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Future Log Trailer - New WHOPPER Log PICS

Started by Kirk_Allen, October 03, 2005, 03:32:45 PM

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Kirk_Allen

New addition to the fleet!   Hey Furby, got this 60' mobile home frame with two axles installed, third one thrown in after some bardering and paid $400.00



Towed it home today right down the highway :o 8) :o  That was interesting to say the least!  

I plan on cutting it down to make a GOOD triple axle 30 foot log trailer.  

Hey Buzz, ready to start welding?  

Larry

Had a tri-axle gooseneck...2,000 bf of logs on and I could roll one tire off quite easy when I made a sharp corner.  Don't know if that is common or just my luck. ::)
Larry, making useful and beautiful things out of the most environmental friendly material on the planet.

We need to insure our customers understand the importance of our craft.

pigman

Quote from: Larry on October 03, 2005, 04:03:26 PM
Had a tri-axle gooseneck...2,000 bf of logs on and I could roll one tire off quite easy when I made a sharp corner.  Don't know if that is common or just my luck. ::)
I have  tri-axel livestock trailer. Keeping the tires on is not a problem if you don't use radial tires and keep enough air in them. I keep about 70psi in the tires.
Things turn out best for people who make the best of how things turn out.

maple flats

Keeping the air high enough will keep the tires on but you will never get as good mileage from a set of tires as you would with tandem axle. The third set means the tire must skid to make a turn anything more than a gentle curve. Skidding leaves $ on the pavement, but don't worry, they make new tires all the time and you will be helping the local tire shop stay in business. ;D
logging small time for years but just learning how,  2012 36 HP Mahindra tractor, 3point log arch, 8000# class excavator, lifts 2500# and sets logs on mill precisely where needed, Woodland Mills HM130Max , maple syrup a hobby that consumes my time. looking to learn blacksmithing.

Furby

 :D :D :D :D :D
Ya see, when Kirk was up this way we saw a trailer for sale. I stopped to look at it and it was a 32' I think, boat trailer....they were asking $3200 for it.

Actually Kirk, I was considering asking if anyone had a rig like that to haul something, passed though. ::)
Looks like you would have a good start on a second 30' or maybe a 20' eh? ;) ;D

Kirk_Allen

They guy I got it from has two more with tandem axles but one is 14 foot wide and he wants $450 and I think the other is $350. 

He also has several with axles but no tires for $250.


Furby

You gonna haul that thing out to Buzz, or have him work on it at your place?

florida

I've had several mobile home axle trailers over the years and have had problems with every one.  As it was explained to me the tires are very cheap as they are made for one trip only. After several hundred miles they start splitting and coming apart. I gave a buddy who still has one and he has to replace the tires every 3 or 4 months even though the trailer gets very little use. The tire and rim size is unique so you can't put on a better tire nor can you use a different rim.
General contractor and carpenter for 50 years.
Retired now!

Fla._Deadheader


We use low-boy trailer tires on our mobile home axles. They wear VERY well. They are a harder rubber and I paid around $75.00 each. 8-14.5 10 ply.
All truth passes through three stages:
   First, it is ridiculed;
   Second, it is violently opposed; and
   Third, it is accepted as self-evident.

-- Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

Kirk_Allen

Harold, the tires that are on this are 7-14.5.  I assume the 7 is the tread width?

Where did you get the tires your talking about?    I know mobile home tires are not that great and was planning on replacing them anyway but for now they will work for what I have to do. 

My current urgency on this trailer is to get it cut to size, decked and ready to load some 38' white oaks for my Timber Frame shop. 

ronwood

Kirk,

Why would you want to deck it if you using it to hall logs? Seems to me that it would save ypou some weight.

Ron
Sawing part time mostly urban logs -St. Louis/Warrenton, Mo.
LT40HG25 Woodmizer Sawmill
LX885 New Holland Skidsteer

Kirk_Allen

Rigidity....................Is that a word?  The side wing supports on the trailer hold lots of vertical weight but can bend back and forth real easy.  I plan on welding a side plate the length of the trailer to tie them together but having it decked stiffens it up quite a bit.  The main I-Beam on tis is only 3/16th materail so the excess we cut off is going to be used to reinforce and beef up the main beams. 

Decking it will let me use the trailer for many other options in the future. 

I will progably put better axles under it in the future after reading this:  I am thinking two axles in the 5000 lb range each. That should take care of what I need to do. 

