quality of used tires down?

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Getting a 5th wheel for the truck and not needing to bother cutting the frame down HAS crossed my mind.. but 35' is (fortunately/unfortunately) just waaaaaayyyyy too much trailer for my needs lol.

So cut it at 20’ and move the axles? Or make a redneck hauler and put a pickup camper against the bump up for the gooseneck and load your rig behind it.

 

[Uncle Gump]

Getting a 5th wheel for the truck and not needing to bother cutting the frame down HAS crossed my mind.. but 35' is (fortunately/unfortunately) just waaaaaayyyyy too much trailer for my needs lol.

Build a camper/sleeper on the front of it.

 

[JoshT]

I can't really speak to the used tire thing. Generally speaking I don't buy them. If I'm looking for rollingstock for something that will just be moved around the yard, I'll go used. If I'm trying to determine a fitment I like for new wheels and tires, I'll consider used long enough to make the decision then I'm replacing with new. If I'm getting tires for my 4-wheeler, I don't have a problem with "used" takeoffs. If I just need a spare that holds air, I'll buy used. If it's something I'm going to be driving on the road regularly, I buy new.

14’ is too short, I have a 14’ open deck equipment trailer. Theoretically you could fit a truck on there, but you won’t have a good angle to properly tie it down and don’t turn very sharp with the vehicle you’re towing with or you’ll find the bumper of the truck on the trailer. 16’ is, IMHO, minimum, 18’ is much more comfortable. If you’re going to haul anything longer than like a Bronco II that is, I had one of those on the 14’ trailer and that’s about the max comfortable vehicle length on that deck. I currently have an F-150 frame on there (94 regular cab, 8’ box) and the frame hangs a good few feet off the back with the rad support area at the front of the deck.

I'll second this opinion.

IIRC my flatbed is 16' built from an old camper frame. Was built for the purpose of pulling small cars and trucks, or anything smaller yet too big for the 5x9 utility trailer that dad had. At that time I was figuring to be hauling my 68 F-100 and considering getting something like a mid/late 60s Galaxie in the future. Camper frame allowed for a deck that was just large enough for those, but have not had cause to haul either with it yet. After putting a V8 Explorer on a couple years ago, I really wish that I'd gone longer. Yes, it is technically long enough, but a few extra feet in length would have been very much welcome.

Dad also built a similarly sized flatbed, 14-16' IIRC. I recon it is a true flat deck and tilts to remove the breakover angle of the ramps. While mine has drop torsion axles, his is straight leaf sprung axles and tires are level with or just beliw the deck height. . IIRC, the F-100 has been on it, and my '99 and '85 Rangers have definitely been on it. Too short for comfort, and tall enough to make it not fun loading. It would have been nice to be several foot longer. It wasn't built for automotive, but has done it on a few occasions. He primarily built for hauling his tractor and building materials. The tractor with bucket and bush hog is almost exactly the length of the trailer. If he wanted to take along any other acessories (blx blade, disc harrow, grapple, etc) he'd had to make two trips. Something in the 20-24' range probably would have been better IMO and allowed for better positioning for load balancing.

I guess I've got two flat beds. The one dad built is mom's now, but she'll never pull it. I should probably keep it since it is definitely heavy duty enough for the tractor and other heavy stuff. If I ever get to where I'm towing vehicles a bunch, I should probably look at parting with the first one and see about getting a longer car trailer for that kind of work.

 

[Blmpkn]

So cut it at 20’ and move the axles? Or make a redneck hauler and put a pickup camper against the bump up for the gooseneck and load your rig behind it.

Build a camper/sleeper on the front of it.

Hmmmm...

Stop putting ideas into my head lol. It is a damn good idea..

 

[Rick W]

Around here, Hotlanta, trailers are like cash. No matter how crumpled up and worn looking, they hold their value. Virtually any car trailer, big or small, flat deck or just channels for the tires, will bring about $12-1300 if it’s roadworthy. Then it goes up from there. The more heavy duty deck trailers, with a dovetail, with ramps, they run about $1,700-2000. Point being if you’ve got one that you want to swap out, and you invest in about $20 of rustoleum, then you can just about trade even for a bigger one that maybe needs a coat of paint or a deck board or tire or light.

I’m curious what people think about a certain design. I like my car trailers to be as low as possible for loading and also for stability going down the road. Ones I’ve made, and a couple I’ve bought, have the tires extend up over the deck two or 3 inches. When I load them, I just position the vehicle tires in front or in back.

