Looking to buy a trailer...

Zaicran

Member

Equipment
B2650, 72" MMM, LA534+QA, RCR1260
Oct 8, 2019
72
0
6
Morganza, MD
How much trailer length will I need for a B2650 with FEL and a Land Pride 1260 Rotary on the back?

20ft enough?

I'm thinking about getting a 20ft Kaufman Gooseneck landscaper trailer...has a 2ft dove tail so I'm actually looking at 18"+2'

Suggestions? I suppose I could just wait until it gets delivered and just measure it...
 

RonBoyBX25D

Member
Lifetime Member

Equipment
B2650, LP Grapple, Bro-Tek spacers, QH, Box Blade, Landscape Rake, RB, and 1560G
Aug 1, 2015
477
3
18
Minneapolis, MN
I think a 20’ would just cover it. I have a 16’ and probably have 3’ behind the QH, that would give you roughly 7’ or so to fit the 1260.
 

Fordtech86

Well-known member
Lifetime Member

Equipment
L3200
Aug 7, 2018
4,976
5,917
113
Pineville,LA
How much are you going to be trailering it? With my L with loader on and 5 ft bush hog on, the bush hog hangs off the back about 2 feet on my 18ft trailer. Thats with the loader bucket up against the front of the trailer.
 

Zaicran

Member

Equipment
B2650, 72" MMM, LA534+QA, RCR1260
Oct 8, 2019
72
0
6
Morganza, MD
How much are you going to be trailering it? With my L with loader on and 5 ft bush hog on, the bush hog hangs off the back about 2 feet on my 18ft trailer. Thats with the loader bucket up against the front of the trailer.
I have property 150 miles away out on the Delmarva Peninsula ...so aside from local stuff...at least 4 times a year out that way...I need a good trailer....not something for occasional local hauling.
 

BigG

Well-known member

Equipment
l2501, FEL, BB, Rotary cutter, rake,spreader, roller, etc. New Holland TL80 A
Sep 14, 2018
1,951
770
113
West Central,FL
This style of trailer is often purchased due to it's lower price. However there are draw backs to this style. Without the I-beams that would be in the higher priced models the strength is around the outside edge only. The cross members must span the 6.5 to 7 foot width of the trailer. Also the railing around the outside edge means you can not side load the trailer. Often you will see this style of trailer with a homemade platform to raise the floor up to be able to side load it.

I took a quick look on line but I could not fine a story that I saw some time ago about a man going to Sam's Club with his Kaufman trailer and purchased a pallet of drinking water. When they set the pallet on the gooseneck the frame broke so badly it was touching the ground. I think I would look for a better grade of trailer.

I made the mistake of buying a Big Tex since that seams to be a very common brand on the road. DO NOT BUY ONE. There is a host of reasons not to buy one but the big one for me was the underrated rims that were on the trailer. The combined rating was to low on the rims to load the trailer to capacity even with 15% of the weight transfered to the hitch. The tire were 14 ply and they were also underrated.

Look for good reviews on the brands that are sold close to you. Even then take a friend and a tape measure to check that the trailer is square and true. Also check that the axles are parallel to each other and each end of the axles are equal distance from the hitch. Check that ALL the welds look good.
 
Last edited:

CapnDean

Member
Lifetime Member

Equipment
L6060,ZD1211
Feb 22, 2018
184
3
18
Gulfport, MS USA
That trailer is a heck of a lot more than you need. I haul my L6060 on a dovetail car hauler. I have a Trailblazer lane cutter on the front and my 6' JD MX6 bush hog on the back. Probably hauling close to 7000#. Trailer is rated for 9000#
 

cliffboyer

Active member

Equipment
L3301 w/LA525 loader, G5200 mower w/RC48 deck, Kawasaki 610 Mule, DR mower
Nov 30, 2017
242
49
28
Southern IL
One issue with a gooseneck trailer is you limit tow vehicle options to ones with a gooseneck hitch. Conventional class 3 hitch is something nearly every truck has. Could be a situation whereby you have to use a different truck, or someone needs to borrow trailer.

