Ive decided to put the petty stuff behind and start posting in this forum.

I will stand 100% by my comments, and leave it be.

Here is one of my bigger hauls with an equipment trailer (have hauled lots of, um, equipment...but thats boring):



And pulling into my place to drop it, and begin the project:



And hauling the Bobcat:

I generally try to tie down things in my trailer (or pickup) such that I'd the trailer flipped the load wouldn't leave the trailer. This is higher than required by law but pretty easy on loads less than 10k lbs.

While unlikely to get hassled by the law if your non-commercial, in my opinion it is your duty while using public roads to do so safely. Don’t be that guy who spills his load all over the highway when they get in a fender bender or hit a pot hole etc.

Bungees keep tarps from flapping, they don’t secure loads.

For reference:

https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/regulations/cargo-securement/cargo-securement-rules

Not sure if directed at me, but that container had, if I remember correctly, 24 tie downs.  The least of them was 3500# rated.

The Bobcat was loaded and secured by the selling dealer, so Im sure either

A) they dont care
B) they know what they are doing

More of a generalization and not directed at you. I saw a post where pipe was bungees down and it sparked my post.

Around here I do see lots of landscapers who don't secure mowers in trailers and the like and it bothers me. Same with not tarping loose or bulk items.

Thank you.  Im very proud to have it

I recomend securing the load then tarping the load and then due to my not having tarps sized for most stuff I bungee the tarp to keep it from flapping as much.

The tarp gets tied using its grommets but rather than have the tarp wear itself out or worse wear on whatever it is over with all that flapping, a bungee can solve a lot of issues easily.

And I generally only tarped the load when traveling decent distances such that the weather would be who knows what and all that.

I was young and dumb when I bought my spider web bungee thing but it proved useful eventually, just had to realize what it would be useful for.

To some extent I always felt a good surplus cargo net had potential but then I sorta figured I would be bending the truck bed eventually or something.

Alright, Kitties. You lazy bum! Get that tail ramp wedge cut and welded already!!!

It's an easy job, just mark a horizontal line across the middle of the trailer ramp. Take a grinder and cut a slot in it at the line. Flex it down to close the gap, if it needs more angle, grind the slots a little bigger. Weld it up.

Your not cutting the thing apart, just adding a bend in the middle to make an "arched" ramp. After it's bent and welded you can add some flat stock to beef it up if you want or need.

Yes, kitties, you CAN do this modification.

I'll make an MS Paint diagram for you, BRB

Attached File

Your gate is tube on the trailer?

If it was flat you could cut it and bend it and weld it and if worried bolt a brace across it even.

I leave tubes alone, don't work with em enough to be able to say a notch would do this or that with em.

It would be fine. Because I'm OCD about this kind of stuff, I'd likely put a triangle reinforcement piece on both sides of the tubes and weld.

Bumping, and I have a question to hopefully keep this from fading off into the sunset.

One of my trailers is a cheap Harbor Freight trailer. It's around 7 years old, and this winter took its toll on the paint. The cheap paint is flaking off in chunks, and the tops of the fenders have started rusting.
I have more miles on my car hauler, and it's paint is still in great shape.

What's a good paint for these inexpensive little trailers? I'm going to take the deck off and wiring to completely repaint it so I hopefully won't need to do it again.

Stroke still strokin along

I have wanted an easier way to judge tongue weight, but didn't want to pay for a $100+ scale.  I finally put together a "budget" version that should at least get me in the right ballpark when I have concerns using a small hydraulic ram & a pressure gauge.

I had looked at a few hydraulic rams, like those in a porta-power unit & ran across the Strongway hydraulic 2-ton mini ram sold at Northern tools (& Amazon).  It is a small unit with a cylinder face area of  0.95 square inches (diameter = 1.10").  It is a bit under 6" tall & 1.5" across.  I bought one for about $23 & also bought a 0-1000 PSI gauge with 1/4" threads for about $10.

I removed the hydraulic quick connect fitting from the ram (it was tight!), extended the cylinder & added hydraulic fluid.  I got the bubbles out & set the cylinder at about 1/2 extension (1.5" ?) then attached the gauge in place of the fitting. I made sure that the hydraulic fluid was level with the top of the hole when I attached the gauge to avoid adding air.  The gauge was tightened until it was face up with the ram upright.  A quick test in the vice showed the gauge respond to pressure & return to zero when the pressure was removed.

