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Do Not Buy A Gatormade Trailer... W/ PICS

ross3031

Member
Joined
Jul 15, 2012
Messages
9
Location
Ohio
Ill tell you my story real quick but i seemed to be the norm and not the exemption.

DO NOT BUY A GATORMADE TRAILER. In my opinion, not only are they built with very poor quality but are unsafe to haul with. I've owned a 26' dual tandem gooseneck now for 4 years, i bought it new from the factory in KY. I have now spent more in repairs on this trailer than it initially cost me to buy ($9,200). The axles were not installed correctly from the factory which has now caused me 4 wheel bearings, an axle, and 12 worn tires. I was going down the highway once at 65 MPH with a bulldozer loaded on when a wheel bearing blew apart, blew the tires out, and almost caused a massive accident. The latest incident could have been devastating. The neck of the gooseneck has almost completely broken off from the rest of the trailer. Luckily we were in the parking lot and not going down the road.

Heres the pics



To me though, the worst part about it all, is Gatormades customer care, or more accurately lack there of. Absolutely horrible. Gatormade could care less about these issues and the money and down time its cost me.

SO, stay away from Gatormade at all cost.
 

LT-x7

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2007
Messages
394
Location
Central COMMI-fornia
Occupation
Earth Moving Contractor
Good info here.
Out of curiosity what size dozer are you hauling on this trailer?
I'm guessing the trailer has 10k axles under it?
 

crane operator

Senior Member
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Mar 27, 2009
Messages
8,274
Location
sw missouri
Owns a trailer for 4 years, hauling dozers at 65 mph on a 26' gooseneck, and has trouble with bearings, tires, and welds cracking? Imagine that......
 

Mark13

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 28, 2013
Messages
272
Location
IL
Owns a trailer for 4 years, hauling dozers at 65 mph on a 26' gooseneck, and has trouble with bearings, tires, and welds cracking? Imagine that......

If I remember past posts on other forums the trailer has been a problem mostly since day 1 and the manufacturer doesn't care to do anything about it.

And I see nothing wrong with towing the trailer with a dozer on it at 65mph on the highway if it's an appropriate size dozer for the trailer.
 

ross3031

Member
Joined
Jul 15, 2012
Messages
9
Location
Ohio
Owns a trailer for 4 years, hauling dozers at 65 mph on a 26' gooseneck, and has trouble with bearings, tires, and welds cracking? Imagine that......

Your kidding right? A trailer that is suppose to be able to carry almost 20k on the deck hauling a 12k dozer at 65 MPH is an issue? The trailer should be MORE than capable of doing that. As a matter of fact, it should be able to carry 19,600 lbs on the deck going 65 MPH without an issue, seeing as that's what is rated for from Gatormade. Unless I missed a graph or something in the paper work that showed a correct speed vs weight ratio.......

And yes, I've had issues with this trailer almost since day one. I believe we lost the first wheel bearing right at 10 months of owning it.
 

LT-x7

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2007
Messages
394
Location
Central COMMI-fornia
Occupation
Earth Moving Contractor
Your kidding right? A trailer that is suppose to be able to carry almost 20k on the deck hauling a 12k dozer at 65 MPH is an issue? The trailer should be MORE than capable of doing that. As a matter of fact, it should be able to carry 19,600 lbs on the deck going 65 MPH without an issue, seeing as that's what is rated for from Gatormade. Unless I missed a graph or something in the paper work that showed a correct speed vs weight ratio.......

And yes, I've had issues with this trailer almost since day one. I believe we lost the first wheel bearing right at 10 months of owning it.

Doesn't the trailer weigh 6-7k?
Pretty sure they don't put a 26k+ GVW on the trailers with 10k axles. So no its not rated for a 20k load.

What model dozer are you hauling?
 

ross3031

Member
Joined
Jul 15, 2012
Messages
9
Location
Ohio
Doesn't the trailer weigh 6-7k?
Pretty sure they don't put a 26k+ GVW on the trailers with 10k axles. So no its not rated for a 20k load.

What model dozer are you hauling?

I will get a pic of the actual tag on the trailer for you tomorrow, the exact GVW is 25,900 lbs I believe. The trailer itself weighs 6,400 or 6,600 (I double check tomorrow).

The dozer we haul on that trailer is just a Case 450c, 12,000 lbs
 

Mark13

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 28, 2013
Messages
272
Location
IL
Doesn't the trailer weigh 6-7k?
Pretty sure they don't put a 26k+ GVW on the trailers with 10k axles. So no its not rated for a 20k load.

What model dozer are you hauling?


My trailer has dual 10k axles and a 24,999lb gvw. I believe some are even higher.

I spec'd out a different gooseneck a couple years back with dual 15k axles and I believe my gvw choices were 37k or 39k if I remember correctly.
 

LT-x7

Senior Member
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Nov 13, 2007
Messages
394
Location
Central COMMI-fornia
Occupation
Earth Moving Contractor
My trailer has dual 10k axles and a 24,999lb gvw. I believe some are even higher.

I spec'd out a different gooseneck a couple years back with dual 15k axles and I believe my gvw choices were 37k or 39k if I remember correctly.

I understand all the manufactures rate them a little different, but it seems most of them are around 25% tongue weight. Some are much less than that.

Have you had this setup on the scales?
 

ross3031

Member
Joined
Jul 15, 2012
Messages
9
Location
Ohio
Yair . . .