Also consider torsion spring suspension. Trailer will sit lower and tow/ride nicer.
 

Zaicran

Member

Equipment
B2650, 72" MMM, LA534+QA, RCR1260
Oct 8, 2019
72
0
6
Morganza, MD
This style of trailer is often purchased due to it's lower price. However there are draw backs to this style. Without the I-beams that would be in the higher priced models the strength is around the outside edge only. The cross members must span the 6.5 to 7 foot width of the trailer. Also the railing around the outside edge means you can not side load the trailer. Often you will see this style of trailer with a homemade platform to raise the floor up to be able to side load it.

I took a quick look on line but I could not fine a story that I saw some time ago about a man going to Sam's Club with his Kaufman trailer and purchased a pallet of drinking water. When they set the pallet on the gooseneck the frame broke so badly it was touching the ground. I think I would look for a better grade of trailer.

I made the mistake of buying a Big Tex since that seams to be a very common brand on the road. DO NOT BUY ONE. There is a host of reasons not to buy one but the big one for me was the underrated rims that were on the trailer. The combined rating was to low on the rims to load the trailer to capacity even with 15% of the weight transfered to the hitch. The tire were 14 ply and they were also underrated.

Look for good reviews on the brands that are sold close to you. Even then take a friend and a tape measure to check that the trailer is square and true. Also check that the axles are parallel to each other and each end of the axles are equal distance from the hitch. Check that ALL the welds look good.

Thanks for the info...looks like the comparable equipment trailer has the 3" cross members..your take on this trailer? ;

https://www.kaufmantrailers.com/goo...eluxe-15000-gvwr-equipment-gooseneck-trailer/





Any particular brand/manufacturer you can recommend?
 

Zaicran

Member

Equipment
B2650, 72" MMM, LA534+QA, RCR1260
Oct 8, 2019
72
0
6
Morganza, MD
That trailer is a heck of a lot more than you need. I haul my L6060 on a dovetail car hauler. I have a Trailblazer lane cutter on the front and my 6' JD MX6 bush hog on the back. Probably hauling close to 7000#. Trailer is rated for 9000#
Yeah, I figure if I'm going to buy a new trailer I'm gonna get something I can do other things with...
 

BigG

Well-known member

Equipment
l2501, FEL, BB, Rotary cutter, rake,spreader, roller, etc. New Holland TL80 A
Sep 14, 2018
1,951
770
113
West Central,FL
Thanks for the info...looks like the comparable equipment trailer has the 3" cross members..your take on this trailer? ;

https://www.kaufmantrailers.com/goo...eluxe-15000-gvwr-equipment-gooseneck-trailer/





Any particular brand/manufacturer you can recommend?
I am not sure what you want to do with your trailer but I can share some things from my dealings with trailers. Both the trailers that you posted have some issues. The ramps that are showing cause severe wind drag so fuel mileage is poor. The 2 narrow ramps will not come together in the middle. Thus a narrow machine like a zero turn will not load safely. They charge extra to make the ramps come nearer to each other. Extra for a spare tire. The cross members are at 25 inches which are to far apart for heavy dense loads. They charge extra to have flip over ramps which lay flat. They charge extra for the self cleaning dovetail. The load is carried on c-channel around the edge which means the cross members must carry the weight. Remember the cross members are to wide apart already. Extra charges for LED lights are another problem as DOT loves to pull you over for burned out lights. And I could go on but it is late.

Trailers that I would look at: Red Rhino but you can only find them out west, PJ are ok but they are electroplated which will flake off easily. I had a Moritz out of Ohio. I loved that trailer except for the torx axles. They worked well but I put over 400, 000 miles on that trailer and when the axles went bad they were more then $1000 apiece. I sold it after I was rearended twice. I found some broken welds after the second hit and sold it to buy the Big Mistake, I mean the Big Tex. Very poor build quality.

