40' Cattle Trailer

[mateo270]

I've been thinking about building one of these step deck cattle trailers with tandem duals from a gooseneck flatbed equipment trailer. Going to add 6 or 8 feet to the back with some c channel or box for the lower section, add a ramp to the upper section, and then build the "cage", gates, etc. I was thinking of starting with a 28' or 32' trailer, for a finished length of 36 or 40 ft. New they cost anywhere from 14-20k and thought I could make one from the flatbed for well less than half of that. For some reason I keep thinkingI might have some top heavy/stability issues when loaded, although I have seen 20k lb dozers hauled on these same trailers, no problem. Also think it might get pretty heavy. Anyone have any thoughts on this project or ever seen it done?

[JC'sWelding]

Wow! That's a big project.

[farmersamm]

Man, that's huge.

It's trailers like that which are causing the states to really clamp down on gooseneck trailers. New restrictive regs, CDL requirements, etc.

Personally, I think it's gone too far. Just how much can you safely pull?

The gooseneck was a great idea, (only in America!!), but it's being carried to extremes. It was a good thing for little guys like me that can't afford big iron to pull a good sized load, but the way they're goin' with it.......us little guys are gonna be regulated out of business.

[farmersamm]

I drove for a living, and I personally never felt fully safe pulling my little 20' gooseneck with a 10,000lb tractor on it. My reflex distance was way too long. Stopping is a killer, and the sway, if you have to suddenly twitch the wheel, is pretty darn scary.

[farmersamm]

Sorry to keep posting, but the only time I've seen these around here, they're being pulled by a single screw road tractor with some sort of adapter plate on the fifth wheel, or maybe at the rear of the frame if I remember

[mateo270]

It's no doubt that these are big trailers, and for unexperienced drivers they can be too much. But I know of at least a dozen ranches with trailers this size, and have pulled about half of them with my truck. As for the regulations and requirements you see coming, when manufacturers like neckover and gooseneck are making and selling these (for a pretty penny), and I see them on the road more and more, I'm not all too concerned with making one similar for myself and saving some money instead of going to the trailer shop and buying one they made. That is, as long as I can make it safe, at least as safe as the ones they are ptting on the road.

Any thoughts about the project?

[farmersamm]

I got sidetracked with my rant

I think it's doable. The main support beams from the axle to the hitch could stay. Be extra weight to drag around, but maybe not too hard on the truck. The step up deck on the rear would be built like a traditional stock trailer, with the sides supporting the load. You'd have to carry that support to the main frame somehow. Or, I suppose you could build it like a beavertail and just lose a little inside width due to the frame. You'd lose a little headroom too.

I see the problems arising in the step up deck at the back. But it may not be as difficult as I imagine.

You're shifting from carrying the load on 2 center beams, to carrying the load on the outside walls once your past the rear of the tandems. I'm not sure how to make the transition without beavertail like construction

[farmersamm]

I suppose you'd be ok if you built with the lower sheet metal portion the same as a regular stock. That lower portion of solid sheet on a stock takes the place of a beam. You would have to continue that solid sheet all the way forward, or at least part way.

I'm not sure if it would have to be transferred to the hitch by widening the hitch, or if you could leave the narrower flatbed hitch. Your cage might be sufficient to keep the sheet from wanting to tilt sideways.

Here again, you're asking the outside of the flatbed to carry what would be normally carried by the center beams.

I go round and round on these things

I'm probably making it harder than it is

[farmersamm]

Ok, I'm stickin' with the beavertail

Framing the floor cross supports on the bottom of the beavertail channel would give you more headroom, and lower the step up. Make up the difference with a short fold out ramp

[farmersamm]

Not bottom of channel, I mean flush with top, not layed on top like a regular flatbed trailer.

Geeshhh

[mark8310]

My feeling,,,,, most livestock trailers are built as a box,, the box itself provides the strength you need to carry the weight,,,, floor, sides, and roof. Fairly light material, but designed and engineered properly, will carry the weight. If you start with an equipment trailer,,,, your tare weight would be so high, it will limit the net weight of product you can carry.

Crawl around,,, look at the framework underneath a equipment trailer, then look at what's underneath a livestock trailer.

[mateo270]

I agree, and I was thinking weight might be an issue. I have looked at the frames, and they are totally different. Would there be a way to cut some weight since the frame is already ridgid, to arrive at a similar finished weight?

I also liked the idea of the ridgid frame because I have seen a few of these big stock trailers built the conventional "box style" and they are very beat up, bent and warped. But these trailers have been well used.

I also considered a shorter length overall because of the increased width. I think the widest cattle trailers are 6'8", and I could probably go as wide as 7'6".

[daddy]

How wide are cows?

[mark8310]

Actually, almost every commercial livestock trailer made in the last ten years, is 102" wide ,,,,

[farmersamm]

The central load carrying beams on the trailer, if they're channel, might be around 10lbs per foot if they're 10' channel. If the main frame is 12' inch channel it weighs around 11lbs per foot on light weight channel. Depends on the dimensions of the channel

[farmersamm]

Originally Posted by mark8310

Actually, almost every commercial livestock trailer made in the last ten years, is 102" wide ,,,,

Had no idea they hhhhhhad gotten that wide

[Greyhorse]

Lots of trailers are now 96" wide, my big horse trailer is 102" wide..... I don't pull it with a 1 ton either. I think that's why a lot of the regs that are now being enforced are coming from (like Sam mentioned earlier) people are pulling trailers that are way too big for their trucks, sure they pull them fine but when you try to stop..... then you can have problems.