The gauge readings are a little above the actual weight (5%)  but good enough for my purposes.   It was simple to use with a jack stand as support.  Lowering the hitch with the trailer's screw jack until the jack foot was unloaded (off the ground)  I was able to see the empty tongue weights of the small dump trailer (400 x .95 = 380 lb) & the 18' Aluma car hauler (150 x .95 = 142.5 lb).



These are the pieces used (pics are from amazon):

Thanks, I'll have to go back through the thread. It's not touchup, the paint is coming off in 2-4 inch chunks. It needs to be stripped down and completely redone. HF trailers are known for bad paint. The small size, bed is 4x8,  also seems to contribute to getting damage from rocks off the SUV's rear tires.

It's not urgent, the forecast for the next week + is too cold to even contemplate this. I won't be doing it for a month or more. Plus I haven't looked back through the thread yet.

I would treat the rusty trailer losing its paint the same as a truck pickup bed or truck frame.

Get a primer for rusty metal, you try to prep the metal well but the rusty metal primer handles things well.  I have no garage or barn to work in, so stuff is worked on outside and at best under a portable canopy.

Anyway, prime it and use a paint you like.  I would not worry about trying to go with monster bed liner stuff or anything, just a good strong paint.

We discussed sand in paint for traction and other stuff.

I find I am not overly brand specific, I want something that receives decent evaluations when I search the net and I want to pay a reasonable price.

I am the sort who will look at the paint that was already mixed and then someone said it was not the color they wanted, you can often have it tinted darker for cheap or just use as is and get over it.

For something like your northern tool trailer, I would paint it top and bottom and what not.  If this has the bolt down plywood for the wood deck or whatever, remove it and replace if needed.

This is what you seek   <------ This is what I would recomend. Cheap, Easy to find, Stands up well.

What does everyone here like to use on their wooden deck boards?

I've seen in other forums people use deck sealer, some stuff intended for trailer decks, and even used motor oil.

Needed to take the 3038e back over to the acreage for mowing, so I took some time to double check my assumptions about the tongue load with the home-brew scale.  I positioned the tractor in the customary location on the car hauler, raised the rear feet & stowed the ramps.  Lowered the tongue jack after positioning the scale on a jack stand until it was free of the ground.





Scale read 480, so 0.95 x 480 = 456 lb actual tongue weight.

No tie downs done yet, will take care of that before hooking up to travel.

Just ordered weight distribution equipment to use (mainly) with the dump trailer to accommodate WD requirements associated with the Ford F-150 factory hitch.   Will post pic's when things get set up.  Getting two sets of bars to cover tongue weights from 600 - 1000 lb.

Simplest might be to just pick up one of the "high lift" jacks from the farm store.  I think they are about $60 at the local Tractory Supply  (TSC).   They are like one of the old bumper jacks on steroids, maybe 4' tall.   You could lift from the side of the trailer frame. The large foot combined with the length would make it work even if  the jack is sitting in a depression.  Not the handiest thing to store/carry, but potentially a very handy tool to have in your kit when you need to get something to move, with potential applications beyond tire changes (i.e. pulling fence posts,  lifting a wheel out of a hole, pushing something sideways, etc.).

I have a heavy duty 48 inch hi-lift of some sort, it is much like the old 70s bumper jacks and it is something that can hurt you.  Off road people swear by them but many people get whapped by them or don't realize what happens if you jack up an object using something with such a small base.

I also have bottle jacks.  I like my bottle jacks just fine but you are going to need some good wood scraps probably.  I have some 2x12 scraps I use for holding up the bottle jack or hi-lift and yeah I have cracked the boards as they age and it is one of those things where you need to consider what you are doing.

To some extent I would like to find a small little floor jack that is like what walmart and others sell for more than I want to pay.  They are cute and not going to be something I want to use to lift my vehicle, but a trailer they would lift just fine.

If you run searches you will find weird things for trailer axles that you put in place then pull your vehicle and trailer forward and it rolls with the axle lifting it.  I don't want one cause it is a one trick pony, but interesting.  If you had a double axle trailer then a ramp for the tire that is still holding air could do the same thing.

Walmart and other sell the tiny little rolling floor jack in the automotive department.  If buying a bottle jack I would research brands and get a good one.  If buying a farm type hi-lift jack I would also research them and get a good one.

Regardless of the jack you get, use a jack stand to support the trailer before you work on it.

If you have access to a junk yard, old type junk yard you can either wander around in or one where you know the people and they like to chit chat and make a buck, a lot of vehicles came with some decent jacks that work ok for occassional use.  Around here a lot of the junk yards sold out to chinese scrap buyers and what is left tends to warehouse the valuable parts and junk a lot of what is left or scrap it.