This is why I say look for trailer dealers in your area. Also look for the weight of the trailers. Simple rule a heavy trailer with good welds will give longer service life. Tube framing not c-channel. Look for cross members that are supported more and no more then 16 inches apart. Monster ramps that will let you load almost any thing. Good wood on the deck with a fastener into each cross member will make a much better trailer. LED lights, spare tire mount. If you can afford them buy electric over hydraulic disk brakes.

Go to the Red Rhino and watch his vids and if you have more questions let me know.
 

vic gerbasi

Member

Equipment
M110 L3300
Feb 19, 2016
232
5
18
dugald mb canada
imop goosenecks are easier to use plus the fact that allowing others to borrow it is limited
if you get a well made one they are great*** i have a horse trailer , hay trailer , and camper trailer =all with gooseneck but with kingpin very happy with all three
 

Zaicran

Member

Equipment
B2650, 72" MMM, LA534+QA, RCR1260
Oct 8, 2019
72
0
6
Morganza, MD
I am not sure what you want to do with your trailer but I can share some things from my dealings with trailers. Both the trailers that you posted have some issues. The ramps that are showing cause severe wind drag so fuel mileage is poor. The 2 narrow ramps will not come together in the middle. Thus a narrow machine like a zero turn will not load safely. They charge extra to make the ramps come nearer to each other. Extra for a spare tire. The cross members are at 25 inches which are to far apart for heavy dense loads. They charge extra to have flip over ramps which lay flat. They charge extra for the self cleaning dovetail. The load is carried on c-channel around the edge which means the cross members must carry the weight. Remember the cross members are to wide apart already. Extra charges for LED lights are another problem as DOT loves to pull you over for burned out lights. And I could go on but it is late.

Trailers that I would look at: Red Rhino but you can only find them out west, PJ are ok but they are electroplated which will flake off easily. I had a Moritz out of Ohio. I loved that trailer except for the torx axles. They worked well but I put over 400, 000 miles on that trailer and when the axles went bad they were more then $1000 apiece. I sold it after I was rearended twice. I found some broken welds after the second hit and sold it to buy the Big Mistake, I mean the Big Tex. Very poor build quality.

This is why I say look for trailer dealers in your area. Also look for the weight of the trailers. Simple rule a heavy trailer with good welds will give longer service life. Tube framing not c-channel. Look for cross members that are supported more and no more then 16 inches apart. Monster ramps that will let you load almost any thing. Good wood on the deck with a fastener into each cross member will make a much better trailer. LED lights, spare tire mount. If you can afford them buy electric over hydraulic disk brakes.

Go to the Red Rhino and watch his vids and if you have more questions let me know.
Good info! Thanks....

I noticed Red Rhino's website seems to not work.
 

Zaicran

Member

Equipment
B2650, 72" MMM, LA534+QA, RCR1260
Oct 8, 2019
72
0
6
Morganza, MD
imop goosenecks are easier to use plus the fact that allowing others to borrow it is limited
if you get a well made one they are great*** i have a horse trailer , hay trailer , and camper trailer =all with gooseneck but with kingpin very happy with all three


Yeah, limited requests for borrowing is a plus! haha
 

troverman

Well-known member

Equipment
MX6000 HSTC; 2020 Kubota Z421KW-54 zero turn mower
Jun 9, 2015
1,188
275
83
NH
I'll give my opinion - I haul my tractors very frequently (several times a week). I'm running a Big Tex 14GN gooseneck trailer, 25 feet + 5 feet dovetail. I've already got a lot of miles on it and it has held up very well. Is it the nicest, best built trailer in the industry? No, but it is built well enough. It uses pierced-beam design, whereas some other trailer makers (Gatormade, Kaufman, others...) use channel cross members welded on top of the I-beams. It comes standard with LED lights and a spare tire; mine has the "mega ramps" which are full width, spring-assisted, fold flat or stand up, with self-clean dove. But I'm hauling much larger and heavier tractors than you.