"AXLES - Can mobile home axles be reused?
The Dexter MH (mobile home) type axle is designed for limited usage in the delivery of manufactured homes and has a one-time limit use. The axle has steel forged spindles that are not precision ground. The brake assembly is welded onto the beam and not intended to be field replaced. Additionally, the bearing package is smaller than the more expensive service type axle. Most MH axles are also equipped with a single leaf spring suspension for very heavy loads. We do not have components that would convert MH axles to servicable assemblies"

etat

I have a extra super heavy duty sixteen foot three axle trailer that I use to haul scrap shingles.  Wide turns are a must especially when heavily loaded.  I use regular axles under it not Mobil home axles and 15 inch tires.  Usually about once a year I replace the front axle.   The weight of a track hoe bucket dragging them off (it does have a steel plate floor in in over two by eight decking) along with the pressure put on the axles from turning will eventually warp them.  I just bought two new axles with hubs  and springs.  Five thousand pound axels.  I get them from a place that builds trailers and the cost per axle runs around 125 dollars apiece.  They use big hole Chevrolet rims.  Even though we run magnets we still have 'lots' of flats so I like to be able to run tires that are readily available.  

Heaviest I ever loaded it, 70 square of scrap shingles at appx 195 pounds per square.  The weight and the sharp rocks at the dump punctured one of the tires and by the time I got dumped I blew two more on the same side.  Thinking I was just a 'mite' overloaded..

However I regularily haul 40 to 50 square of scrap on this trailer without a 'lot' of problems...... :)

Old Age and Treachery will outperform Youth and Inexperence. The thing is, getting older is starting to be painful.

Fla._Deadheader

 Yeah, yeah. Go look at some of our loads. Longest trips are 3 hours and 200 miles. LUBE the brake parts, re-pack all bearings and pay attention. We use the brakes that came with the axles. They slide the tires with a full load.  ;D
Axles are 6000 pound rated.  ;D
All truth passes through three stages:
   First, it is ridiculed;
   Second, it is violently opposed; and
   Third, it is accepted as self-evident.

-- Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

DanG

The notion that MH tires are only used for one trip is a myth.  After a new MH is delivered and set up, the dealer sells the axles and tires back to the manufacturer, who puts them on another new trailer. 
"I don't feel like an old man.  I feel like a young man who has something wrong with him."  Dick Cavett
"Beat not thy sword into a plowshare, rather beat the sword of thine enemy into a plowshare."

Buzz-sawyer

Quote from: florida on October 04, 2005, 06:36:58 AM
I've had several mobile home axle trailers over the years and have had problems with every one.  As it was explained to me the tires are very cheap as they are made for one trip only. After several hundred miles they start splitting and coming apart. I gave a buddy who still has one and he has to replace the tires every 3 or 4 months even though the trailer gets very little use. The tire and rim size is unique so you can't put on a better tire nor can you use a different rim.

most of the tires I have used from mobile homes were either 6 or 8 ply.very tough ...maybe yours are different i have not seen a one ply trailer home tire. ??? :)


Regarding single use .well that is to cover thier but most likely.I have been hauling d-4 dozers, T-9 dozers....and anything else you can think of on 2 axles for 11 years......and got them USED when i started..they had been a trailer for years.
i have seen these axles more generally in use than any other axle......even on commercially built trailers. :)
    HEAR THAT BLADE SING!

jokers

Quote from: DanG on October 04, 2005, 10:45:19 AM
The notion that MH tires are only used for one trip is a myth.  After a new MH is delivered and set up, the dealer sells the axles and tires back to the manufacturer, who puts them on another new trailer. 

Right you are DanG, but the bottom line(and this is directed to everyone) is that according to Federal DOT regs(CFRs), mobile home axles, tires, or any other component labeled as "mobile home, or MH use only" are prohibited from being used for any other over the road purpose. I first became aware of this several years ago after reading something on Yesterdays Tractors where the link to the Fed DOT code was posted at that time. I`m sorry that I no longer have the link but it shouldn`t be too hard to find the info.

Another thing to consider is that some states, like New york where I live, have their own requirements for legal compliance above and beyond what the Fed rules require. I`ve seen several cases where homebuilt trailers using mobile home axles and tires have been in accidents which weren`t related to a failure of any MH component, and the user of the trailer took a huge bath in court due to the illegal components on the trailer. Just a few years ago I read in the paper where a local guy was using MH tires on a factory built trailer, Eager Beaver as I recall, which became uncoupled form the dumptruck that was towing it and hit a car passing in the other direction, head on. The driver of the car was killed and the owner of the dump truck and trailer subsequently lost everything because he was negligent in hauling a trailer that could not have legally passed our state inspection or a Fed DOT inspection.

