I keep looking at trailers to use around my home/hobby farm or whatever. Primary use would be hauling an atv or john deere 1025r to the cabin, or out camping, or taken to home depot for fence supplies etc, or going to buy small equipment for the farm or whatever smaller misc tasks I have. I have a 2500 pickup to pull the trailer so I am not limited there. Is there any reason not to get the absolute biggest single axle trailer I can find? Assuming the price/condition/manufacturer all check out? As I look, it's hard not to keep drifting and look to bigger tandem axle utility trailers, but I think I want to limit myself to a single axle trailer. Am I going to notice any difference in gas mileage between bigger and smaller steel single axle trailers?

My father in law has a tandem axle dump trailer. He rents it out a lot, so it's not always available to me to use. It works great when I can borrow it, but it's massively overkill for almost everything I need to do(until I do have a task that requires it). And there is something about hauling an ATV to his cabin in a 5,000lb trailer that seems a little silly.

What does everyone here think? Am I dumb for wanting my own trailer, and should I just suck it up and use the dump trailer when I need it? Or can I justify a small trailer that'll get used a dozen or 2 times per year?

Like most things we get into 1 trailer is just the start. I have a 4 of them currently, I sold a few a couple years ago.

Most 5 lug axles are rated for 3500#s, looks like your 1025r with loader should weigh right at 2000#s so a single axle trailer should haul it just fine. Currently the trailer I use most is a 12' utility with an end gate ramp. Something like that would work well for what you need.

Do you forsee getting a larger tractor,skid steer,, etc anytime soon? If so I'd go for a tandem axle 16-20 footer. If not don't buy more trailer than you need, those extra few feet can make getting it turned around suck. To get my 20' trailer backed up to my shop takes an 87 point turn, my 12' glides right in.

You'll use what ever trailer you buy more than you think you would.

I once wanted to build a trailer with a single 3500 or 5000 axle.
Multiple people who claimed to know better than me said it would ride like crap compared to tandem 2000s.

You can put small stuff on a big trailer, you can't put big stuff on a small trailer. IMHO, a sixteen tandem axle trailer is just about the ideal all around size. On a single axle trailer if you have a flat going down the road you are stopped. With a tandem axle you could, if absolutely necessary, limp down the road to a safe area. They do have their drawbacks of course, but the good outweighs the bad to me. A small trailer is handy if you can have a larger one also, but if you are going to have only one I would recommend a larger one.

I have a 12 ft trailer. Single axle. It’s extremely handy. Mine is 77in wide and I wish I had gotten a little wider one. Also wish I had gone with a 14 ft long one. That said, the 12 ft trailer does 95% of what I need it to. A wider 14 ft trailer would enable me to do 3% more than I can with my 12 ft trailer and the remaining 2% requires a 16-18 ft tandem axle.

It’s such a handy size though, I’ll never get rid of it. I have used it to haul up to 16 ft long lumber. As a kid, we had a 16 ft trailer. It was fine but the single axle shorter trailer really is a very useful size for most things. I’ll never get rid of it. I might get a 16-18 ft car hauler trailer one day but maybe not since I can rent one locally whenever I need one.

I did put trailer brakes on the trailer and love them. They were great when we were towing our RZR through CO a couple years ago.

1025r is about 1500lbs.

Add in a loader which is about another 500lbs.

Weight box 500lbs.

Mower deck. Chains and binders.  Whatever else.  


3500lbs minus the weight of the trailer itself, would be over loaded.

5000lb trailer is the smallest I would ever look at.

Always get a trailer a little bigger than you need. I use my 10k 20' for just about everything.

For sure, if your hauling a heavy ballast and other attachments a bigger trailer would definitely be needed.

I’m about to buy a 1025R, also looking at trailers.  I’m looking at an 18’ tandem or maybe a 16’ dump (I may rent or use for side money as I near military retirement).  I’ll have room to park several trailers at the new house so I’m not going smaller than 16”.

My dilemma is mostly the ramp styles.  I think I want ramps instead of the gate deal that folds down.

