What's the largest excavator you pull with a pickup truck?

F250 TB145 10Ton

I want the op to post up pics pulling the Tb-175. I want to see how it loads up.


My 6.0 does not like pulling this trailer empty much less with a load. I had to use this trailer in a pinch to get my machine. I blew a tire and lost a U-bolt on my 14k bumper pull so I had to use this beast of a trailer. It is SO heavy.

Rear springs are toast in my truck.

My 6.0 hates this trailer and load. LOOK AT THE MILEAGE. Can you say SUCK. 3 full seconds to the floor just to get it to start moving.


My F-550 pulls the above night and day different. It is like comparing a loaded down truck to one without a load.

I have a tractor that weights 14k, and I might have pulled it down the highway with the 250. It was not fun and I would not recommend it. The F-550 however does it much better. From stopping to being geared right. Both my F550s are down at the moment. SO I had to use the 250. I can not keep up with equipment repairs.

These machines are so heavy on the trailer. It is hard to put it into words.

Georgia Iron said:

These machines are so heavy on the trailer. It is hard to put it into words.

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Not really, that's too much weight behind a 3/4 ton pickup.

Looking at my above post i am referencing the tandem gooseneck trailer. The 10k trailer and truck work very well together. A f250 pulls the 10 k trailer and load like it was made just for that. It works very well together. You will find that a 150 truck feels over loaded with a 10 k trailer.

The reason the ex is not on the 10 k trailer is because it is too heavy and will cause the steel wheels to crack and leak.

Georgia Iron said:

Looking at my above post i am referencing the tandem gooseneck trailer. The 10k trailer and truck work very well together. A f250 pulls the 10 k trailer and load like it was made just for that. It works very well together. You will find that a 150 truck feels over loaded with a 10 k trailer.

The reason the ex is not on the 10 k trailer is because it is too heavy and will cause the steel wheels to crack and leak.

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Doesnt look to me like it would physically fit on there...... For all the bad i will say about a 6.0 pulling power was never one of them. I always thought it did a great job with a load.

Georgia Iron said:

I want the op to post up pics pulling the Tb-175. I want to see how it loads up.

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Fortunately I've been too busy to log on here for a while. Unfortunately, I'm having some issues with people paying after the work is done. For some reason "Payment at the time of the work being satisfactorily completed" seems to be interpreted as 'Net 150 days'. :Banghead I've never had to get courts involved, but short of physically threatening people (which my attorney has very strongly advised against), I don't know what else to do.

Anyway, I only have a picture of coming home one day pulling the TB-175 behind my F350 (which has been gone for a while now) and none behind my 4X4 F550 with the 7.3 PowerStroke (feels much weaker than 6.0 IMHO) and Dana 135S with 4:88's and locker with a 14' utility flatbed. Anyway, here is the 175 behind the F350 which pulled it fine but admittedly felt a bit more, um, squirmy than behind the F550.

Allgood said:

Fortunately I've been too busy to log on here for a while. Unfortunately, I'm having some issues with people paying after the work is done. For some reason "Payment at the time of the work being satisfactorily completed" seems to be interpreted as 'Net 150 days'. :Banghead I've never had to get courts involved, but short of physically threatening people (which my attorney has very strongly advised against), I don't know what else to do.

Anyway, I only have a picture of coming home one day pulling the TB-175 behind my F350 (which has been gone for a while now) and none behind my 4X4 F550 with the 7.3 PowerStroke (feels much weaker than 6.0 IMHO) and Dana 135S with 4:88's and locker with a 14' utility flatbed. Anyway, here is the 175 behind the F350 which pulled it fine but admittedly felt a bit more, um, squirmy than behind the F550.

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That's one heck of a load.....those TB175 are no light weight peice of machinery. Personally I wouldn't haul it with that truck but each to his own.

pafarmer said:

Agreed. The 7.3 was an awesome motor ! No disagreement there....it's been all down hill in flames since though....Ford stuck my 6.0 straight up my ass and I will never buy a FORD anything ever again. I just bought a brand new 2015 Chevy 2500 Duramax HD and it's pretty hard to beat in terms of a modern diesel..great motor and hooked to the Allison tranny makes it's a truly great package. Quiet, powerful, loaded with great options....averaging 21.1 miles per gallon driving in the hills of Pa...Best diesel on the road today IMHO.....

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LOL, I got burned so badly for trusting GM and owning their stock for decades that hell would have to freeze over completely AND Government Motors would have to drop off a fully loaded 3500 4X4 crew-cab diesel that would have to sticker for over $65,000 to make up some of what they took from me (with a 10 year bumper to bumper warranty...not that it would be worth anything being GM can file bankruptcy again in 3 more years) before I'd even remotely consider driving ANYTHING from Government Motors. If I sound bitter, that's an extreme underestimation of how I feel about GM and the millions of families they financially wrecked while they pocketed tens of BILLIONS of tax dollars that will NEVER be repaid.

