Pony
Senior Member
As i have limited experience with heavy trailers, i would like some opinions re which type of heavy trailer is better suited for my needs.
Will not be for commercial use, will be a flat deck with removable stockcrate for cattle and also carting my own machinery between properties with the crate removed.
Will be pulled with a 400hp bogie (tandem) drive rigid truck and woulde see a max of 10k km (6k mile) per year.
Will also be purchased 2nd hand, so obviously limited in what i can find.
Drawbar hitch type will be ringfeder, which for arguments sake will behave same as a pintle hitch.
First type which will work for me is a dog trailer, fixed rear axle and pivoting front axle on a ballrace.
I am limited on length to about 8.5m (28 ft) including drawbar, so will only find two axle trailers in that length. I believe you guys call them pup trailers?
Tandam axle dog trailers are limited to 18ton (39700 lb) ATM.
Dog trailer stockcrates require road-train gates to allow cattle to cross the gap between truck/trailer over the drawbar.
Second type is a pig trailer, this has either a tandam or tri axle group in the middle of the trailer, all fixed axles.
Tandam pigs are 15ton (33000 lb)ATM
Tri pigs are 18ton (39700 lb)ATM
Same length limits in place as for dog trailer.
Pig trailer stockcrates if a fixed drawbar design suffer the same issue with the road-train gates, however pigs can also have a sliding drawbar design which allows the trailer to be backed up to a loading ramp and then the drawbar retracted and the truck backed up to the trailer to allow an uninterrupted trailer/truck deck.
This negates roadtrain gates and would also allow loading of machinery across trailer and onto the truck, removing the need to unhook the trailer to load machines onto the truck.
At this point in time weight capacity isnt really an issue, my heaviest piece of equipment is approx 8-9 tons.
I have been told that a dog trailer tracks better and that a pig trailer is easier to back.
I have extensively towed smaller pig trailers, eg boat trailers/horse floats etc and am very competent backing these, however have zero experience backing dog trailers with the ballrace. Most dogs are equipped with whta we call a dolly lock, which locks the ballrace, however im assuming that they are still very different to maneuvre than anything i am used to.
I am confident i have the skills to master it, however i am concerned i simply wont ever get enough practice doing it so infrequently.
Do you guys have pig trailers over there?
Can offer any insights into how they travel?
The sliding drawbar pig with the benefit of not having to unhook to load truck and also easier backing are appealing to me, however are also the most difficult to source second-hand. They also seem to be the oldest, i did find a sliding drawbar pig with crate, however the suspension was worn out and obsolete, couldn't get parts for it and couldn't even find anyone interested in installing new suspension for me.
For completeness, my truck crate does have sideload gates, which negate have to back the trailer up to a ramp.
HOWEVER, neither my local saleyards, the meatworks i deliver to, nor 2 of my 3 properties have cattle ramps capable of supporting sideload, so that shoots that out of the water.
Dog trailers are relatively easy to find second-hand and i have a stockcrate that i made for a smaller truck that i could make work for a dog.
But get back to the problem of not wanting to spend 2hrs trying to back into a ramp with a line of trucks waiting on me.
How hard is a dog to back?
Will not be for commercial use, will be a flat deck with removable stockcrate for cattle and also carting my own machinery between properties with the crate removed.
Will be pulled with a 400hp bogie (tandem) drive rigid truck and woulde see a max of 10k km (6k mile) per year.
Will also be purchased 2nd hand, so obviously limited in what i can find.
Drawbar hitch type will be ringfeder, which for arguments sake will behave same as a pintle hitch.
First type which will work for me is a dog trailer, fixed rear axle and pivoting front axle on a ballrace.
I am limited on length to about 8.5m (28 ft) including drawbar, so will only find two axle trailers in that length. I believe you guys call them pup trailers?
Tandam axle dog trailers are limited to 18ton (39700 lb) ATM.
Dog trailer stockcrates require road-train gates to allow cattle to cross the gap between truck/trailer over the drawbar.
Second type is a pig trailer, this has either a tandam or tri axle group in the middle of the trailer, all fixed axles.
Tandam pigs are 15ton (33000 lb)ATM
Tri pigs are 18ton (39700 lb)ATM
Same length limits in place as for dog trailer.
Pig trailer stockcrates if a fixed drawbar design suffer the same issue with the road-train gates, however pigs can also have a sliding drawbar design which allows the trailer to be backed up to a loading ramp and then the drawbar retracted and the truck backed up to the trailer to allow an uninterrupted trailer/truck deck.
This negates roadtrain gates and would also allow loading of machinery across trailer and onto the truck, removing the need to unhook the trailer to load machines onto the truck.
At this point in time weight capacity isnt really an issue, my heaviest piece of equipment is approx 8-9 tons.
I have been told that a dog trailer tracks better and that a pig trailer is easier to back.
I have extensively towed smaller pig trailers, eg boat trailers/horse floats etc and am very competent backing these, however have zero experience backing dog trailers with the ballrace. Most dogs are equipped with whta we call a dolly lock, which locks the ballrace, however im assuming that they are still very different to maneuvre than anything i am used to.
I am confident i have the skills to master it, however i am concerned i simply wont ever get enough practice doing it so infrequently.
Do you guys have pig trailers over there?
Can offer any insights into how they travel?
The sliding drawbar pig with the benefit of not having to unhook to load truck and also easier backing are appealing to me, however are also the most difficult to source second-hand. They also seem to be the oldest, i did find a sliding drawbar pig with crate, however the suspension was worn out and obsolete, couldn't get parts for it and couldn't even find anyone interested in installing new suspension for me.
For completeness, my truck crate does have sideload gates, which negate have to back the trailer up to a ramp.
HOWEVER, neither my local saleyards, the meatworks i deliver to, nor 2 of my 3 properties have cattle ramps capable of supporting sideload, so that shoots that out of the water.
Dog trailers are relatively easy to find second-hand and i have a stockcrate that i made for a smaller truck that i could make work for a dog.
But get back to the problem of not wanting to spend 2hrs trying to back into a ramp with a line of trucks waiting on me.
How hard is a dog to back?