I grew up with being able to drive out to the country and talk to the junk yard guy and he would point in a direction and tell me roughly what to look for.  Now and then if I did not return they came by and asked what was up just cause they wanted to see what I was interested in and got to wondering if they missed something valuable.  Not in a bad way, and partly probably wondering if I dropped an engine on my head.

For towing the tractor consider seeing what a roll back tow truck trip would cost.  If you want to buy the trailer then go for it.  If you are not ready to do so, then a roll back may not cost that much.

As far as airing up tires, 5psi is 5 psi.  So a bike pump can do x, a electric air compressor can do y.  Does not matter if it is an inner tube for rafting, a bike tire, a tractor tire, a truck tire, or whatever.  Now a tractor tire will have a lot more volume.  Let the electric compressor cool down if it needs to do so.  Most are not 100% duty.

I was catching up on this thread and see there are several ideas regarding how to secure the loose end of a ratchet strap.

This is how I do it when I haul my little tractor.  It's easy as hell, neat and keeps the end from flapping in the breeze.  This is not my video, , it's just better than trying to explain it.

Early in this thread I mentioned I had used ratchet straps as a sort of winch.  Use 2 of em, big ones with handles and actual gears helps.  Anyway, one pulls it forward and then when it can ratchet no more leave it in place and set next one.  Let the 2nd one you just set start pulling tractor and once you have slack in first strap, undo it and get it ready to go again.

This is slow and not awesome, but I like mechanical leverage and it has worked well in the past for me.

200 psi is plenty, just need tires to hold air like you said.  Read the side wall and see what the heck they are rated for, I expect them to be pretty low pressure but honestly do not know.

Don't try to inflate them really high, just get em to hold air and be a tire and then get that thing loaded and moved.

When strapping it down do consider what happens to tension on that strap if the tire loses pressure.  Tire losing pressure and strap going slack leads to a major problem when moving.

Glad you have help, good luck with it.

I'm a complete novice at trailers and hauling tractors but this statement caused me concern.

Might consider chocking all the wheels with something big and heavy [cement blocks maybe?] as added insurance should the tires lose pressure and the straps don't remain taut.  Maybe chain the front of the tractor to the front of the trailer and the same at the back.

Finally got  the 800-1000 lb. hitch kit in on Thursday (Fedex delivered it to the wrong address on Tuesday).  I have the hitch assembled, but not torqued yet (waiting on some sockets) & that let me get the attachment points for the bolt on hooks on the PJ dump trailer.   The directions said to set a ball height relative to having the trailer tongue level, but I choose to base ball height on the height which had the tandem axle equalizers sitting level/parallel to ground.   I'm using a convert-a-ball ball set with 2" & 2 5/16" balls, so the hitch will work for both the dump trailer & car hauler.  The ball shank is rated at 10,000 lb, like the WD set.





The tip-up hooks that came with the kit will find a home on the Aluma car hauler.   This is a temporary placement, I may need to move the solar panel a bit for the final placement, but that seems unlikely based on the measurements I've made.  To date I have stayed below the 500/5000 lb limits, but might as well have the capacity to handle higher weights if needed in the future.  I'll finish finalizing the placement after getting in the 600-800 lb replacement bars monday.

I would not trust chalking the wheels, or chocking em either.  If you do it while tire is inflated the tire losing air pressure will cause there to be play between the tire rim and chock and while it may help it probably needs more help.

Using the front and rear of the tractor's frame to help secure it would help, but depending on sidewall height there will be slack caused by loss of air pressure.

I have rented several of the u-haul car trailers over the past few decades and they just use a strap over each front tire.  If the tire is flat or loses pressure, good luck.

I have seen people use cement blocks or stacks of scrap wood put under an axle or the frame of the vehicle in order for a flat tire to not matter, the axle or frame is resting on cement block or scrap wood and straps then pull it down on that item.  Mostly off roaders with some of the huge tires and stuff.

I honestly don't know a great answer for this and am not sure what a good choice would be.

I would check the load often or just load up the tractor and if worried about the tires consider letting the air back out of them if you feel it would leak out during the trip.

And still check the load often.

This is part of why this thread is here.  Hopefully someone has a better concept that would work for certain.

I have moved vehicles with good tires or at least tires I knew would make the trip aired up.  I have moved one vehicle on 4 flats and the tires were so shot we could not get em to even air up for loading the thing so strapped it down with flat tires.