I guess that all I`m trying to say is that it`s false economy to use something that may set you up for a huge liability.

Russ

Buzz-sawyer

Hi Russ
In the area I live farmers haul round bails piled sky high on old mobile home frames...........

I guess if you were affraid of DOT or state inspection it would be an issue.
fact is it isnt around here in central Illinois we can build and title anything on wheels.....
:)
    HEAR THAT BLADE SING!

Gary_C

I have a 3 axle, 24 ft flatbed gooseneck trailer that came with trailer house hubs and rims with 9-14.5 tires. Trailer is rated at 22,500 lbs. In one year when I was hauling a lot of hay, I bought 14 tires and had numerous others replaced by Goodyear because they failed immediately. When I first got the trailer those tires were about $75 each. When I finally gave up on them, they were being made in Mexico and cost $175 each. You can buy new hubs, wheel bearings, and 8 bolt rims for those axles and get rid of those worthless 14.5 tires. The local Goodyear rep practically begged me to make the conversion and even bought back some of the tires I had. There is a reason why those mobile home movers carry 15-20 spares when they have to move some distance. I found out that one spare is not enough. The 9-14.5 tires are 12 ply construction but are only made in bias construction and the heat build up destroys them. If you absolutely have to use them, keep your speeds down below 50 MPH and keep your loads light. The 7-14.5 and 8-14.5 are even lower rated tires than the 9-14.5.

As far as the trailer house frame, my wife's brother found one of those real cheap and got me to make a trailer for him. I would never do it again. I shortened that frame and welded reinforcing on it and it was still flimsy and wobbly. He only hauls his lawnmowers on it and I think the wood deck is the only thing that keeps it from going around corners like a snake. Trying to weld on that flimsy I-Beam frame will cause a lot of warping and bending.

You do what you like, but if it was my money, I would buy one of those new $5-6,000 gooseneck trailers with tandem duals and rated at 20,000 lbs. They are made a little light, but with one of those, you will have something you can use and not spend your time working on.
Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.

johnjbc

In Pa you can't get a trailer inspected with Mobil home tires on it. They have to say DOT approved. I just went to a mobile home junk yard, and bought 4 tires and rims, about a month ago. They are 10 or 12 ply and raised the price to $30 this time.
I seen to have about 2 flats a year and just put on a different tire and rim  when it happens.
The trailer is a Southeast rated at 12k but licensed at 10k . When I haul my 8k pound Kubota the tires get a little warm but seem to carry it ok.

Bought the frame from a 10' wide house trailer and cut it down to make a forwarding trailer.  Its all done but the log bunks and hoist . Made it 6' wide and long enough to haul 16' logs. I ordered an 8 ton jack with clevis ends and am planning to make something like the hoist they sell to mount in the back of a pickup. It should lift a fairly large log but I'm not sure if I will be able to swing it over the trailer by hand.
::)
LT40HDG24, Case VAC, Kubota L48, Case 580B, Cat 977H, Bobcat 773

jokers

Quote from: Buzz-sawyer on October 04, 2005, 02:36:10 PM
Hi Russ
In the area I live farmers haul round bails piled sky high on old mobile home frames...........

I guess if you were affraid of DOT or state inspection it would be an issue.
fact is it isnt around here in central Illinois we can build and title anything on wheels.....
:)

Hi Buzz-Sawyer,

The process to get any custom built trailer in New York legally registered is to have any unladen trailer weighing more than 1,000 pounds or a trailer that when loaded, weighs more than 3,000 pounds, inspected by a NYS Dept. of Motor Vehicles inspector. If the inspection is sat, a vin # is issued and the trailer can be registered. The inspectors don`t do load and stress calcs or things of that nature. They check for contraban components and a general sense of whether the trailer was designed and built adequately. The fact of the matter is that there are a bunch of trailers on the road that have never been registered or inspected. The fines for this are petty.

The real issue is not however, whether or not the trailer can be registered, the issue is whether or not it would legally comply with the applicable laws and pass inspection. This is so important because of how someone might use a lack of compliance against you in a worst case scenario of an accident involving a fatality. Don`t forget that there are bottom feeding lawyers under every lilly pad out there just waiting for some poor victim to seek their assistance in a civil suit. It is the stock and trade of these lawyers to know every applicable angle.