I have a 1025r and Honda pioneer utv. I bought a 16' tandem axle car hauler, it's 14' + 2' dovetail slide in ramps. Built sides for hauling firewood/dirt/mulch. The only thing I don't like is a lack of tie down points and position of the stake pockets. If I had more room and did it over I'd buy an aluminum tikt deck for hauling tractor/utv and a dedicated single axle material hauler

In my opinion, for someone who ONLY uses it to transport mowers or ATVs, the gate makes sense.  If you intend to haul a variety of things with the trailer, go with ramps.  I haul long lumber from time to time with mine and a gate would have to be removed in order for make it work. I also have a long tongue and a tongue box.  I keep a variety of tie downs in the box, a jack, extra lug nuts, and a folding 4 way lug wrench.

Once you park a tractor on there, especially with a loader or anything on the 3pt, the trailer starts seeming small pretty fast.  I haul my 3038E on an 18ft car trailer.  I think the tandem axle setup is a lot more forgiving when you are trying to get it balanced right, with a bigger "sweet spot" front to back.  Plus you have an extra axle with brakes on it, which doesn't hurt.  It pulls great with the tractor on there, even at interstate speeds.



The fenders make getting pallets on a pain sometimes unless you have the reach to load them from the back if you're hauling more than one.  

17K clay pigeons might weigh more than the tractor.

I just moved to my homestead.  Only 3+ acres, with about 1/3 woods.  I bought a 18+2 Load Trail 10k trailer.  Probably overkill, but it’s plenty of space for my 2025R and probably my mower.  

I'd say the best all around trailer would be a tilt bed, tandem axle. No F'ing around with ramps. I'm sure you'd be able to fashion up sides for it if needed. You can haul whatever. Side load pallets on it. Anything with wheels. Half the time you don't have to jack it, just back a tractor up to it, unlock the bed and drive up, it'll tilt. Same with unloading. Just drive forward and it'll tilt down, just release pressure on the jack to re-lower it and lock her in and off you go.
Get one with a quick detach winch mount incase you're loading up something dead. Tilt bed much handier for loading equipment that may get stuck on ramps, perhaps a small forklift?
Tandem axle is the way to go. Have 1 flat tire? Take it off, chain up the axle and drive away slowly if needed.
I would place your concerns on fuel economy to a negligible nothing burger on any single axle or light duty tandem.
We have a 7x14' fold down ramp trailer single axle, I would not recommend for a compact tractor with a loader. We haul a zero turn and maybe a walk behind tiller on there max. It has a 3500 lb axle and combined with the hitch rating on your pickup would be technically enough to haul a compact tractor, but that's truly not it's purpose. And then you'd be really limiting yourself when you want to borrow a small skid steer or want to pick up that sweet Farmall Super M or John Deere A that your Dad or Grandpa wants you to have.
We bought the utility trailer for 1 purpose, to haul the mower back and forth from home to work and SUV hitch is perfect height and 2" ball always on it. The 3/4 ton always has the 2 5/16" ball to haul the 24 flatbed or dump trailer around, which I don't recommend a dump trailer for hauling stuff around with wheels because usually something is always going to be in it that needs to be dumped first. PITA. And deck over trailer too high up unless you got the dovetail and fold up ramps which would be pretty sweet but starting to talk bigger bucks.
Tilt bed trailer is some bigger coin too, but as a general purpose trailer I don't think it can be beat.
Something like this: https://www.pullhp.com/M_T_Tilt_Trailers.html

I would also keep in mind your state's licensing requirements if it's gonna be off the farm.

Some may require a higher class license if the trailer is large enough.

I have found no reason not to love my 16' tandem utility trailer.  Very versatile, whether loaded down to squatting position with a load of green oak firewood, or hauling two or three pieces of floppy 20' steel building ridge cap, it's big enough and stout enough to handle everything I've needed to haul, but pulls easy and, at least when I bought it, their popularity made them relatively inexpensive around here.

Hard lesson learned:  don't just ignore it and let it sit out in the sun if it's used infrequently.  I just sacrificed $600 worth of tires that probably only had about 400 miles on them to dryrot.

This looks awesome! I've seen the heavier equipment tilt bed trailers before, but didn't like how much weight they added to the trailer. I think I just found my next trailer. Price looks in line with most similar trailers too.