If the vehicle track is such that it would roll over the top of the tires, I have made temporary covers, if that’s what you call them, out of a 1x6, a deck board or plate, sitting on a couple blocks before and after the tires, tapered at the front in the back, so that the vehicle can roll over them without trying to spin the trailer tires. I make them with a couple bolts in the front and in the back, but I just put them in finger tight so that contraption won’t slip during loading. I never drive with them on. When I’ve made them, they’re literally sitting on top of the tires, maybe a quarter inch up, the tires take the weight, but nothing will roll over it that might make it want to spin.

Thoughts pro or con? I’m asking because I’m going to build my Aluminum car trailer probably this winter.

 

[bobbywalter]

everything has a shorter shelf life by design on an accelerated scale since the late 90's.....

seems we are at the peak.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Hmmmm...

Stop putting ideas into my head lol. It is a damn good idea..

@mattman4494 , that’s his toy hauler from the 2022 trail ride

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Around here, Hotlanta, trailers are like cash. No matter how crumpled up and worn looking, they hold their value. Virtually any car trailer, big or small, flat deck or just channels for the tires, will bring about $12-1300 if it’s roadworthy. Then it goes up from there. The more heavy duty deck trailers, with a dovetail, with ramps, they run about $1,700-2000. Point being if you’ve got one that you want to swap out, and you invest in about $20 of rustoleum, then you can just about trade even for a bigger one that maybe needs a coat of paint or a deck board or tire or light.

I’m curious what people think about a certain design. I like my car trailers to be as low as possible for loading and also for stability going down the road. Ones I’ve made, and a couple I’ve bought, have the tires extend up over the deck two or 3 inches. When I load them, I just position the vehicle tires in front or in back.

If the vehicle track is such that it would roll over the top of the tires, I have made temporary covers, if that’s what you call them, out of a 1x6, a deck board or plate, sitting on a couple blocks before and after the tires, tapered at the front in the back, so that the vehicle can roll over them without trying to spin the trailer tires. I make them with a couple bolts in the front and in the back, but I just put them in finger tight so that contraption won’t slip during loading. I never drive with them on. When I’ve made them, they’re literally sitting on top of the tires, maybe a quarter inch up, the tires take the weight, but nothing will roll over it that might make it want to spin.

Thoughts pro or con? I’m asking because I’m going to build my Aluminum car trailer probably this winter.

Here at work we make fenders for a trailer place out of 1/8" diamond tread...

 

[bobbywalter]

I've had my CCLB F350 on my 18' deck trailer, it's about as short as I would want for that... I don't remember if I had to take off the ramps or not, that was a long time ago...

Yeah, I just built a 36'x48' shop and I have no room for a tire machine, heck I only have one usable bay right now, need to get my lift installed then I'd have more room... I just use spoons and a bead breaker to mount tires, last time I had the tire shop balance them, I should get a bubble balancer... that would save money after the first use... I have mounting and dismounting tires with spoons down pretty good, maybe 15 minutes a tire to dismount and mount...

I've ran my share of used tires, I've gotten pickier over the years as I've had issues here and there... if I had to pay for mount/dismount it would not make sense... I keep getting used tires for my Explorer because I keep saying I'm going to rip those axles out but here it's been like 9 years... the first 3 years or so I ran used tires on my '97 Ranger because I was playing with tire size to get where I wanted to be but when the last set wore out I put new on... mounted myself just had the shop balance them...

Now I just need to find somewhere to get rid of tires that isn't ridiculous, I've got a bit of a pile at this point...

3 bux at discount where i live.



looking at this. definitely makes running used tires easier.

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i run alot of military tires so handling those heavier units in which small is 37 and the size i need for off road starts at 39s, these units are marginal for that and for the 43s may not be usable...

small tires on the hotrod are easy to do with spoons...just no way to balance. a decent used balancer under 500 bux will pay for itself in one season.

i didnt buy any burnout tires from taas because of the poor quality of what was there..just gonna shred the quarters.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

i didnt buy any burnout tires from taas because of the poor quality of what was there..just gonna shred the quarters.

Isn't burning them until they blow out and throw sparks everywhere how you get the extra style points though?

 

[Rick W]

Here at work we make fenders for a trailer place out of 1/8" diamond tread...

Just to clarify, I had some diamond plate fenders to keep mud off whatever I was trailering. But the contraption I’m talking about was low profile to literally sit on top of the tires so whatever I was hauling could roll over those tires as I loaded it or unloaded it.