Keep in mind that from what I`ve seen, most motor vehicle civil suits are settled for the value of the defendants liabilty insurance unless the defendant has minimal insurance, especially if the defendant appears to have a substantial net worth as is often the case with farmers. Every nimrod out ther has heard of the quarter million dollar tractors and the yards full of buried mason jars full of money that the farmers have, and they all want their rightful share. From reading I`ve done on the subject and from talking to many people, I`m convinced that most rural folks are under insured relative to their risk, especially the non-corporate farmers.

It`s not about whether the trailer is flimsy or whether or not the MH tires are road worthy, it`s about keeping what you`ve worked so hard for. If you are building a trailer, how much do you save by using recycled MH components? A few hundred dollars? It`s not worth it to me to not only jeopardize my standard of living, but also that of my child and the rest of my family who would no doubt suffer if I was dragged through court and lost all of my material possessions.

I know that there are probably a million old trailers out there made of MH components that are as good as anything that could be bought, but you`ve got to consider the risk of using one that could get you into a legal jam. It`s no different than assessing the risk of crossing a very busy intersection on foot. I know that I can walk against the light 999 times out of a thousand with no ramifications, but can I afford the consequences of what may happen on the 1000th crossing?

Food for thought, my friends. That`s all.

Russ

Murf

Up here the DOT peoiple would skin you alive.  :o

Backwoods and country sideroads aren't safe either anymore.

They held instruction courses for the local and Provincial Police and taught them what's allowed, and what isn't.

We wen't through a rash of tires coming off transports a couple years back, after a couple folks got killed, and a few very public, very nasty accidents on top, they got downright ugly with the truckers.

The truckers assoc. though fought right back and pressured the Police and DOT with a "If we have to comply so do the cars...." arguement.

It worked!!!

They routinely pull over anything that looks suspicious, and will stop for every trailer or older looking car or truck on the shoulder.

Under the new enforcement & safety reg's, anything with 3 safety 'faults' can be towed off the road and the plates seized. Even a burned out light bulb is a safety fault. If you have 3 burnt out lights they can (and will & have) take the plates and have a vehicle towed to the pound.

If you want new plates you have to have the vehicle re-inspected first.

It's working though, used to be that every spring & fall there was a one-wheeled, lop-sided piece of junk trailer on the shoulder every 5 minutes along any main highway. Not anymore.

Cars complain about truckers, truckers complain about cars. What's good for the one getting goosed is good for the one goosing I guess.   :D
If you're going to break a law..... make sure it's Murphy's Law.

Wudman

We had an old tri-axle mobile home frame trailer that we used on the farm.  It was decked and cross braced but still had too much flex to be of much use.  The tail end of it was drug off more than once trying to cross terraces in the field.  We couldn't keep tires on it until we finally put tubes in everything and that helped a lot.  It has been parked now for 10 or 12 years.  We also had a couple of tobacco trailers built from I-beams from a mobile home frame.  They were junked as well.  They were very easy to turn over due to the excessive flex.

Wudman
"You may tear down statues and burn buildings but you can't kill the spirit of patriots and when they've had enough this madness will end."
Charlie Daniels
July 4, 2020 (2 days before his death)

Kirk_Allen

Well I have to first say thanks for all the input. It's appreciated.   8)

Next I will have to say, the challenge is on! After reading all the negative info one might ask, Why build your own band mill?  You will have this problem or that!   Better off to just buy a new one. 

Well, why build my own trailer.  First and foremost its a challenge!  Second, I have ran the numbers and for what a GOOD trailer to do what I need it to do is going to cost its simply to much to spend. 

I have a fair amount of 1/4" I-Beam material to use as the main support frame and with all the extra material this trailer already has I am CONFIDENT that I will be able to build a QUALITY trailer that WILL NOT have all the problems mentioned, although I appreciate them being mentioned ;D

My goal is to do it myself, well almost (Buzzsawyer to the rescue  :D)  and end up with a trailer that if I want to sell it will bring me several thousand dollars because it was built right.  As far as axles, for the short term I will use what I have.  Once I get my logs home and have more time (does that ever happen?  :D) I plan on putting some standard 7K lb axles under it with 8 lug 16 inch rims and quality tires. 

Any gamblers out there that want to take a bet how this is going to turn out? 


Timburr

No, I'll take your word on it....it sounds like you have high standards ;)
Sense is not common

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