A few years ago, I bought a travel trailer. Well, I can't tell if I ended up getting it too big, or if I just didn't fully realize what kind of mileage I was going to get pulling it. I'm a little shy to use it now because every trip turns into a few hundred dollars. Basically, I'm just trying to make sure I don't make the same mistake twice as I'm feeling a little gun shy about it all, but certainly I'm probably not going to be taking the equipment trailer on 5 hour road trips very regularly.

I'm about to pick up an 18' utility trailer with a tractor on it, and the biggest thing is that I've had a couple of trailers, starting with a 4x8 single axle.  Single axle is great for keeping things light, but you do have to be careful about weight limits.  But I used the ever-loving crap out of it.

After that one I've stuck to tandems that have brakes.  Had a 16 ft box trailer, sold to get a 14 ft stock trailer.  14 ft is great for a lot of things, but a number of things seem to be 16 ft (cattle panels).  So the stock trailer is sticking around, but the 18 ft flat trailer will get more use, I expect.  Easier to load pallets on, less windsail effect.  20' just seems long to me, but since I have no concerns about storing, or really going places with tight clearances, I'm happy to go with 18' over 16'.

Also, really need to get the brake controller permanently mounted to my truck.  Wife's expedition has an integrated one, which is super nice.

I had a 14’ Utility trailer for several years. It was great for hauling my ATV’s around, but I always wished I had gotten a larger, tandem axle rig, especially when I bought a tractor.

I got rear ended while towing my trailer a couple of months ago and my trailer got totaled. I used the insurance payout to pick up a 20’ equipment hauler and I couldn’t be happier…

My first trailer was a Morgan built tilt bed with 2 5,200# axles. Sure it's handy for some things, like just driving a tractor on. I've found all sorts of problems, such as when you load a vehicle with a longer wheelbase (think old Cadillac or even just a pickup truck) the bed tries to tilt down before the rear wheels are on, the deck comes up and slams underneath the car. Say you want to haul 2 or more ATVs or side by sides? After you get the first one on the bed gos down, now how do you load the rest? I recently hauled 2 John Deeres on mine. I had to put a chain from the first one to the second one and pull both at the same time and use some wood to help get the second one up on the deck. It was a pain. When I bought the tilt deck I thought the same thing you did, that I didn't want to mess with ramps.

I live on an 8th of an acre and have a 17ft flatbed and a 5x10 PJ dump trailer. Wife thinks I’m crazy, but then again I also have a Kubota BX23S.

I’ve never regretted having my own trailers or my Kubota. Only regret not having more land.

Given your intended usage, I'd go with a tandem equipment trailer or a car hauler. 16-18', and electric brakes on one axle.

That'll tide you over until you move up to a 30' gooseneck.

1/8th of an acre? do you even have room to park the trailer on your lot?

My trailer is a 1 size fits all.  24ft Gooseneck Lowboy Car Hauler style with tip up ramps that have a knee and brakes on both axles.  I'm on 10 acres and have a 30HP Kubota Tractor.  I built low sides for it to haul mulch, dirt etc.  I have a little HF 4x8 that never leaves the property.  I rent/borrow a dump trailer rarely.  Gooseneck keeps your BIL from borrowing it and returning it tore up.  Now if he calls he gets ME and my Truck, so factor that in.

Just get the 10K rated 16-18ft tandem axle car hauler with 6 or 8 lug hubs.  It won't weight much more than one with 3500lbs axles.  Little trailer run out of weight capacity LONG before they run out of deck space.  That tractor you are thinking about will either need attachments or materials to use it and they all add up.  Single axle trailers will kill you if you don't have enough tongue weight.  At least get electric brakes so if she starts to wag on you you can pull it back in line.  Tire blows on a single, you are screwed.  Tandem lets you limp along to a wide spot so you butt is not hanging in the wind for a big rig to kiss.  Don't get a utility version with the ladder frame sides unless just hauling a mower or ATV.

Whatever you buy plan to replace the tires within 2 yrs.  Either by quality tires up front and figure on replacing them every 5 yrs regardless of wear.  Or just run used take offs our cheap chinese and carry a battery impact with you.  Lately I've been buying takeoffs from the RV Camper guys.  They will usually run whatever the mfg put on for the 1-2 years then swap them out for a quality tire.  If a tire blows on the camper the cost to repair the damage is high.  I can usually get a set of 4 or 5 barely used for $200.  Once they hit 5yrs old I start looking for another set.  UV seems to kill the China tires so either put covers on them or park in the shade.

