1968 Page and Page lowboy

[Dirtmaster]

Y'all,
Anyone familiar with this trailer brand? Picked up a 1968 50 ton detachable gooseneck with 3 axles, one of which is steerable. I've checked the manufacturer out and they went out of business in 1974. Bought by Peerless. Is there anything to watch out for on these trailers? It will need some work, but nothing major, so far as I can see. There is a fish plate on both sides that was welded and bolted. Maybe someone overloaded it at some time? Looks like a good repair job, so not worried.

 

[tonka]

um can we get pics of the steer axle? and whats up with the neck?

 

[heavylift]

it appears that a chain is holding it to the trailer. It must not have a way to lock it to the trailer... other than the weight, when hooked to a tractor

 

[Dirtmaster]

Hi. The neck is being held temporarily with a chain, but the design uses a single, larger chain in the middle to keep it held together. I would like to improve that somewhat. I'll probably add something so I can pin it in place with a large pin, like 3 inch diameter, one on each side. I'm open to suggestion on this. The neck is hanging at a funny angle just because they didn't bother to chain it up tight. I'll haul it home on a Landoll and get it all fixed up before putting it on the road. I'm attaching a photo of the steer axle. Essentially, it is a short bobtail piece that can swing side to side and slides in a track. The whole axle turns as one unit. I have heard that to back such a rig up, you need to get out of the cab, run back there, and chain it straight. I know a guy that does that. Another method might be to have a pneumatic ram that runs a pin into something when it's straight, so when I back up, it stays locked. Is that the way the big boys do it? Thanks, guys.

 

[tonka]

man i hope you got it cheep cause it looks like a lot of work, nice find!

 

[td25c]

Good find Dirtmaster,little elbo grease & paint it will work great for hauling the "Abbot".Is the rear axil air suspension?Neet that it steers.

 

[Dirtmaster]

I don't think there is any kind of springs involved. I only gawked at it and paid the guy. Looks like it is some sort of walking beam type of contraption. Yeah, got it for a small fraction of what it will be worth, soon. It's a project, but not a hard one. Little stuff is broken, like the wings that guide the gooseneck as it seats into the trailer, etc. The hydraulic pack is missing, so I'll either have to rig up a wet kit on the truck or hack up a lawnmower and graft a pump on it for a standalone system. See, if I had $, I'd write a check. My classic(??) 1970 Freightliner cabover with the screaming Jimmy 8V71 (WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!) doesn't have any wet kit on it. A rerun of The Rockford Files the other day had several of these old 2 stroke Jimmies in it. Pretty cool. Until I drove a friends 1998 Volvo, I had no idea what a modern truck drove like. I thought I had a 'normal' truck. Guess not.... No front brakes, shocks, or power steering. Every bump in the road sounds like someone rattling an empty can of beans, about half full of change.

 

[td25c]

Your Page lowboy looks like a mechanical detach gooseneck.I dont see any ground bearing cylinder,but I see what I think are hydraulic cylinders mounted just behind the fithwheel plate.Dose it operate like a mechanical detach,then the cylinders come down on the truck frame to lift the goosneck out of the pin pockets of the trailer?

 

[Dirtmaster]

It's hydraulic. There are rams on each side that press down onto the trailer to lift it. Sounds weird, but that's the way the geometry works. I'll try to post a video when I get it going. The rams behind the 5th wheel are for pressing down on a cross bar that presses down on the truck frame behind the 5th wheel. That is used to raise and lower the gooseneck. You back up, click in, push the big rams down, and that actually raises the trailer off the ground. Got it loaded onto another trailer for the trip home, with no issues. Used an excavator and a Gradall rough terrain forklift. I'll post pictures as soon as I can. Dirtmaster.

 

[td25c]

I see the deck rams now at the rear of the gooseneck boxed in whith steel around them.I thought the rams were just steel pins untill you explained it.Looks like a good design.Early non ground bearing detachable lowboy.Cool!

 

[Dirtmaster]

I'm still trying to figure it all out, myself. There are no springs at all on the suspension. There are several long, husky walking beams of some sort and it's apparent that their job is to average out the terrain as bumps and chuck holes are encountered. If one wheel falls into a hole, the others press down harder to keep the trailer on the level. I'll add a picture of the trailer suspended in the air after we took it off of the Landoll. We had just driven the Landoll away from under the lowboy. Dirtmaster.

See short Youtube video at YouTube - Page and Page offloading.3GP

Oh. What does the term "non-groundbearing" mean?

 

[tonka]

pm Chaz Murray he can tell you all about you trailer suspention. He and his family build heavy haul trailers with the same type suspention.

 

[huffmanmb]

Dirtmaster, I take it you purchased this trailer in Washington and hauled it back to Ill? Page made great trailers in the early days. There suspension was used on many trailers throughout the northwest. My granddad hauled huge logs (and yarders, shovels, etc) out of the woods on a page trailer very close to what you have in the seventies. He also had a page log trailer he bought new in 68. The trailers worked great then, a little tlc and it should work great for you.

 

[Dirtmaster]

From what I have gleaned, Page and Page went out of business in 1974. There were two divisions. In the USA, it was Dura Corp. In Canada, it was something else, maybe Page and Page. The Canadians only built logging trailers, and they were bought by Peerless. The Canadians have been very helpful but they only know the logging trailers. The US division apparently vanished. Can't find any tracks from them. I'm going to try and fashion the missing arms and bars to function like they were supposed to. However, I'll try to not make the mistake they did. If I try to lift one side much more than the other, the cross bar (that contacts the tractor tail) will tilt too much and break off the yoke on one or both of the vertical rams. I could install one larger ram in the middle and press down on the center tail of the tractor, but I'll have to beef that up, first. That would eliminate the tendency to break off a yoke. It would also eliminate my ability to tweek the two sides for a perfect fit. Probably not important. Wish I could find some pictures of what the arms looked like. Dirtmaster

 

[Construct'O]

I have a 1968 Hyster lowboy that has the walking beam suspension.Has worked good,still going!

 

[Dirtmaster]

Great! Any pictures? Is it at all similar to this one I'm restoring? Interested in the detach mechanism, particularly. Another issue that has come up is the mechanism for taking the load off of the big rams while driving. I can certainly lift and lower the bed with the big rams, but I don't think I'm supposed to drive down the road with the rams holding up the trailer. I'd expect there to be some sort of pin, bar, or whatever to take the load off of the hydraulics for traveling. Modern trailers have a big block that rotates down into position for resting the gooseneck on the deck. You lift the deck up more than normal, flip something down into place, and lower the deck until it rests on the block, thereby relieving the big rams. There appears to be a vestige of some mechanism there, but it has been broken or removed. Any ideas? Thanks. Dirtmaster