There are a couple of youtube channels made by "hot shot" truckers...guys pulling goosenecks with 1-ton trucks for a living...that are running Big Tex 14GN trailers. Traveling all over the country, roughly 60,000 miles a year...and these trailers are holding up fine. Everyone has a bad experience with a brand, be it car, truck, trailer, or electronics device...but that isn't indicative of the brand as a whole, necessarily.

Kaufman trailers can be fine. They are at the cheaper end of the spectrum so people look at them. However, they are cheap because they don't include a lot of the things other manufacturers include standard. Notice the one front jack leg instead of two. No torque tube, the lights, the ramps, the thinner beams, etc. Yes, you can option for all these things and have as good a trailer as the others, but it no longer is cheaper. Some people make do with the base trailer or just a couple of options.

Don't worry about fuel economy. It's not going to be good no matter if your ramps are up or down.

Your tractor, without any rear attachments, you fit on a single-axle bumper pull trailer. Proposing a gooseneck for a B2650 is way overkill. A gooseneck does have some handling and maneuverability advantages compared to a bumper pull, plus as someone said fewer people will be able to borrow it. Is your truck already equipped with a gooseneck hitch? If not, it will cost you a chunk of money to have someone cut holes in your bed, install the under-bed hitch, and set up the wiring into the harness / plug. Keep in mind a gooseneck trailer is much more of a pain in the neck to hook up to - if you don't have a bed camera you'll probably need to make a few attempts to get things lined up right. You'll have to get in the bed to attach the chains and lock the coupler and connect the breakaway. You also need to stop and open the tailgate before backing under the hitch, and leave the gate down when you disconnect...pull forward...and then close the gate. A few pickups have remote-release gates, but very few. Finally, a gooseneck trailer weighs more empty than a comparable bumper pull, meaning you are burning quite a bit more fuel (a lot more than just having tall ramps) even while empty.

The type of trailer you showed you are interested in seems to have basically zero need or advantage to being a GN. It won't have any more GVWR than a bumper pull, but you'll have a heavier trailer so less actual payload. Plus, this is not a deckover design, meaning you can't load from the sides with a forklift. And 18-20 feet is the bare minimum to get a vehicle on the deck, but you can't overhang the front because of the GN structure being in the way. Basically no room to properly chain it down.

For your current setup, I'd buy a high quality landscape-style tandem axle trailer, with dual 5000lb axles with brakes. Your GVWR would be 10k and your payload would be 7500lbs. This type of trailer can easily handle be on the road all the time, and with 7500+lbs payload capacity gives you 3000+ lbs of payload beyond your tractor, loader, and mower. I'd get a 20'. Rotary cutters take up a lot of space.

As for brand, I've had excellent luck with Cam Superline, PJ, and Big Tex.
 

Zaicran

Member

Equipment
B2650, 72" MMM, LA534+QA, RCR1260
Oct 8, 2019
72
0
6
Morganza, MD
I'll give my opinion - I haul my tractors very frequently (several times a week). I'm running a Big Tex 14GN gooseneck trailer, 25 feet + 5 feet dovetail. I've already got a lot of miles on it and it has held up very well. Is it the nicest, best built trailer in the industry? No, but it is built well enough. It uses pierced-beam design, whereas some other trailer makers (Gatormade, Kaufman, others...) use channel cross members welded on top of the I-beams. It comes standard with LED lights and a spare tire; mine has the "mega ramps" which are full width, spring-assisted, fold flat or stand up, with self-clean dove. But I'm hauling much larger and heavier tractors than you.

There are a couple of youtube channels made by "hot shot" truckers...guys pulling goosenecks with 1-ton trucks for a living...that are running Big Tex 14GN trailers. Traveling all over the country, roughly 60,000 miles a year...and these trailers are holding up fine. Everyone has a bad experience with a brand, be it car, truck, trailer, or electronics device...but that isn't indicative of the brand as a whole, necessarily.