Just out of curiosity . . . would any trailer manufacturer warrant wheel bearings?

I know I wouldn't (and didn't).

Cheers.

I understand wheel bearings are a wear item, BUT not after only 10 months. Then for 3 more to go in under 3 years. Plenty of guys go 6, 7, 8 or more years with out having to touch them.

The axles were installed wrong, they were actually crooked under the trailer, making the trailer dog track putting a heavy load on the bearings. The last time a wheel bearing went we had to replace the entire axle because of the damage. Took the trailer to a reputable place locally and they had to cut off the front axle mounts and re-weld them on in the proper position so that the axles were aligned.

I have all that documented from them with before and after alignments. Gatormade basically told me too bad. In fact I was actually somewhat taken back by the offer they made to the BBB when I filed a complaint. If I were to haul the trailer all the way back down to KY, the would give me $100 off the price of a new axle (so $1,100 instead of $1,200) and then I could pay them full shop rates to replace it. I politely declined....
 

Mark13

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 28, 2013
Messages
272
Location
IL
I understand all the manufactures rate them a little different, but it seems most of them are around 25% tongue weight. Some are much less than that.

Have you had this setup on the scales?


I have weighed mine many times on various scales. Trailer with nothing on it is 8,800lbs.
 

AllDodge

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 2, 2011
Messages
2,288
Location
Kentucky
Gator does some heavy advertising here, there all over LSN and CL. They look nice but have never owned or looked over one before. Looks as though its rated for the load

20170103_101314.jpg
 

crane operator

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2009
Messages
8,274
Location
sw missouri
Sorry ross3031, didn't mean to upset you.

I wouldn't consider a 12,000lb load to be overloading your trailer. When you said dozer on your trailer, I was picturing a d5 up there.

I see people around my area hauling 25-35,000lbs, with goosneck trailers, and then complaining that they won't hold up. A rated load is often different, to what one should be hauling.

I've got a dual tandem 25' trailer, 2- 10k axles 235/85r 16's tires. It's probably rated for 20-25,000, I'm not really sure. I've got a forklift that weights about 12k, and that's about all that trailer wants. The trailer is rated for more, but that's with the weight spread over the whole trailer, (think hauling big round bales). My forklift concentrates that load in one spot. I think everyday use of it, with that load, wouldn't probably be to good for my trailer either. I certainly wouldn't feel comfortable running 65 with it. When you hit a patch of rough road it really flexes my trailer.

I actually have a 35 ton single drop lowboy, and that's what we usually haul that forklift on, of course, it handles it with no problem. I also have a crane that weighs 66,000lbs. I don't haul it, on that 35 ton lowboy (even though its "rated" for that), I have a 50 ton lowboy for that. I know that crane (under 35 tons), would destroy that trailer (even though its a "rated" load), in short order hauling it around every day. Yes its "rated" for it, but I'd like to have my trailer last.

Some of the bigger lowboys give two ratings, "concentrated" load (so many lbs in 10') and then a gross rating. I imagine they don't do that on smaller trailers for liability reasons.

I live in a pretty hilly area, and I don't feel comfortable running around grossing 30,000 in a one ton pickup with a gooseneck. Sure, lots of guys do, I'm just not one of them. I think if I was in a flatter area, I might think differently.

I'm sorry you've had poor luck with your trailer, it sounds like you've got the axle issues straightened out, and maybe some welding and plate steel to reinforce the trailer, and I wish you the best.
 

LT-x7

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Nov 13, 2007
Messages
394
Location
Central COMMI-fornia
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Earth Moving Contractor
Sorry ross3031, didn't mean to upset you.

I wouldn't consider a 12,000lb load to be overloading your trailer. When you said dozer on your trailer, I was picturing a d5 up there.

:exactly and it's semi common for people to have no clue what a piece of equipment weighs, so when you said 12k dozer I half expected a 18k-20k crawler up on the deck.

I'm pretty surprised and disappointed with Gatormade's response. IMO from a business owners prospective when you have a problem like this (lets be honest, every company has problems sometimes) it can either cost you a small set amount of money now to make right. Or it can cost you a large amount of money in the future in lost business. Seems like a no brainier to me.......
 

ross3031

Member
Joined
Jul 15, 2012
Messages
9
Location
Ohio
Crane Operator, We're all good. This issue has just been going on and on and its f$ck$ng frustrating that i cant get any help with it. Didn't mean to come off as a d$ck

LT-x7, I tried everything to get my point across to Gatormade, with absolutely no legitimate concern or care for my problems.

I think i'm at the point now where i'm literally out of options. My last resort lately has been to turn to social media and try to get my story out. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc, and let people know what i've had to deal with. I very politely emailed and contacted dealers of Gatormade to express my concern for them selling what, in my opinion, are unsafe trailer. I've made threads on numerous forums and emailed them to Gatormade, plenty of post saying that people were thankful for the info because they were thinking of buying one but will not now. Gatormade has never responded...
 
Last edited:

LT-x7

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2007
Messages
394
Location
Central COMMI-fornia
Occupation
Earth Moving Contractor
...... plenty of post saying that people were thankful for the info because they were thinking of buying one but will not now. Gatormade has never responded...

You can throw me on that boat.
I'm currently in the process of shopping for a gooseneck and will be crossing gatormade off my list. Not because of your issues with the product (s*** happens) but because of there response to the problems.
 
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