felling skid steer trailer

I'm about to purchase a new trailer for my tak tl150. I'm looking at a felling ft-18-3 E its a tri axle drop deck bumper pull. Going to be towing with a F550. Anyone have a similar trailer? Is felling a good brand? From what I can see they are a good company. Just looking for some input. Thanks

Rented one several times before i bought a trailer. The one i used was a tandem axle. No complaints from me, pulled nice, had good brakes, decent ramps, looked to be well built. If your going to buy a new one find out the make of the axles (Dexter are the best is what i hear). I bought a new Gatormade trailer in 2006 it has Axis axles. I bought it cause it was cheap and i must say it was one of my better purchases. They are really nice trailers for the money.
Anyway, another good question is the steel type, they make these trailers in high tensil steel and if your hauling heavy for the trailer capacity thats what i would want. Guess if they are little less money than a Eager beaver or a Trail king and meet your specs it wouldnt be a bad deal.
Hope that helps

I've never heard anything bad about Felling. I like Towmaster better myself.

I like Towmaster myself but I think the Felling trailer is well made, but I have never owned one. Ironically the Towmaster and Felling are built relatively close to each other geograhpically. I drove past the Felling trailer plant when I went to pickup my Towmaster at their plant.

I love towmaster also. I would love to get their t16t tilt trailer but it $11,xxx. My business is only on the side. I'm a operating engineer monday-friday and do small clearing jobs on the weekends. The felling I listed is $8250. If I could splurge for the extra 3000 I would.

I got a Tak 153 and need to carry 14,000 pounds as my tilt is only 10,000. The Felling(18' tilt/14,000#) came in at $6,000 and am waiting on the Towmaster price. I know in the past the Towmaster was more that I thought it should be but that was in the middle of the high steel price - hope it is better now.

The company I work for has 6 towmaster tilt trailers 16k gvwr. They are great trailers. As a side business, I just can justify the price tag on the Towmaster I want. I like the idea of a tri-axle because the tak is heavy and an extra set of brakes can't hurt.

i would go for a 2 axel trailer, i hate tri-axles you always bend the axel on the back

lgammon said:

i would go for a 2 axel trailer, i hate tri-axles you always bend the axel on the back

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It is painful watching those tires slide when making a tight corner. I don't see why this has to be a triaxle. I have a 20' Towmaster with a capacity of 18K, oil bath axles and its a tandem.

I looked at the trailer- and I'm guessing they are using 3ea 6K axles so that the width in between fenders can be greater. You start getting into 9K axles and they are a lot heavier duty and would narrow the wheel well width be several inches. I do agree with the other posters in that I am not a fan of tri-axles. If I needed something that big & heavy, I'm wondering how it will behave on my F-550s bumper also. Just my opinion, but I'd try to get into something that could ride on 2 axles. You'll save a ton of maintenace money down the road. Oh- on the brakes, the heavier axles have lots bigger brakes, so I'm not sure that you gain much by having 6ea small ones rather than 2ea large ones.

i've got 9 ton doo-little trailer its a tandem dual wheel trailer,i pull my 246 with solid rubber tires and grapple bucket,about 8500lb i pull it with my k3500 dually no problem, its a little over kill but no problem on the hitch (pintle) you could probaly find one fairly cheap on craigslist,i'm asking 3200 for mine, i want a dump trailer that i can haul my equipment in and also load with material.

Felling is just up the road from me. Around here, they are known as a very good quality product and are well built, but you'll pay substantially more for theirs vs. some of the others. I have priced them several times and never ended up with any of their trailers simply because I couldn't justify the additional cost. I've had them work on some of my older trailers and semi trailers in the past and they are good people to work with, but again, not the cheapest by any means.

I'll have to price out their dual 8000 lbs axle trailer. I love the towmaster but they are a lot more money. I'm only a part time company. I use my machine maybe twice a week but mostly only once.

I got the quote for the Towmaster, 14,000 pound with 4' stationary deck and 16' tilt and it was $9250. I jawed at the salesman some as I thought it was too much but have got some other quotes real close afterwords. I like to have stuff that is quality but do you get one like the Towmaster or get a cheap one that lasts 4-5 years and throw it away?

You bring up a great point. The point of my original post was to find out if Felling was a solid trailer. I already k now towmaster is a great product. I'm here looking to find out about felling. So far I haven't heard anything bad about them.

I didn't want to side track this on you with Towmaster, as I have always heard and thought Felling was one of the better trailers out there.

The only bad I have heard was from the other trailer salesman, so take that for what it's worth...

bonanno23,
I have never broken a trailer frame. Most of the corners cut by builders are axles (by far the biggest cost) Tires,Paint,Wiring,Deck material and paint.
First make sure its got good brakes (size matters)
Look at the sidewall rating.DOT& highway patrol usually look at the rubber,if it dont add up to your load ,TICKET.
Out of my 6 past trailers my current is a BIG TEX 20K goose. Dexter 10K X2 axles Good Rubber ,crappy paint (rust &lousy paint) cheap see through light lenses deck wood O.K.
and lots of re-wiring. But it was cheap 7,500 new.
Have seen Towmaster out west but not Felling. Point is its all the same. Get big enough trailer Good axles & rubber then add up what you can upgrade by your handywork.
If you can paint,wire,and spend a few bucks on lights, cheaper goes a long way.
With a f-550 sounds like you have enough truck! Good luck.

here it is. so far so good

towmaster , Contrail are both great products . If your going to tow alot I would suggest not getting a tri axel and get a trailer that has 8 lug 17.5" rims . I have a deck over eager thats 15 years old that has 16" tires that on a long haul worry they are going to blow out. My skidsteer is 10,400 with just a bucket nevermind forks 500lb and a 1100lb grapple . trailer tires are the cheapest piece of chit tire manufactures can put on there product and sell it, keep this in mind when you get the bottom line. I would spec out 17.5 wheels and tires and have the lowest GVW that can use them , most likely 8 or 9 ton. the frame on a trailer that can be pulled by a twin screw and not get bent no mater how its loaded is the big differance. My beaver has a 8" I beam all the way to the front hitch, most other have 6" frames at the 12~14000lb range. towmaster is built as good or better . Contail is slightly lighter design but still good. also I think a deck over is better , the TAC is narrow but my JCB and Case are wide machines and will not fit on a 80" trailer easy. There are many small tractors that will not fit at all. Ever load pallets on a low deck trailer , ten time easier and you can get more on a deck over. I have found skidsteer isnt that top heavy to be consered abou the deck hight.

I wouldn't recomment a tri-axle either. I only bought it because I only use it at most 1 day a week. I tow it with a small truck so I opted for the extra axle to help with stopping and eliminate tonge wieht. At my regualar job, we have all t16t towmaster tilt deck with the 4' stationary section. Great trailers, very expensive, only reason I didn't buy one for my side business.