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Load Tractor On Flat Bed Truck

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kthompson
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Posts: 5275 South Carolina
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2011-12-28          181782

Have any of you experience in hauling equipment such as tractors or excavators on flat bed trucks? With the bed being higher than most trailers for equipment (my experience)are you using ramps, a loading dock or something else to load and unload. Anything you don't like or recommend in doing this over trailer. Do realize the higher bed the higher center of gravity is so not as stable also might have clearance issue but doubt I would with my equipment.

What recommendation would you make for ramps and will be loading wheel and track. Seems the ramps would be very heavy to get the needed angle if the bed is only three feet high or course much worse if four feet high.

Thanks


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hardwood
Join Date: Dec 2002
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2011-12-28          181784

KT;
My Uncle used tohave a grain truck that we would pull the sides off and haul tractors on. This was in nthe day of tricycle tractors so a middle ramp was recommended but not an absolute depending on your "Fear Factor".
As you said the unsafe center of gravity hauling a tractor that weighed the same or a bit more than the empty the truck did wasn't a cool deal even in my young daring days it scared me. We had a sort of natural loading ramp in the side of a steep hill that we had some heavy planks we laid from the edge of the hill to the truck bed on both ends of the haul.
I was never so glad to see a new invention as I was the goose neck trailer behind a pickup.
So would I recommend the truck with an excavator, (Swing Hoe) on the bed, NO!!!
Frank. ....

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earthwks
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2011-12-28          181786

Get what we call a "roll back" tow truck where the bed of the truck hydraulically goes back and becomes a ramp. Prolly $6000 my guess. But make sure the truck is rated for the 10K. Licensing is another thing. Around here, wreckers are divided into two classes---towing cars and trucks, and c/t towing and towing anything like equipment. The latter license plates cost much more than regular wrecker plates. Also be sure the excavator cab won't stick up too high once loaded. Again you need to look at being commercial and what that means about licensing, etc. ....

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kthompson
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2011-12-28          181792

Ole Jeffery, think we is probably more like Gulf Coast laws than Michigan laws,,,but I jest saying.

Well you two did not say anything that surprised me. Frank, is this you unloading an excavator or Jeff? There are some interesting other videos of such there. ....


Link:   Unloading excavator

 
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kthompson
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2011-12-28          181793

Well found video of proper way for loading onto trailer...not sure want to use trailer either. Jeff is that you operating the excavator and thr tractor? ....


Link:   

Click Here


 
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hardwood
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2011-12-28          181794

KT;
Well of course that was me.
Didn't ya see how I SWUNG that baby "Swing Hoe" when I came out of the truck.
Nothin to it. ....

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DennisCTB
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2011-12-28          181796

Quote:
Originally Posted by earthwks | view 181786
Prolly $6000 my guess.......


EW my, my, my! "Prolly" hmmmm the great spell checker has made a spelling error, or is that Ohio vernacular? ....

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earthwks
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2011-12-28          181800

Prolly was a fun way of saying probably ;) (used in a sentence: Kenny prolly eats many donuts for breakfast) It could be Ohio vernacular, dunno...but I'm from the Deeeetroit area anyway. ....

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kthompson
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2011-12-28          181806

Dennis, we might ought to nickname EW the Teflon Kid...nothing sticks ....

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earthwks
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2011-12-29          181811

Te he he ....

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Murf
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2012-01-03          181864

Moving equipment on flatbeds was the norm around here for a very long time.

Every farm equip. dealer had a sort of loading dock in the yard, usually a 3-sided affair made out of old railway ties or concrete and back-filled with earth that formed a ramp at truck bed height such that you could drive right up onto or off of a truck deck.

Most farms had them too, that way you could load or unload a truck very easily.

If all you want to do is move equip. back & forth to a dealer, see if they have a 'dock' then build one of your own.



Best of luck.

....

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earthwks
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2012-01-03          181867

There's a video on YouTube showing a bobcat self-loading on a flat bed truck with NO ramps. What the guy does is raise the loader about 3/4 the way, go forward and stop quickly causing the rear to raise doing a reverse wheely. Then he backs up--- still doing a wheely--- and gets the rear tires to grab the bed of the truck. Now he tilts the bucket down and lowers the loader raising the front of the bobcat. Then he drives backward more with the bucket dragging on the ground and the front tires grab... and he's loaded. I think getting down the same way would be suicidal!
Also on YouTube there's video of a TLB self loading itself onto a railcar from the ground with no ramps just using the loader bucket and hoe. One more video shows a fullsize excavator stairsstepping 2 platforms to drive into a railcar using some of the same procedure the bobcat did. ....

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Murf
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2012-01-03          181871

There's all sorts of crazy ways to do it.