[wesdavidson]

I don't see any problems, Use enough truck and use electric brakes and make sure they are hooked up and working. They should be able to stop the whole rig with just the electrics alone. put a switch on one rear wheel, or the rear axle, so that when it is slick you can turn off the brake so it doesn't try and come around and pass you on a snowy road..

I would just run the beams all the way back. Used to be we hauled a lot of cattle in long bed tag axle trucks (remember the GMs with big pulleys and v-belts beween the tandems..) that had dumping grain beds on them. They had stake sides that were solid 4 feet up, then had a stock rack 3 ft high that folded up on the sides for cattle and down for grain. The sides lifted out of the stake pockets for hay and machinery. The front was welded solid. -The fun part was when a real wild steer would run the length of the bed, jump and scramble over the front of the rack and leave tracks and a green streak on the roof, windshield and truck hood.... had one old cow did that 3 years in a row. -then we loaded her last and she was too packed in to get a run.

You will want a couple of gates across the inside, if you get a pair of bulls fighting you can get flipped on your lid real quick if they can move around too far and fast. -or if you have a half load and they all move to the back, you can get hoisted straight in the air. ( in the 70's had a cousin flip an old 3/4 ranch truck and borrowed bumper pull trailer outside Kemmerer that had 3 different plates from 3 states and different owners, and missmatched VINs, the cop looked at it, looked at the bulls fighting, got back in his car and drove away.) Make sure the floor is solid. Few things more pitifull than an animal all tore up by going thru a weak floor.

Come to think of it, if you did it with the stake pockets and removable sides, the trailer could be used year round, for everything. you could put bows across the top like the old militarys.

Just some ideas.

[flatbustedbroke]

One thing you will need to research will be axle placement. You should check the federal bridge formula to make sure that the spacing between the tow vehicles axles and the trailers axles will allow you to haul enough on the trailer to make this work out. You could just by pass this and copy the others trailers but you will be held to the bridge formula at scale houses or during a roadside inspection . You will be heavy enough to be considered a commercial vehicle and subject to those rules and regs. You don't say what type of truck you will pull this with either. At 40 feet long you will easily be able to put 20,000 lbs of fat cattle on a trailer of this size. That weight plus the tow vehicle easily puts you in the commercial vehicle classification. This isn't to scare you off just to let you know where I see hidden dangers. Myself I would think that a trailer from scratch with 3 10,000 lbs. axles running singles would be a better choice. This would allow you to drop the floor to a lower height thereby lowering your center of gravity.

[NMBEEF]

Yeah, it'll be some work but, what about the work it'll take to come up with the money to buy one of those overpriced summama-guns! I'm actually considering building me one also. I may opt to buy or build one closer to the ground and just case around the wheels. I'll even purchase a used one if it's what I want and priced where I need it. What's happening on your project?

[mateo270]

Originally Posted by NMBEEF

Yeah, it'll be some work but, what about the work it'll take to come up with the money to buy one of those overpriced summama-guns! I'm actually considering building me one also. I may opt to buy or build one closer to the ground and just case around the wheels. I'll even purchase a used one if it's what I want and priced where I need it. What's happening on your project?

From the first time I thought about this project, I was thinking weight was going to be the biggest issue. So unless the right trailer comes along that would be a good candidate, I will probably hold off.

I too am considering building a more traditional box type trailer and casing around the wheels. Do lose much/any structual integrity by casing around the wheels? Does the offset distance matter (casing a single wheels vs. dual wheels)? I am most interested in getting the trailer as wide as possible.

[jroyster06]

When you run alot of cows you need it. I have two of those trailers. Infact my dad just picked one up that has a removable cage on it. Basically its a flat bed to haul implements tractors ect. Then when you have to haul cows put the cage back on it. The cage is done in two halves that way its a half top incase you really have to work em.

[mateo270]

Originally Posted by jroyster06

When you run alot of cows you need it. I have two of those trailers. Infact my dad just picked one up that has a removable cage on it. Basically its a flat bed to haul implements tractors ect. Then when you have to haul cows put the cage back on it. The cage is done in two halves that way its a half top incase you really have to work em.

What brand is your dads trailer? Or is it shop built? How hard would it be for you to snap a couple pictures of your dads trailer?

[DesertRider33]

I think it all depends on what type of truck you're intending on pulling it with. If you have an F550, 650 or bigger commercial truck, something with a 35,000+ lb gross combined weight rating, you can probly pull it fine. If all you have is a one-ton dually pickup or smaller, forget it. The max trailer weight pulled with a late model one-ton diesel dually pickup is in the 15,000 lb range, a little more for the F350 with 4.30 axle. A trailer that big might weigh 10,000 lbs empty and you know alot more than 5000 lbs of bovines will fit in something that big.

[cablecat]

Assinnine. I know of a 28' tandem dual flat/cattle/hay combo type trailer. loaded with cows, it simply kills a one ton truck, so they beefed up the one ton truck some more, lower gears, bigger tranny, better brakes, exhaust brake, and blah blah blah.
Its a bad idea. These trailers are gonna get somebody killed, as there is no reason whatsoever to pull on behind a one ton truck. A standard 7 or 7'6" X 24' is plenty on a one ton truck. You wanna haul a bunch of cows? Buy a real truck, and look around for a real trailer, either a pot or a straight, and modify it for ground loading. Or build a portable chute. Love farmers, always buying a one ton truck to do a 5 ton trucks job.
We have plenty of one ton trucks here, that haul cows in a reasonable trailer. Why anyone would want to destroy a one ton truck is beyond me. Theres also a bunch of KWs sitting here, with cowboxes on the back. No Brainer.