trailering question

[CubitisNH]

Maybe I'm a wimp, but I like to back onto my trailer most of the time--I find it easier to correct tractor's position(or adjust the ramps)with only the rear tires involved. I think it's a trial and error thing,mostly,and if you don't like the way the rig feels as you head down the road,find a place to stop and move the load a bit and try again. Holding your breath and having a death-grip on the wheel gets old in a hurry--especially driving from NH to TN!!

[TJ]

I'm glad someone brought this up because I'm going to brace up my trailer to haul my cub on .It's a 3500 #single axle 12' . Looks like I might be going on in reverse.Have to wait and see after. TJ

[Ron Luebke]

tj, does your trailer have brakes ? sure helps when they do.

[Matt Kirsch]

I'm glad someone brought this up because I'm going to brace up my trailer to haul my cub on .It's a 3500 #single axle 12' . Looks like I might be going on in reverse.Have to wait and see after. TJ

"Brace up?" That trailer sounds like it'd be just fine to haul a single Cub with no modifications at all.

I think you'll want to back the Cub on, and back it all the way to the front of the trailer.

[Jeff Silvey]

I think this forum needs to be put in the tip of the week forum to keep everyone and general public SAFE. This is alot of great info.
Jeff

[TJ]

No brakes on the trailer .The farthest i would haul it is maybe 20 miles , but most of the time it will stay within about 5 miles of home. Ijust want to haul if I need to. The reason for braceing it up floor is rotted out will already have it out.My dad buys and sells farm equipment and dosen't allways want to pull his 32foot goose neck for a 2 or 3 bottom plow.

[kinelbor]

5 or 500 miles, you are still going to use your brakes, they make me feel much safer when hauling. You should be able to outfit a trailer without brakes, with a brake system for just a few hunded.

[Matt Kirsch]

It's tough to spend a few hundred on brakes when the trailer's not even worth that much...

Having grown up on a farm, my gut tells me that for slow, back-road trailering over short distances, brakes are not necessary. Just use your head, take it slow (<30MPH), slow down for stop signs extra-early, and make sure your truck brakes are in good shape.

Cripes, with tractors, we don't think twice about towing many times the tractor's weight down the road at 15-20MPH, with no brakes on the towed equipment! If you can't get 20 miles down back and secondary roads with 1/2 the truck's weight trailing behind without brakes...

Yeah, if he were hauling hundreds of miles over interstates. Heck, I'd want a tandem-axle trailer with brakes on both axles. This is different.

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

I understand what you are saying Matt, and have done the same thing many times, but it isn't the normal stopping you need the trailer brakes for, you can plan ahead for them. It is the emergency stops where the trailer brakes are needed.

Doing about 30 miles an hour in town, I had a 3,000 pound trailer mounted generator shove My 5,500 pound company van about 40 extra yards when a car pulled out in front of me. I did miss the car by doing some maneuvering, but just barely. After having a couple of meetings with management and pointing out that the owner's manual for the van said not to tow anything over 1,000 pounds unless it had brakes, and what their liability could be in an accident for exceeding that rating, they agreed to put brakes on the trailer, and a controller in the van. Emergency stops are worse on gravel.

I have done my share of stupid things in my life, especially when I was younger. One of them was putting a cub with wheel weights and a mower on a single axle trailer with no brakes, and the rest of it's implements in the back of my 4 cylinder ranger about 20 years ago and hauling it 200 miles through the Mo. hills. Thinking back i realize how lucky I was.

[Matt Kirsch]

No argument from me that brakes are always a good idea. Would I haul my Cub on a trailer through town without trailer brakes? Well, actually I have... but it was behind my Dad's heavy 3/4 ton pickup and you wouldn't have known the trailer was there save for the occasional bounce from going over railroad tracks or humps in the road. Stopping was a non-issue.

Okay, would I haul a Cub through town on a trailer without brakes using MY truck? No. Would I haul it around the back roads around the folks' place without brakes? Without thinking twice. It's all about the road conditions to me.

[George Willer]

I understand what you are saying Matt, and have done the same thing many times, but it isn't the normal stopping you need the trailer brakes for, you can plan ahead for them. It is the emergency stops where the trailer brakes are needed.

Some years ago I was pulling a single axle trailer without brakes behind my little Winnebago LeSharo. The trailer and tractor probably weighed more than the MH. Caution is the word and I was running just a little under the speed limit. On a two lane road I had a following. I hadn't figured on the stupid girl in a brightly colored car and with big blond hair.

She decided to pass everyone at once, but as soon as she got in front of me she slammed on the brakes. There was NO chance of braking and nowhere to go so I tried to get between her and the signs on the right, expecting to wipe both. Amazingly I didn't contact either. When I looked in the mirror she was making a U-turn!

I figures she must have noticed she forgot to have her nails done and had to make an emergency trip to the salon. Probably one of those morons with a lot of bright lights that's safe because she can see everyone so well that she's blinded.

That was the last time I used either that trailer or the little motorhome.

[Jeff Silvey]

Those bright lights weren't turn on. She is a blond. Try driving a fire truck on an emergency run and they try to out run you HOW STUPID
Jeff

[TJ]

Matt, you hit the nail on the head . The trailer's not worth putting brakes on most of the time it only hauls my 4-wheeler,or wood for my dad.I'm not saying brakes are not nice. When i bought it didn't have any don't get me wrong I've learned a thing or two. Mostly just to slow down. TJ

[Little Indy]

When I go to pick up a tractor I just bought I worry about the tractor's brakes. Not so much for unloading as I also unload in a manner that even if i don't have brakes I am still safe. But loading. Going up those ramps and then stopping on the trailer in an unknown tractor. I aways try the brakes before going up the ramp. My sixteen foot trailer does have electonic brakes on one axle which I pull with a Ford E350 that I turned into a small RV.

Richard

[Bill E Bob]

Well, spank my a-- and call me charlie, but I got away with a 400 mile
trip from Mo to Ok with a '92 Toyota and a single axle tilt bed trailer
hauling a Lo-Boy with weights and 1 loaded tire.
Was I lucky, YOU BET!! Was I cautious, BETTER BELIEVE IT!!! Was
I IGNORANT at the time--OH YEAH!! Would I do it again--Not without
a bigger truck and a 2 axle (with brakes) trailer!! (Particularly after
browsing this thread) You all may just have saved my life!!

Thanks LARGE
Bill