Great looking rig.......

I think you will be happy with it.......

I think your lock for the ball lock is fine they cant get a bolt cutters on part of it to cut it so it will take some time to get it open.
for my stuff I bought a Brute lock by masterlock?? maybe if you look at the locks at a big box store like lowes or home depot they have a rating on them and I think this was like a 9 or a 10 it was pretty stout little lock but it was fairly spendy. but I figured it was a small price to pay for protection. but I would recommend again

Looks good! I think you will like it.

You are truly screwed,dude.............having a trailer is akin to having 4 wheel drive........you'll never be satisfied without it!



Get a decent chain and a good padlock and chain'er to a tree....

Nice choice Kitties.  

Now go here  I'd recommend straps with snap hooks on at least one end since you have some welded loops on your frame.  Straps go faster when they don't fall off while trying to tighten them.  If your mower has a hole for towing implements add a ring or webbing of some sort.  

Or with these little fellas and the anchor rings in front and behind wheels on opposite corners.  http://www.uscargocontrol.com/Ratchet-Straps-Tie-Downs/Olive-Painted-L-Track/Round-Airline-Track-Style-L-track-2-Piece-Olive  Run a short strap over the tire, or spring for wheel nets.

If you can find a way to drive your mower into something that captures a front tire, you only need to tie the rear down.

I had a thought about security.  It will only work if trailer is unloaded but how about a heavy steel post with a ball welded to the end and the other end sunk in some concrete like a short fence post.  Lock the coupler onto the ball.

Play on amazon when you get to looking at locks.  Lots more to look at.



For chain you want to watch what it is rated at in my opinion.  I also like decently size chain, but after messing with some of the 20 dollar car tow chain sold at lowes in a cute plastic box I like my better rated smaller chain more than that big soft chain.



For the chain and ratchet straps and anything, look at what you can physically fit through it.  I don't know what straps you bought, but if it is a sort of hook with an open D type area in the back of the hook, buy something to put through there.  I don't know if you bought tools for cutting metal yet, I saw your welding thread, but you could cut the stock hooks off and reuse the loops already in the material.  Or sew new loops.



With chain, the end link will have the most room for passing a padlock hasp through it, but if you use the chain for a lot of stuff it might do better to have a lock that can fit through anywhere.



And actually, if your ratchet straps have any kind of loop in the hook area, just pass the end without a hook through this so the ratchet strap end is now wrapped around your trailer where you want it, then feed it through the ratchet part.  Only works for that end.



You can buy all kinds of hooks and rings and stuff, just watch the rating on them.



When considering mounting them, like to the floor as you mentioned, the strongest way to mount it in the floor would be to drill and bolt it to the trailer frame rails.  The wood is as strong as it is going to be, using big washers to spread the force might work and what works now might not work so well as the wood ages over time.



I would mark where you want the mower on the trailer for towing balance, then you can look at options for strapping it down.

I was thinking you could pull next to the 20" post, decouple the empty trailer from your truck and pivot over to the post.  However your trailer is much longer than mine with heavier tongue weight.  Pivoting without a caster wheel on the jack could prove difficult for you.  I'd say it's possible to drive over the post if it's less than 8" tall, check your clearance to be sure.  Drive over post, decouple, move truck forward, lower coupler onto post.  Looks like your jack would work great for that.

Damn thieves, it was nice when you could just lower the jack and drive away from your trailer without worry.

Pink punisher paint, locking wheel boots, heavy chains to trees, coupler lock, steel post set in concrete and my favorite: livestock fence charger(discreetly hook charging wire under trailer, thief touches it and ZAP).  It may not prevent theft but at least it hurt stealing it.  Insurance is your only sure bet.

I'm a fan of a medium heavy chain, anchored deep in concrete. Flush with the ground, about 4 foot of chain exposed. Pull the truck right over it and stop with the hitch close to the chain and lock the chain to itself through the hitch and done. Make sure you uncouple the trailer front the truck, don't wanna forget that it's chained and concreted to the ground when you try to drive off with it.

Does your tow vehicle have low range (on the 4x4)?? Use low range if you have it. Helps tremendously.


Don't know if it was mentioned, but the shorter the trailer, the harder it is to back up. Get used to how the trailer looks in the side mirrors when driving forward and it is following. When backing up, like so many problems in life, it is much easier to deal with them early. As in make small corrections when backing up. Practice will make perfect.




What is wrong with your ratchet straps? Just cheap WM straps?