I ran a 6.0 PSD Ford for 7 years towing what everyone seems to agree is heavy loads, without having a single problem, and sold the truck for $1000 more than I paid for it when I bought it 1 year old. What was that you said again? I'm glaring at the letters GM so badly I couldn't make out anything else you said... (also, please note, I'm severely ranting at the company - I'm not getting into any brand comparison; only extremely angry with a company that literally stole tens of thousands of dollars from me and millions of others)

You are the one and only person ever to sing the praises of the infamous FORD 6.0.......there are millions of Interweb posting documenting the woeful failure of the 6.0.... But yours was fantastic ! I'll take your word on it...you should head to Vegas because your the luckiest man in the nation.....Well done on hauling the 175, I didn't mean I would not haul it with a FORD, I meant I would never haul it with a pickup of any flavor.....minimum safely in my mind would be my tandem, which by the way is a FORD 9000, with a fantastic CAT 3206 motor......great truck !

pafarmer said:

You are the one and only person ever to sing the praises of the infamous FORD 6.0.......there are millions of Interweb posting documenting the woeful failure of the 6.0.... But yours was fantastic ! I'll take your word on it...you should head to Vegas because your the luckiest man in the nation.....Well done on hauling the 175, I didn't mean I would not haul it with a FORD, I meant I would never haul it with a pickup of any flavor.....minimum safely in my mind would be my tandem, which by the way is a FORD 9000, with a fantastic CAT 3206 motor......great truck !

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Well, all I can say is that you can see the pic. I'd have no reason to speak highly of something I wasn't happy with. As you noticed, I'm not shy about speaking my mind if some company/vehicle/etc. burned me. I had a motorcoach with a Cat C7 in it. It was a torque monster and a great engine. From a history of working in a heavy equipment industry (my stuff is just little toys), I can't say that I'm familiar with a Cat 3206 at all. I'm reasonably certain we had a water truck with a 3208 (eight) in it, and it was a gutless piece of excrement. There again, there may be zero similarities between the two engines. I did test drive a motorcoach with a C15 in it and it was like a freaking race car that was 45' long! No doubt Cat has some very fine engines and pieces of equipment out there.

Pulling a load is the easy part, stopping it when you have to is another story..

I have had a few stupid moments in my life where I pulled way to heavy of a load behind a truck. Two come to mind - a Bobcat 863 and BC 334 excavator on a pintle hitch trailer behind a 1994 F450 flatbed dump. The other was putting a 321CLCR on a tandem tag behind a tandem dump. Been there, done that and by the grace of God nothing happened. Old enough to quit pushing my luck.:cool2

Allgood said:

Fortunately I've been too busy to log on here for a while. Unfortunately, I'm having some issues with people paying after the work is done. For some reason "Payment at the time of the work being satisfactorily completed" seems to be interpreted as 'Net 150 days'. :Banghead I've never had to get courts involved, but short of physically threatening people (which my attorney has very strongly advised against), I don't know what else to do.

Anyway, I only have a picture of coming home one day pulling the TB-175 behind my F350 (which has been gone for a while now) and none behind my 4X4 F550 with the 7.3 PowerStroke (feels much weaker than 6.0 IMHO) and Dana 135S with 4:88's and locker with a 14' utility flatbed. Anyway, here is the 175 behind the F350 which pulled it fine but admittedly felt a bit more, um, squirmy than behind the F550.

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Good show. That load is up there with the heaviest i have seen. Three other pulls come to my mind. I have pulled a 14,500 farm tractor on my f250 srw. I think my trailer weights 5 or 6 k. Mine appears a little shorter than yours. You still have me beat weight wise. Once, while in downtown atlanta some guys pulled beside me with a 10 ton trailer and a small 20 k size bulldozer on it. To this day i still cant believe they were rolling with that load and an old beater ford 350.

Then once while traveling i20 in alabama a srw dodge passed me pulling a full sized 4x4 back hoe on a gooseneck.
I kid you not he was running 80 mph with the load. I backed off and let him go. His truck was screaming.

I did not have time to get a pic of either but both of those guys i remember.

Cm. i am curious as to the tag / dump story with the 321. According to my spec sheet that machine weights about 53k. What was that like pulling. I might have moved a 953 on a tag with a full load of gravel at some point in my life. I believe i was pushing 110 k. My 400 horse old mechanical cummings was sreaming at me but it did it. The stopping seemed fine but i did not have any hard stops.

That 321C had a progressive link hyd. thumb, QC and 2 buckets on the trailer. The tag trailer was rated at 54K. It was way too much weight on the trailer, I though she was going to twist in two making turns. Only did that trek for about 2 miles.

If the tag had a 3rd 20K lb axle I would haul the 321D we have now on it. No QC or hyd. thumb on this one.

We had a customer who demo'd a new E80 excavator a couple of months back. He loaded it onto a three axle gooseneck pulled by a 3/4 ton Dodge. He seemed confident, but it made me cringe a bit.

I would pull a 8 ton on a gooseneck behind my F250 on a tandem dual gooseneck. Single wheel axles aren't to my liking.

