Hydro Gooseneck VS. Mechanical Detach Gooseneck

Good Evening Gentlemen,

This is a Wonderful Forum that you have here, just joined tonight, and this is my first post.

I will vote for a mechanical detach gooseneck.

Where I live up in Northern Alberta, Canada lots of times we are working in the wintertime in -40°F to -50°F and a conventional gasoline Honda engine running a power pack just does NOT like those conditions.

My equipment is sold off now, but I ran a 2002 Kenworth T800B 72" Aerocab Aerodyne and a 2002 Peerless 50 Ton Double Drop Triaxle on air-ride.

I was the lowbed hauling contractor for the local Weyerhaeuser Canada Mill until things slowed down too much.

Loaded everything over the back - Skidders, Cats, Excavators, etc etc, only really took off the neck to load De-limbers as it was Weyerhaeuser's Policy.

The picture of the lowbed ramps on the first page look really nice, but they are steeper than they need to be. I will try to post pics of mine on here, but I could deflate my AD-246 air-ride, and back under the lowbed with a 125,000lb Kobelco Excavator on it at an idle.

My ramps and 5th wheel were also set up a little different than what you may have seen...

When my wheel was in transport postion, the ramps on my slider were touching my ramps on the tail frame of the tractor. After I set the lowbed down, and removed the tear drop plates, I hooked up the 5th wheel, and ran the slider ahead until the bottom of the gooseneck touched my ramps, then locked the slider, released my air hook and drove away with the neck.

For those of you familiar with manual detaches, I saved myself having to shim the neck up with wooden blocks before removing it from the trailer.

I was interested by the discussion about 2 rail and 4 rail trailers as well.... It is not an option up here, we would tear apart a 2 rail in a very short period of time in this application.

I'll try to post some pics.

Sorry, I guess that pictures will have to wait.

It appears that with my new registration, the Admin has me on a fairly tight leash... I am unable to Manage Attachements, Edit, or even send Admin a message requesting them to open up the rest of the V-Bulletin features on my account.....

I guess I am pretty much like a Neutered Dog in a Breeding Farm.... Might as well sit in the corner quietly and lick myself....

Can't do anything else.

Have a Good Night.

Pics as promised. Not gonna give much of a write up... You gentlemen that have done this, know the steps.

Please excuse the Puck Board fenders... Tore up my Aluminum ones in the Cut Block at Christmas moving Logging Equipment... Put these on at camp on New Year's Day at -40°F.

Didn't have them replaced yet when I took pictures.

Couple more pics of taking neck off.

Last pic is the day I brought the Lowbed back from Edmonton.

I'll fire up some detailed pics of the lowbed in the Trailer Pictures thread.

Have a Good Night.

Jason

Nice looking rig. Thanks for sharing with us.

Sorry to hear you are out of it now. These are some tough times all around.

Enjoy our forum, and share some Canadian stories.

I don't believe that I will ever be truly "Out of it" so to speak....Been around trucks all my life.

Just got tired of being gone for months at a time, and always being on call. My wife deserved better than that, and we had a little one on the way.

I made the switch to welding full time, and began building Winch Tractors, Bed Trucks, Picker Trucks etc etc for a local trucking company. Even where I am now, I still end up rebuilding gooseneck lowbeds, and just finished rebuilding the back end of the bed truck upgrading it from an 8" to a 10" Live Roll.

If there is interest, I will start posting up pics of some trucking pictures, and past projects as I get a little more comfortable here.

So far, this is an amazing forum.... LOVE anything to do with Trucks and Equipment.

Sorry for the Hijack.

Have a Good Night.

Welcome Black Wolf,Thanks for sharing the pictures of your haul rigg.I like the looks of the 50 ton Peerless loboy.What I like most about it is it looks like a single drop detachable in the third pic on post # 24 having twice the ground clearence of most detach loboy's.Cool truck & trailer!

I should clarify that the trailer is a 'Shallow" double drop.... As compared to some of the pavement scrapers that you gentlemen may use further south.

This lowbed was purchased to haul primarily "Off Road" on private logging roads, and to deliver/pick-up equipment in logging cut blocks etc. The only reason for the double drop is so that I could accomodate hauling Delimbers through town without smacking the traffic lights. If any of you have ever been in a cut block, you know how important ground clearance is.

I spec'ed out 4 different manufacturers before going with the Peerless... Thought I would post up some quick specs of them for you.