If you have some plastic car ramps, back up the ramps with the rear axle of tow vehicle before loading/unloading your mower. That will lift the front of the trailer, lower the gate, and reduce the angle you are dealing with, and should eliminate the dragging. You may not need much, and a couple of 2x10s stacked together (and screwed together) may be enough to eliminate the dragging.


 

ETA: Does your trailer bed ride level once loaded and hooked up? If it is nose down, either get a smaller drop hitch or flip your drop hitch to get the deck either level or SLIGHTLY higher. Will also reduce the dragging you are running into.

Ride looks good, don't change it. I would drive the back truck axle up on ramps or the like. Should take care of the dragging issue.

Low range changes the transfer case, should work in reverse.
 

Another option is to back the trailer tires into a low spot (ditch) for loading/unloading.

Metal ID Stamps are what you want to stamp your numbers into the frame with. Just whack 'em with a hammer. Be aware that they will probably damage the paint where you stamp.

Trailer wheels in a low spot, loading gate on a small rise, or you could take it to a welder and have a bend added in the middle of the load ramp. Wouldn't take much, if bent in the middle, just a couple inches downward at the end would completely change the load angles.

To the bottom of the page here...............  http://www.ridertailgate.com/securing-vehicle-using-tie-down-straps-s2/ it explains what I'm talking about.

Basically you'll have the welder notch the supports across the middle of the load ramp. Probably just a single cut off wheel width cut will do, then bend the entire thing and weld the cuts closed. Adding a couple small plates to reinforce the ramp and add some paint. Done, pretty easy and quick. If you were close I could knock it out in a couple lazy hours in my driveway. Nothing hard about it.

Take the trailer shopping with you and get used to it.  For a while I did not have anywhere to leave my trailer that I trusted, so it went where I went.  You will get good at driving and backing when you do it this way.  I understand this is not your only vehicle, but take it to wally world early or late one night and play in their parking lot when it is empty, or mostly empty.



Your vehicle with have 4x4 low in forward and reverse.  I don't know how that systems 4x4 works but you generally would not use 4x4 on a dry surface like a paved road.  In gravel or dirt the tires can slip a little so it is ok.  If used in a yard you might hurt the grass in a tight turn.  So 4x4 low is good for backing, but read up on your 4x4 system to see how picky it is about tire slippage.



I had a 4x4 crew cab general motors thing, it hardly cared if it was in 4x4 and got stuck super easy.  My wrangler has positraction in the back axle and in 4x4 it is picky and will want some tire slippage.



If you buy an engraver that is able to engrave the metal on the trailer you will find other things to engrave as well.  Your mower and other large tools would suddenly be sporting something like maybe your driver's license number so you can show your driver's license and show it matches the item you engraved on.  Til then something as simple as hiding a laminated paper under the trailer might work, people with bicycles are not interested in engraving on something made of super rare metal and stuff, so they hide a note in the tube and usually a theif does not check.



The way your setup sits it probably works perfect once loaded, but you should learn to look at it as you walk towards and away from it, you will notice a flat tire or just a low tire as something looking odd to you.



For loading the mower I figure you have some scrap wood around.  If you put the tailgate down and put down some 2x4s or 2x8s or whatever you have for scrap, put em so the rear wheels go up on the 2xwhatevers before the mower deck hits the breakover angle.  To some extent you could bolt the 2xwhatevers to the tailgate since you got the gate helper, and cutting them at an angle so the wheel rolls up the angle instead of hitting the edge and having to bump up it would help as well.  Not sure how much height you need.



I tend to cheat and just hook a strap to the back of the deck and pull up so I put the strain on the deck instead of the trailer forcing it upwards, not much is usually needed.



The tire ramps or parking in low spots will also work fine, I figure you have some scrap wood around.  If you were nearby I know where some of the big black tire ramps are but then you would have 2 more things to tie down.



On your ratchet straps, take just the ratchet part inside with you and while you watch tv or surf the net babysitting all of us in this section look at it.  Figure out how to disable one of the safeties on it if you can.  I look at ratchet straps the same as I look at current fuel cans.  If they have little levers and buttons I don't like and I want to disable em, I will do so if I feel comfortable doing it.  I suspect one of your safeties is just an extra and one does all the mechanical holding.  



Then again I don't have any straps like you are talking about.  I generally pull my straps out of the truck when helping someone because I despise their cheap junk.



If you run some searches you will find using 4 low for backing trailers is common due to the slower speed being easier to react to for people.  But do understand your 4x4 system well, the sites you were talking about researching about your trooper will have all the info on that.



