What size trailer?

[aardvark2485]

I have a 2008 Ford F250 Crew Cab 4X4 short bed with 6.4 diesel engine. I just ordered a B & W turnover ball hitch which I'm having installed next week for pulling a yet to be purchased gooseneck trailer. I need help in determining what size and capacity trailer that I will need to pull safely a 9500 lb. tractor with loader. The overall length of the tractor is approximately 18ft. and width of approximately 7ft. I went through the process of determining if a bumper pull trailer would do the job safely and determined that I didn't feel comfortable going that route. I am looking at a 20 + 5 tandem with 20K axles. Will this be overkill? Would a 20 + 5 non tandem with 14K axles do the job? Your input will be appreciated. Feel free to add your opinion as to what brand I should look at an any options I need to consider.

[NickKent]

You better weigh your truck and make sure you have an available 3000 lbs payload. Because that is what your minimum planned tongue weight should be. 14k trailer with 20% hitch weight- 2800 lbs. round up to 3k. If you're really thinking about pulling a dual tandem trailer you need a dual rear wheeled truck to go with it. And a CDL of course.

[SmokeyWren]

2008 F-250 diesel CrewCab shorty 4x4 has a GCWR of 23,000 pounds and a GVWR of 9,800 pounds.

GVWR is your problem. If you have nothing in your truck but a hitch, a skinny driver, and a full tank of fuel, your wet and loaded pickup will probably weigh around 8,000 pounds before you tie onto the trailer. That leaves only 1,800 pounds for hitch weight before you exceed the GVWR of your pickup. 1,800 pounds of hitch weight on a gooseneck trailer with 18 percent hitch weight is a trailer with a max wet and loaded weight around 10,000 pounds.

So you're going to be overloaded with any trailer that will safely haul a 9,500 pound tractor.

But ignoring that, let's consider three different trailers that might meet your needs. I'll use BigTex Trailers as the examples, because they have a factory about 30 miles down the superslab from me.

Here are the three trailers. They all are available with 102" width and 20' (or longer) deck plus 5' dovetail. And two of them have an optional 6' deck on the neck (good place to haul the extra dually tractor tires):

14GN/PH Tandem Axle Gooseneck Trailer

The 14GN is the least expensive and with the least gvwr at 14,000 pounds. It's a common tandam axle gooseneck trailer with 4 trailer tires. But you'll be right on the verge of being overloaded over the GVWR of the trailer with a 9,500 pound tractor on the trailer. I'd want the dealer to guarantee me that the "dry" trailer with any options would not weigh more than 4,500 pounds.


18GN/PH Triple Axle Gooseneck Trailer
The 18GN has about the GVWR you need to be certain you'll never be overloaded with the 9,500 pound payload. But it's a tripple-axle trailer with 6 tires on the ground. Most folks experienced with tripple-axle trailers will warn you to chose something with two axles, not three. The tripple-axle trailers are infamous for dragging tires sideways around sharp turns.

20GN Tandem Dual Axle Gooseneck Trailer

The 20GN is probably overkill for your load, but it has plenty of GVWR without the tripple axles. Instead, is has dual tandam axles, with 8 tires on the ground. It comes with cheap 7.00x16 tires, with the much better ST235/85R16 tires optional at extra cost.

What would I do if I wanted a gooseneck to haul a '9,500 pound payload? I'd probably go for the overkill and get the 20GN. Too much trailer is a lot better than not enough trailer, and I don't want a tripple axle trailer of any kind. But the 20GN is going to weigh more than the 14GN, so you'll be even more overloaded with the 20GN than you would be with the 14GN.

What else might you consider, other than jacking up the F-250 and running an F-350 under it?

Tag trailers have a lot less hitch weight than goosenecks (about 12 percent instead of 18 percent). So if you bought a tag equipment trailer instead of a gooseneck, you could tow a 15,000 pound trailer instead of a 10,000 pound gooseneck without being over the GVWR of the tow vehicle. BigTex has those too, but I'll let you do you own surfing for those.

But a 15k tag trailer means you'll have to replace your receiver with one rated for at least the GVWR of your tag trailer.

[Rick M]

Smokey beat me to this post and did a much better job. Personally, I like the way a gooseneck tows.

Well, I think you definitely want a tandem 2 axle setup and I hope what you are actually trying to decide between tandem single tire axles vs tandem dual tire axles.

I have a 20' deck 5' dovetail tandem single tire gooseneck and haul a JD5300 4WD with a 540 loader and usually a Bush Hog 287 medium duty 7" cutter and all four tires are filled with water (16.9-30 rear and 11.2-24 front). Added all the weights up once and figured it was in the 9500 lb range +/- 500. The trailer is rated 14K,axles are rated 7K, and the tires I run are 265-75-16 rated at 3415 lbs at 80 psi. I figure most times I am running it close to the limit and if I hauled more than the 16 miles between home and camp I believe I would bite the bullet and go for a tandem/dual with 10K axles.

If I were buying new today I know I would go for the 20K trailer with tandem/duals to give a lot wider safety margin. With the way the trailer (Roadrunner brand from North Mississippi) is built (sturdy) my tires are the weak link and I would prefer to have more margin.

[burnetma]

I haul my JD5420 4WD tractor with 541 loader and bucket on a Econoline deck-over tilt bed conventional tow trailer. Weight of tractor including fuel and balast is 10,250 lbs. I have a titan 2.5" receiver and straight-line cam weight distribution system. I pulled the trailer with my 1997 F250 and never felt comfortable. With the 2008 F350 Dually, I feel completely in control of the load, but a gooseneck would probably feel even better. I think that you will want a little more truck (F350 Dually) to feel 100% comfortable even with a gooseneck.

FYI, the integrated brake controller tow command on the 2008 and up is AWESOME for control. Never an anxious moment with this set-up.

[Flywheel]

I have the BigTex 14GN 20+5 and load a smaller tractor - but up to 10k lbs of hay - 200 square bales or 10 rbs.

I think you will be happy with this trailer - but may want better tires on the truck and trailer. I have 285E rated tires on the truck and 235 E rated BFG Commercials on the trailer, and that made a difference.

The only weak area with a lighter weight trailer is the twist in it - so consider a torque tube. The larger trailers will do it as well, but they are much more robust.

[RWF350]

I agree w/ tandem axle duals on the gooseneck. In my opinion over loaded trucks can be bad enough (and I'm not innocent of it), but overloaded trailers can be even bigger problems. Also keep in mind additional weight of implements or other materials.