Peerless

50 Tons distributed over 10'
Width: 10'-0"
Deck Length: 24'-0"
Laden Deck Height: 32"
Laden Ground Clearance: 13"
King Pin Height: 54"
Weight: 23,500 lbs

Aspen

55 Tons distributed over 15'
Width: 10'-0"
Deck Length: 23'-0"
Laden Deck Height: 32"
Laden Ground Clearance: 14"
King Pin Height: 54"
Weight: 24,611 lbs

K-Line

55 Ton distributed over IIRC 12'
Width: 10'-0"
Deck Length: 23'-0"
Laden Deck Height: 24"
Laden Ground Clearance: 8"
King Pin Height: 50"
Weight: 23,269 lbs

Scona

50 Tons over 10'
Width: 10'-0"
Deck Length: 24'-1" with 6" Double Drop.
Laden Deck Height: Not specified
Laden Ground Clearance: Not specified
King Pin Height: 54"
Weight: 25,000 lbs

So, it looks like the Aspen spec'd out a little better on everything but the empty weight. What made you go with the Peerless over it?

It actually came down to a number of variables....

First, and foremost, I didn't have a very large time frame to get the trailer here after I was awarded the contract to haul the equipment....

I spec'd out all the trailers with tandem axle jeeps, and tandem axle boosters (looking forward), and rigged up a quick spread sheet to compare the payloads of the respective combinations.

All four manufacturers were really close, with Aspen and Peerless being my favourites.

In the end, it came down to Price, and Delivery Date.... :beatsme

Peerless had the trailer already built and coated with primer, sitting in Pentiction BC from a previous cancelled order. All they had to do was upgrade to the swingout lights that I wanted (13'-2" wide as opposed to factory 12'-6") and paint it to my colour code, and it was on the way.

The Peerless was a very good trailer, but if I ever do it again in the future, I would like to see what the equivalent Aspen trailer is like.

There is just no replacement for the one that is ready when you need it, is there.

Thanks

Yair...old thread I know but can I ask a dumbass question? Why do you have detachable goosenecks? What are the advantages that warrant such complexity? I don't see them here in Aus. and we have pretty much the same equipment to shift.

Cheers.

Scrub Puller said:

Yair...old thread I know but can I ask a dumbass question? Why do you have detachable goosenecks? What are the advantages that warrant such complexity? I don't see them here in Aus. and we have pretty much the same equipment to shift.

Cheers.

Click to expand...

With the detachable neck it makes it easier and lower to the ground when loading. That is the biggest advantage over the non detachable. Another benefit is say if you were loading a broken piece of equipment, lets say the transmission was going out and for some reason will not go into reverse. You would be able to load the piece over the rear of the trailer, haul it to its destination and then detach the neck and just drive it right off without the need for a winch or another piece of equipment to drag it off the trailer.

Yair...thanks Chaz. I figured that must be it...I suppose they have them over here but I have never knowingly seen one. It must add to maintainance and cost. How do they stand up to running empty on washboard corrugations?

Cheers.

It's amazing to me the number of people around here who think you CAN'T use a fixed neck lowboy for excavators and dozers.

Scrub Puller, I have often asked myself the same question why remove the goose neck ??? When we hydraulicly set the width of the deck 2.5 closed to a max of 3.5 meters open (11feet 6'') lower the hydraulic/air suspention down to the stops, then lower the ramps down and in my case they are hydraulic bi-fold ramps 15Feet long ( ie; the grade on the ramps is 2 feet 6 inch rise in 15 feet) load and reverse the procedure, aswell this is all done with remote conrtol then chain down and off like a dirty shirt.
And we load Asphalt pavers, all rollers , dozers, scrapers, and broken machines. etc

So i don't know why you still have to take the neck of the float/lowboy off !!

sounds heavy...

Aussie Leroy said:

Scrub Puller, I have often asked myself the same question why remove the goose neck ??? When we hydraulicly set the width of the deck 2.5 closed to a max of 3.5 meters open (11feet 6'') lower the hydraulic/air suspention down to the stops, then lower the ramps down and in my case they are hydraulic bi-fold ramps 15Feet long ( ie; the grade on the ramps is 2 feet 6 inch rise in 15 feet) load and reverse the procedure, aswell this is all done with remote conrtol then chain down and off like a dirty shirt.
And we load Asphalt pavers, all rollers , dozers, scrapers, and broken machines. etc

So i don't know why you still have to take the neck of the float/lowboy off !!

Click to expand...

Do you have pics of the trailer?

Newman ; I will post some photos for you in next couple of days, it's a spread quad float 4 rows of 4 last two axles steerable, Hyd suspention, Bi fold ramps, 12.5 meter deck, diesel power pak, without dolly it legal with 32.5 ton pay load, with 2 rows of 4 dolly it's payload is 49.5 ton Cheers Leroy

Aussie Leroy said:

Newman ; I will post some photos for you in next couple of days, it's a spread quad float 4 rows of 4 last two axles steerable, Hyd suspention, Bi fold ramps, 12.5 meter deck, diesel power pak, without dolly it legal with 32.5 ton pay load, with 2 rows of 4 dolly it's payload is 49.5 ton Cheers Leroy

Click to expand...

Thanks!

What does that trailer weigh empty?