Also no matter who makes it a retarded one eyed monkey with no thumbs would have done a better job wiring it.  Just rip it all out and start over with the soldering iron and heat shrink.  Spend a causal Sat doing it once when the weather is nice.  Not while lying in a puddle with blowing snow figuring out where the bad ground is trying to get the lights to work while the kindly state trooper watches.  While you are rewiring it put a couple cheap LED loading lights up on the front.

Make sure the stake pockets hold a 2x4, not some channel iron welded on like my goose  :-( but I got a great deal on it.  Get stake pockets, a rub rail, and buy the D Rings that slip in the stake pocket.  Weld on rings you need 6 of them on a side because they are never in the right spot.

Get a fabricated fender or at least the sturdier tread plate type.  Put a lighter weight tie down eye in the corner on top of the fender.  The thinner stamped ones just about flop in the wind anymore.

Weld some receiver tube up on the front.  Buy a cheap remote controlled ATV winch and mount it on a cradle.  That with a snatch block will load most things: logs, barn find '73 Camaro, etc.  Plus you can store the winch securely in the toolbox or use it on another vehicle.

Spare Tires are a must and 2 is better.  Older Nissans used a chain style winch to mount their spare tire.  I've seen a few where people mounted both spares up under the front of the deck, just lower them with a lug wrench and it keep them out of the sun.

I have a 10ft 3500 lb. single axle PJ.  It is convenient and easy to hook up and move around by hand and handled everything I needed it for until I bought my subcompact BX23s.   Now it is too small and I wish I had purchased a tandem 14ft from the start.  

For instance, I wanted to move the BX up to our camp house 3.5 hrs away and that ended up being a pain in the ass.  I could have moved it all at once if I had found a rental place with a 7000lb 14 or 16ft utility trailer but all the outfits (United, Sunbelt) went from 3500lb utility trailers straight to 10K-12K trailers which were too heavy for my Frontier.

Instead I ran the front end loader up separately from the tractor/backhoe on my 10ft trailer.  I then had to rent a 12ft tandem U-haul for the tractor/backhoe since even without the FEL the tractor was almost too heavy and way too long for my 10ft trailer, even if it fit I wasn't willing to carry it on a single axle trailer up and down the Blue Ridge with no brakes.  

Moral to this story, I absolutely agree with the other posters that said to buy a trailer bigger than you think you need because you will eventually realize you need a trailer bigger than you have.  

Having both isn't a bad thing either. I have a 16' PJ tandem axle and a 12' PJ single axle I got years later.

I used to have a BX23 and bought the 16' tandem to haul it behind my Tacoma at the time. If you do buy a tandem for a BX23, I would definitely recommend going with a 16' if you can. Gives you more room to balance the load, and if you ever want to haul 16' lumber you're covered.

I've since sold my BX23 and the Tacoma. Now have a Tundra and a B2650, and wish I had an 18' or even 20' trailer. I can get my B2650 on the 16' trailer, but it's a little tight. Also kind of regret not going for a beaver tail. I was afraid it would be dragging on the ground in places, but without it, I either have to back up to a slight hill or block up the gate and add ramps or else mowers and even the backhoe will get hung up on the sharper angle.

ETA:

B2650 on 16' trailer:


BX23 on the same 16' trailer:

I have a 12 ft single 3500 axle trailer.  I installed electric brakes after purchase. It does 99% of what I need it to. If I was to buy a single axle trailer again it would be a 14 ft, try to get a 82 inch wide, and would have a single 5200lb axle.  Either way, a single axle trailer is such a handy size for most things, I wouldn’t want to be without one.

Thanks for the pics.  The tractor looks much less crowded on a 16ft trailer than the pics I saw on Tractorbynet with a similar TBL on a 14ft trailer.  If prices for everything ever come back down I will definitely look into a 16ft.    I agree that the beavertail would be worth it.  When I put the FEL on my 10ft PJ I found out the ramp is just too steep for the low ground clearance of the backhoe so I had to uncouple the backhoe to get it loaded.  

The smallest I would go it tandem 3500 pound and 16’.

This entire response is fantastic advice from someone who has clearly towed a fair amount.