A guy near here loaded a full size TLB on a step deck tractor trailer daily for years without ramps. He did like Jeff described, using the FEL to raise the front wheels up to deck height (~40" high) then backed the truck up until the front wheels were on the trailer, then used the backhoe to raise the rear wheels up and shove it forward onto the deck too.

I couldn't believe he thought that was a better way than just getting ramps or a proper trailer.


Best of luck. ....

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earthwks
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2012-01-03          181872

When is I was down sout' for Katrina, I was preparing for the day's trash picking-up duties on the crew I was with. We were using a flat bed semi trailer with a power beavertail ramp. The large excavator was already loaded and they were preparing for my skid steer to be loaded behind it. So I'm sitting about 3/4 the way on the beavertail when all of a sudden the dumba----s owner/driver flips the levers to raise the beavertail. I blew my horn like crazy and he still raised it! I fell off the beavertail and I ended up looking at the sky! So it goes to show even with purpose-built ramps you can still get hurt. ....

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earthwks
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2012-01-03          181874

Kenny I just checked craigslist in Charlotte (forgot where you live exactly). There are all kinds of rollback trucks listed. If you search, use "rollback", not "roll back". ....

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kthompson
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2012-01-06          181927

I really believe I am correct but want to be 100% sure for don't want to support my local mounties from missing this:

I take the GVWR and subtract the NET weight and that gives me the amount of load it is legal for. That is all of the load, people and cargo. Right?

On the simple side of this, when a company says this is a ONE TON truck is that suppose to be cargo capacity? Think Ford calls their 350 a 3/4 ton truck and their 450 a 1 ton truck. Thought GMC did same with their 2500 and 3500 series and then had a Chevy Commerical truck salesman tell ask me what year are we talking about. He went on to say with Chevy they dropped the GVWR of the 3500 when the 4500 came out to be able to sell the 4500 series. So that means the model really means nothing in true capacity?

OK EW this is right up you line to splain.
....

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earthwks
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2012-01-07          181934

Uhhhh I dunno. You got me. My 2500 Ram is a 3/4 ton dats all I knows. ....

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hardwood
Join Date: Dec 2002
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2012-01-07          181935

My 1975 Dodge one ton "SHORT" wheelbase was real easy to turn around being a short wheelbase but if you put much in the box the front tires seldom were on the road.
I never knew if the tonner really had a heavier frame and all that or just a dual wheel equiped rear axle.
It was a tough old bird, almost always overloaded, ran till 2004 or 5, till it died. I placed an ad in the local farm paper that read;

FS; 75 Dodge toner box and hoist DOES NOT RUN, $1,500.00

I didn't think I'd get a call, I probably had ten calls. The first guy that called took it over the phone sight unseen. That still amazes me, but even more amazing is that I met the old Dodge Tonner on the road last summer.

P S; I knew that old heap had been mine, I could tell by the dents.

Frank ....

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Murf
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2012-01-09          181947

Quote:
Originally Posted by kthompson | view 181927
Prolly $6000 my guess.......
[QUOTE=kthompson;181927] I really believe I am correct but want to be 100% sure for don't want to support my local mounties from missing this:

I take the GVWR and subtract the NET weight and that gives me the amount of load it is legal for. That is all of the load, people and cargo. Right? [/QUOTE]

Correct, but the terms you (and the Mounties) will be using are GVWR and 'Tare' (often called 'curb') weight.

If, for example, a typical 3500 series one ton truck has a GVWR of 11,000 pounds and has a tare weight of 8,000 pounds, it can legally carry 3,000 pounds.

You will also need to have the truck licensed for 11,000 pounds to do this though.

I would seriously urge you though to look at using a trailer rather than a load on a truck. Getting the balance between front and rear axles right (to keep you legal) can be a real PITA and a truck that loaded handles a big bunch different than you're used to.

As a rule of thumb, we try to never put more than 75% of what a truck is rated for on it, so as to keep things safe, comfortable and reduce the 'seat of pants pucker factor' when some idiot cuts you off or some such thing happens.



Best of luck. ....

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kthompson
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 5275 South Carolina
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2012-02-06          182301

Thank each of you. I played around and found a trailer that will serve my needs and truck also. As always learned something from each of you. Really hard to say but even OLD (yes not Ole but OLD) Jeffery explained something on CDL to me. Seriously Ole Jeffery thanks. ....

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laira10
Join Date: Jun 2012
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2012-06-20          183953

Thank you for the offer. However, the only trade I would consider would be a 4 Wheeler or Honda XR 80, 100. ....

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kthompson
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2012-06-20          183964

Quote:
Originally Posted by laira10 | view 183953
Thank you for the offer.However, the only trade I would consider would be a 4 Wheeler or Honda XR 80, 100.


So did you hit the wrong thread or spam or ??? ....

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