I find when using 4 low in my tj I tend to wind up using much higher gears around the yard as well, kind of amusing to be using top gear in 4 low cause 1st gear in 4 low is so dang slow when moving a trailer load of stuff somewhere.  To some extent I do use 4 low just to use it, I think it should be messed with just to make sure things all work.

Make it look kinda like this one.

http://vernsmfg.com/images/sixtenramp.jpg

Ignore that the pictured one is hinged and center supports. Your just making your existing gate a "arched" style one shaped like the picture. I'm telling you anyone with a welder and grinder/cutting tool can modify it in two hours. I been searching and can't find an actual pic anywhere. It's been a couple years since I've seen one, but they do exist and were made commercially. I'm guessing people didn't wanna pay the extra for the ramp style so it's disappeared over time. But for the end user (non-commercial) mower transport it is the ticket to happiness.

ETA: for simplicity, I'd measure how tall the trailer is from the ground at the gate. Lets say 10 inches. I'd cut and angle it so when the gate it flat the angle gave 5 inches at the end. Effectively splitting the angles involved, making it half of what it was for each transition.

Are you raising the deck all the way up before loading?

Well, a simple come-along will move your mower just fine. Higher tonnage units are easier to pull smaller loads due to longer lever.





If you go with an electric winch, you need power. Lots of power. You would have to run some darn heavy cables from your vehicle battery, or have a battery right on the trailer (which would go to shit in a few years, especially if you don't use it all the time).



ETA: A long time ago, when I was young, I once used a come-along to drag a 1000ish pound log up a wooded hill that was at almost 45 degrees. It was work, but not that bad (at the time. Would probably kill me today ). Moving something with wheels is infinitely easier.

for that id just buy one of the cheap harbor freight 2500 lb jobs for 59 dollars when it goes on sale

If lack of.sufficient amps is an issue, look into the cranking boat trailer winches. Should be able to run the strap to the back of your trailer and crank something up the ramp and into the trailer.

Overtons has a 2 speed 2500 lb rated manual winch on sale at the moment for about $75.  The strap is 24 ft long.

For infrequent use, a  hand winch might suffice....this'n is $23 at Northern Tool

I used one that was a 2500 winch but it was in a small box you chained one side to the trailer and it came with 15 foot cables to run to vehicle battery just keep the car running when you use it you will be fine I liked that because it was not out in the elements but you could use and take off when u needed

For an electric winch you will basically need some jumper cables to run from the vehicle battery to the winch.  It would be nice to hardwire in cables to the back of the vehicle and then all you do is plug in the winch to a plug on the vehicle, but that will cost more.



You can of course install a full size battery or a generator on the trailer, but then you are going to wonder about more stuff getting stolen.



A cheap and reasonable solution would be something like the boat winch shown, they come with different ratings as well.  If you don't know about rigging stuff, learn about a double line.  Basically you would buy a pulley and it would be put on the mower and the line from the winch runs down to the mower and through the pulley and back up to an anchor on the front of the trailer.  You obviously need more line for this sort of stuff.  What you get by doing this is double the force with half the speed, minus friction and blah blah blah.  I figure you would rather crank more than crank less with more force.



One thing about big ratchet straps that I do, some rated at 3 to 5k lbs, is use them as a poor mans winch.  Takes two to do it.  Hook up and start ratcheting.  The mower would be pulled so far before you can't ratchet any more.  Hook up the next ratchet and once it takes the load remove the first one.  Use the 2nd one til it can't crank any more and reset the first one.  A ratchet strap can move some stuff, moved cars before.  Not a great solution but it is what it is.



I don't know how much winching the battery on the mower could do, especially if it is why the mower died.  But an atv would have a similar size battery I guess.



If you won't use it, and more importantly keep it charged, setting up a battery on the trailer might not be the best idea.  Does not take a whole lot to keep em charged but the regular pig tail harness probably won't do it.



Biggest thing to do with any of this is to realize how much force is being used, use items rated for that and/or more, and be careful in case something pops loose.



Some people rig up a portable winch for their main vehicle and then add stuff to the trailer so it can be used there, but we are talking larger winches like what would be used off road for a 4x4 or something.  There are a lot of ways to do stuff, and being able to remove the winch and lock it up would be my preference.  The portable winches use a hitch insert on their mounts, so anything you can run power to and put a hitch on works.  And they tend to just weld the hitch receiver tube in, not a whole hitch setup.

I'm a K.I.S.S. guy... I bet I have the plainest AR on the site.  I thought I was getting pretty darn snazzy when I put a sling on it.

