around. From what I noted is that the winch truck hooks onto the front of the scissor after the load has been driven on, then run the winch to lift up the scissor until it has traveled as far as it is designed until it hits its stops ( then the pins go in to lock it in place ) and then continue winching which lifts the front of the trailer off the ground and up over onto the ramps that the winch truck has mounted on its frame, keep winching until the king pin gets close to the plate and then back up the truck to actually do the final latching of the fifth wheel. And yes, on a gravel surface the king pin and plate does go down onto the gravel and its a friggen mess with rocks and sand stuck to the grease so I see the guy get out with his gloves on and is using a rag to try and get rid of all the crud.

 

[stevie]

There is air over hydraulic landing gear. Big air cylinder hooked to a little hydraulic piston to compound it. Landing gear works good

 

[Millie]

We have a mec detach, no big deal to hook and unhook takes five minutes each way. You do not need much for ramps either, just have to lit it 3 inches above the frame rail. You do need decent traction or you have to hit it pretty hard, but we found if you put a block und it then you do not have to lit it much, it's not a problem.

 

[hihi962]

Did some searching, found an old post by a guy saying he just removes the pin, puts an old sheet of plywood down and lets the neck drop on that so it doesn't get all full of dirt, and blocks up the front of the trailer, so it doesn't drop, used the equipment to raise and lower the neck. This way he doesn't need any winch and sounds reasonably quick to do.

But would it actually work in real world? I wonder, with the trailer being blocked up a foot, would it allow the neck to touch the ground? Or if the blocks sunk in the ground more then the airbags could compensate for, you're done.

If it worked, a scissor neck would be ideal, as I would rather have guys load that way as opposed to up a beavertail.

 

[Duchek]

First thing I would say is to buy the widest trailer you can find. I have loaded my trackhoe on many trailers, ranging from 8 foot wide steel decks to 11 foot wide decks with wood. A full steel deck is very slippery and I would not entertain buying one.

My first trailer was a 8 foot wide single drop steel deck lowboy with beavertails. Then I had a 8.5 wide hydraulic detach with a steel deck. Now I have a 11 foot wide 16 wheeler with a single drop and beavertails with a wood deck. I like this last one the best. It's big and heavy but you just feel safer loading on it. A detach is nice but to much of a pain for loading. I would only buy one if it also had ramps on the back.

As far as loading goes over the back. You will get used to it after awhile. I would rather drive a Dozer up over the back then a trackhoe. Atleast with a Dozer your tracks are both turning the same speed and you don't get crooked as soon. Once you find yourself comfortable though, you will find that you will load your hoe in the same manner as a cat by just walking it straight up and pivoting it over.

 

[Snipe]

If you put a piece of railroad tie under corners of trailer deck before you unhook...trailer deck and scissor deck will be level which is nice for loading things with low clearance. If you load a D8 with blocks under the deck those blocks will either squash or get punched into the ground. Get a 4x4 piece of conveyor belting to keep fifth wheel plate clean and store it under what ever you are hauling. I haven't been around a hydrulic scissor neck so I don't know how they work. My first thought is there would be no way of getting them pinned up to truck unless you blocked trailer or trailer itself had hydrulic landing gear. Where do they keep the engine to run the power pack for the hydrulics? Can you get at it when trailer is loaded?

 

[sprayheli]

If you don't need to move it very often do you really need a trailer? I'd look into finding someone to truck it for me.

 

[farmallman1949]

I would recommend a 55 ton non-ground bearing detachable lowboy with a self contained power unit to run the hydraulics. As far as brands and price go I can't tell you anything on that note because all I have done is pull one for a farmer that I worked for.

 

[hihi962]

First thing I would say is to buy the widest trailer you can find. I have loaded my trackhoe on many trailers, ranging from 8 foot wide steel decks to 11 foot wide decks with wood. A full steel deck is very slippery and I would not entertain buying one.

My first trailer was a 8 foot wide single drop steel deck lowboy with beavertails. Then I had a 8.5 wide hydraulic detach with a steel deck. Now I have a 11 foot wide 16 wheeler with a single drop and beavertails with a wood deck. I like this last one the best. It's big and heavy but you just feel safer loading on it. A detach is nice but to much of a pain for loading. I would only buy one if it also had ramps on the back.

As far as loading goes over the back. You will get used to it after awhile. I would rather drive a Dozer up over the back then a trackhoe. Atleast with a Dozer your tracks are both turning the same speed and you don't get crooked as soon. Once you find yourself comfortable though, you will find that you will load your hoe in the same manner as a cat by just walking it straight up and pivoting it over.

This was my first choice also, but wasnt sure how hard it is to load, if others handle it easy enough I am sure We can.
Most decks I see are 10' the tracks on the excavator are 11', a wide deck would be nice, but they dont seem too common.
Good thing is, I have plenty of time to wait for a deal, I am in no rush to get one.
Doest it really matter much how long the beavertails is? I see they range from 4'-6'.

 

[Duchek]

The shorter they are, the steeper they will be. If you are just loading a hoe and lifting yourself up you aren't really using the ramps anyways. Longer ramps are nicer though. My ramps on my 16 wheeler are long and shallow. I can get a tractor to bounce up on them without any blocking. To get a truck or anything else on I just try to find a shallow ditch to back into.

 

[Jason Hildebrand]

Unless you have a winch truck I wouldn't screw around with a scissorneck. However a lot of scissornecks have beavertails on the back, there is a local contractor that never uses the scissor part of his trailer just loads on the tail. I have owned a single drop 9ft wide tandem axle, I have since bought a bigger hoe and now I"m also in the market for a bigger trailer. I didn't particularly enjoy my old trailer, it was quite high and I hated loading in Nov/Dec coming off a snowy field. Just way too slippery.

My ideal trailer is a hyd detach tri, 10ft wide deck with pullouts to 15ft, & beavertail on the back. They are available but are worth a cool $100,000 and are still a lot even when they are 10 years old. I like the option to be able to load whatever I want weather it be a semi, farm tractor, combine, sprayer, excavator, or dozer and with a beavertail on the back for fast load/unloading with a hoe or dozer. When it gets slippery with snow & ice I can always detach and if I do slip off its not gonna roll the machine. I'll probably never find the trailer I want in my price range, i'll probably settle for a 8.5ft wide detach with outriggers & ill build a beavertail.

Ive seen enough mechanical detach trailers and I wouldn't want one. They are very simple but you will need a truck that has frame ramps which limits you to one truck. It feels pretty abusive trying to get back under that neck.

Overall your cheapest route will be a single drop trailer and if your not moving very often it could be a reasonable option.

 

[thorpy]

I have a 10' single drop lowboy (it was a 9', and then added 6" to each side). Use it to move a 23ton hoe, and a crawler. The first couple of times it was a bit scary to load, but once you are used to it, no problem at all. The cat is easier, as said before, it wants to drive straight. For the trackhoe, the first few times have another person as a spotter to help keep you going straight.

If you aren't moving very far, a detachable neck or double drop works well, but don't mess around with the neck. Just drive on from the side, and leave the tracks perpendicular to trailer.

 

[Lowmark]

I have a tandem winch tractor and tridem scizzorneck. Even with max permits I can not scale a fully guarded 270 with 2 buckets. My advice is go 16 wheeler single drop with beaver tail , it will be over 10 wide. You will get used to climbing the ramps if u put enuf time in on the machines.