Kaufman trailers can be fine. They are at the cheaper end of the spectrum so people look at them. However, they are cheap because they don't include a lot of the things other manufacturers include standard. Notice the one front jack leg instead of two. No torque tube, the lights, the ramps, the thinner beams, etc. Yes, you can option for all these things and have as good a trailer as the others, but it no longer is cheaper. Some people make do with the base trailer or just a couple of options.

Don't worry about fuel economy. It's not going to be good no matter if your ramps are up or down.

Your tractor, without any rear attachments, you fit on a single-axle bumper pull trailer. Proposing a gooseneck for a B2650 is way overkill. A gooseneck does have some handling and maneuverability advantages compared to a bumper pull, plus as someone said fewer people will be able to borrow it. Is your truck already equipped with a gooseneck hitch? If not, it will cost you a chunk of money to have someone cut holes in your bed, install the under-bed hitch, and set up the wiring into the harness / plug. Keep in mind a gooseneck trailer is much more of a pain in the neck to hook up to - if you don't have a bed camera you'll probably need to make a few attempts to get things lined up right. You'll have to get in the bed to attach the chains and lock the coupler and connect the breakaway. You also need to stop and open the tailgate before backing under the hitch, and leave the gate down when you disconnect...pull forward...and then close the gate. A few pickups have remote-release gates, but very few. Finally, a gooseneck trailer weighs more empty than a comparable bumper pull, meaning you are burning quite a bit more fuel (a lot more than just having tall ramps) even while empty.

The type of trailer you showed you are interested in seems to have basically zero need or advantage to being a GN. It won't have any more GVWR than a bumper pull, but you'll have a heavier trailer so less actual payload. Plus, this is not a deckover design, meaning you can't load from the sides with a forklift. And 18-20 feet is the bare minimum to get a vehicle on the deck, but you can't overhang the front because of the GN structure being in the way. Basically no room to properly chain it down.

For your current setup, I'd buy a high quality landscape-style tandem axle trailer, with dual 5000lb axles with brakes. Your GVWR would be 10k and your payload would be 7500lbs. This type of trailer can easily handle be on the road all the time, and with 7500+lbs payload capacity gives you 3000+ lbs of payload beyond your tractor, loader, and mower. I'd get a 20'. Rotary cutters take up a lot of space.

As for brand, I've had excellent luck with Cam Superline, PJ, and Big Tex.
Already have the gooseneck hitch and bed camera on my dually. I prefer gooseneck...truck loves that weight right over the axle.

Thank you for your suggestions :)
 

troverman

Well-known member

Equipment
MX6000 HSTC; 2020 Kubota Z421KW-54 zero turn mower
Jun 9, 2015
1,188
275
83
NH
Already have the gooseneck hitch and bed camera on my dually. I prefer gooseneck...truck loves that weight right over the axle.

Thank you for your suggestions :)
If that's your preference and you already have the setup, then go for it. I like pulling a gooseneck as well, but bumper pull does have it's place.
 

D2Cat

Well-known member
Lifetime Member

Equipment
L305DT, B7100HST, TG1860, TG1860D, L4240
Mar 27, 2014
13,829
5,579
113
40 miles south of Kansas City
I've got a couple of goose neck trailers. One is a 14' with elec/hyd dump bed with tread plate bed. The other a stock trailer.

I used the stock trailer to go down past Oklahoma City to pick up an L3250. It was a horse breeding ranch, and when I showed up and told him I was there to pick up the tractor he couldn't believe I drove that far thinking it would actually fit inside THAT trailer!

What's really nice about a GN trailer is it limits most all your buddies from borrowing it. They all admire the dump bed trailer, but know it won't fit their truck! But I don't loan trailers anyway, so I guess it doesn't really matter.:D:D

Zaicran, buy what suits your fancy. Life is too short to try to do it all perfectly!