As for a mount, did you ever get that welder?  I betcha you could rig up an L-shaped mounting plate that would mount on your spare tire holder, between the spare wheel and the plate it's mounted on.  Then the spare would slip back on over the mount.  Guess you'd have to judge whether the spare tire mount was itself mounted securely enough to the trailer frame/rails to anchor any likely load from the winch, but just an idea to think about.

I've used a cable come-a-long, ratchet straps and an electric winch to pull my broken mower up the ramps.

The come-a-long is the quickest and easiest to set up when needed.  

The winch I use is a 3000 lb unit from amazon, I think it was $90.  I bolted a plate onto the winch base that has holes to accept the hooks of a ratchet strap.  I run the strap around a front trailer post or two and back to the winch.  Try something like this http://smile.amazon.com/WARN-70770-Portable-Anchor-Plate/dp/B000CQBMP4/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1463857866&sr=8-8&keywords=winch+plate

Ratchet straps to drag a load onto the trailer is not a fun time but in emergency or when no other means are available, it works.  You do what you need to do.  

If you want to learn how to move stuff or get it on a trailer when you are too small, too old or too weak, check out machine moving threads at home/machine shop/hobby forums.  These 80 yo guys have to move 2000lb chunks of iron with not much more than a smile, boot laces and a bucket of bacon grease.  

It would be pretty easy to winch a mower on especially since the one I linked has two speeds. The slower one is for more power. I think you could crank it up easily.

I pretty much never ever unhook from the vehicle when doing things like loading stuff and what not.  I think I posted in this thread or another one of your threads that I sometimes have ideas that regular real world physics says are not a good idea, and I disagree till taught my lesson.  Sometimes the ideas are cool and work.  Sometimes it takes some muscle to get things done, and I learn not to try that.  Sometimes it is spectacular and anyone nearby wonders if they should have been holding my beer.



On your vehicle is a tow hitch.  It has a receiver built into it, the female part of the hitch setup.



You use a hitch insert with a tow ball to connect the tow hitch on your vehicle to the trailer.



So receiver, is hole.  Insert, goes in hole.



And these are how I define it, if someone looks it up and wants to change it knock yourself out.



If you consider some of the forces we are talking about, like 2500lb winch, you are going to want to mount the thing solidly.



Or you could get someone to weld another receiver on your trailer so you could drop a winch on a mount into that receiver when you want to use it.  This is common for off road guys who trailer their stuff to the trail and have an old winch sitting around, but don't want it sitting out all the time.



Warn makes a setup for their 9k lb and under winches and while overkill for a little one, it will show you what I am talking about with the winch bolted to a cradle and the cradle has the part that goes in the receiver.  Then your hitch pin is taking all that force.



I can't tell how far to the side your spare tire is, but for something like a boat winch I would probably move the spare over to the far side to give you some room.



Me being me I would probably use a 2x12 scrap of pressure treated wood as well as a piece of scrap metal that could span part of the A frame of the tongue of the trailer.  Need to get the boat winch to a height it will work, and don't worry about length of cable or strap on the winch.  You can use other chains or straps for length and as long as you remember to chain the mower in place while redoing the strap setup, it won't roll away from you.  This lets you keep the trailer in the best spot for loading instead of trying to back it up to whatever broke.  This is me laying the board and metal flat across the widest part of the A and maybe U-bolts or something to attach it.  The force is going to be forwards and backwards more than upwards, I would want to see your trailer to figure out what else I might do.  



For scrounging parts I have put a board across the front of a trailer like yours and used it to help hold things in place while pulling something up with ratchet straps, the board was using the 4 or however many uprights as its main brace.  Just set the board on and pulling the old tractor on and then board went bye bye.  The board helped spread the force out across the front supports instead of just hooking onto one support.  Old trailer, no good places to really hook onto.



With a hand winch you want to look at how fast it is going to take up the cable.  Someone mentioned a 2 speed setup, high gear is for low loads or when empty and just rewinding the cable.  Low gear is for heavy loads.  And if this is like car axles someone will tell me I am backwards on high vs low and I am ok with that.  



Heck, a bunch of rope and some block and tackle would let you load the mower as well.  Just more pullies.



I really like winches til they need upkeep, or I need to buy it a battery or its battery is not keeping a charge or something like that.



I think your mower on aired up tires would not need much force to load it other than when its mower deck hangs up.  Something hanging up sucks.



But if you think about it you can push your mower around in neutral on aired up tires.  So going uphill sucks for you pushing but it won't be a huge load for a winch or whatever.  On that note I do better hooking a rope to the front and pulling the mower onto the trailer instead of pushing.  I can get a better grip on the rope and I use stronger muscles compared to being all bent over pushing on a flexible bunch of metal on a riding mower.