Allgood said:

Fortunately I've been too busy to log on here for a while. Unfortunately, I'm having some issues with people paying after the work is done. For some reason "Payment at the time of the work being satisfactorily completed" seems to be interpreted as 'Net 150 days'. :Banghead I've never had to get courts involved, but short of physically threatening people (which my attorney has very strongly advised against), I don't know what else to do.

Anyway, I only have a picture of coming home one day pulling the TB-175 behind my F350 (which has been gone for a while now) and none behind my 4X4 F550 with the 7.3 PowerStroke (feels much weaker than 6.0 IMHO) and Dana 135S with 4:88's and locker with a 14' utility flatbed. Anyway, here is the 175 behind the F350 which pulled it fine but admittedly felt a bit more, um, squirmy than behind the F550.

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I looked.at his load pic again and still can't believe that it is a bumper/hitch pull load. He has the record. I was almost wrecked again by my 10 k trailer and f250 hauling a 7300 lbs machine a few weeks ago. I was rolling about at about 78 mph s
On the interstate HWY when I felt a vibration I knew one of my.tires on my trailer was starting to separate. I have new 10 ply tires rated at 2700 lbs each. Load Range d 15" wheels.

I backed off the speed and soon after it blew. It went in to pieces and looked like a grenade went off in it. The trailer swung left then right and really tried to toss the machine off with the whip effect. If you don't believe in chains I guarantee it would have tossed the machine right off the trailer. I was able to safely stop and change out the tire.

That is the second time the trailer and tire combo tired to kill me. Anyway i went back to the shop took out my plasma torch cut the fenders off the trailer. I went to the tire shop and bought 16" wheels and the strongest trailer tires they carried. My 10 k trailer now runs 14 ply tires rated at 3750 lbs each. I mounted the new wheels and tires and adjusted my fenders about 4" up.

now my trailers all use the big tires that the 14k trailers run. I had the wheels and tires balanced $1200.00 later. I rolled to S.C. pulling the machine, standard bucket and a grapple bucket. I came back loaded at max with my f550. I had to put one of.the buckets on the back of.the truck to take weight off the trailer. I had a 5000 lb building under the machine. The tires did great and helped me get through a very heavy pull for about 180 miles.

I pull a Bobcat 335 on 13k rated trailer behind '08 F350 DRW flatbed. With thumb, angle blade, and cab, it is close to 10k lbs. It pulls very good on the 18' bumper pull. I get everything weighed and try and stay under the recommendations. My truck is heavy, though, with the flatbed at just over 10,500 lbs with tools. I do okay on tires but not great. I'm running Toyo AT and got 6 plus free rotations for about $1300.
Keeping the trailers in good shape is important. I go through tires because many trailer tires are crap. I just found some that I like, though. I think they are made by Hankook and so far they wear well. Steel belted instead of bias.

I'm running Toyo AT and got 6 plus free rotations for about $1300.

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That's a great price on tires, are they 17's. I bought 4 18" BFG's for my SRW F350 last year and it was just shy of $1K.

I also started buying better quality tires for my little tag-alongs, it's worth the extra money not having to change a tire on the side of a busy interstate.

CM1995 said:

That's a great price on tires, are they 17's. I bought 4 18" BFG's for my SRW F350 last year and it was just shy of $1K.

I also started buying better quality tires for my little tag-alongs, it's worth the extra money not having to change a tire on the side of a busy interstate.

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I always have to unload to change a tire. i have a compressor which helps but I'm always weary of jacking my trailer with a load on it. Makes for a miserable morning or ride home.

What brand tires do you (or anyone else) recommend for trailers? I try and go one load range above the rating if possible but have still have plenty fail.
I had an "upgrade" from my trailer dealer and 3 out of 4 tires separated and they were one load range higher than I needed. I will get the the name of them.

I have had 7 out of 8 "maxxis" tires separate, too.

I have had very good luck with Power King trailer tires

My trailer tires are not balanced. There again, I doubt I ever haul a heavy load more than maybe 50-60mph even on an Interstate; and I am rarely on any Interstate. I'm almost exclusively local in my hauling. I did put new tires on early this year because the date code on my trailer tires were, um, a bit dated and I didn't want to have an issue even though there was still plenty of tread. I trade off doing snow removal in the winter with a local tire dealer and he hooked me up with a set of "Loadstar" (a cheap Chinese brand I'd bet) ST235/85R-16" load range F tires mounted for about $140 per tire. They are rated at 3960 lbs per tire at 110 psi. That gives me over 31k worth of tire load hauling on the trailer, and I know I'm putting a few thousand pounds of tongue weight on the truck. I've had no issues. Lately, I've been just crawling my TB145 onto the flatbed of my 550 and not using a trailer.

I am thinking I've already posted this picture. Anyway, I got rid of the little toolbox on the flatbed (since I have boxes under the bed) and, with the stick towards the front, I don't have anything hanging over the end of the bed.