|
|
Jefferson Co. Florida | We are reaching the time to upgrade/update our grain handling equipment, the old gravity flows are reaching the end of there long careers. I was considering semi grain dump or hopper bottom pulled by a tractor with a dolly. We only haul from field to bins under 10 miles. Seems like it would be higher capacity and safer than gravity flows. What are thoughts, what do you do with the trailer brakes?
Stephen |
|
| |
|
SE Nebraska, Near Misery and Cans Ass! | European tractors have air for the brakes. USA still in the dark ages. They have been so far ahead of us on transmissions and fwa and fuel consumption for so long it stinks. |
|
| |
|
| The semi trailer is a good idea but forget about the tractor and put a truck infront of it. 10 mi is way to far to go 20 mph not to mention you could save a lot of hours and tire wear on your tractor. |
|
| |
|
Sac & Story county IA | A tractor big enough to pull a trailer of grain costs a lot to put each hour on. I think you would be better off with a semi tractor. Better for speed, safety, general economics. There are a zillion semis for sale in the world. Most of them, the engine will run for quite awhile. Look for a few months at what a given amount will buy you. Say $3000, 5000, 8000, 12000. "Here" insurance for low radius miles, no hired hauling, is a couple hundred a year.
Liscence is $675 |
|
| |
|
Agent Orange: Friendly fire that keeps on burning. | 
You don't need a semi trailer pushing the tractor through intersections, so fix the brakes on the towing unit. 3176 like in the 75 is also used in semi tractors. I found a compressor at a truck salvage yard and also the necessary stuff to make an air-brake system. My farthest hauls from bin to elevator is 4 miles. My farthest field to binsite is 3.5 miles. That field to elevator would be about 7 miles but I never haul direct from field to elevator anymore. |
|
| |
|
| I notice you don't have a dolly on the rear traier, the 5th (or would it be 6th) wheel is attached directly to the front trailer. I've only seen this set up on trailers that are from Canada? What are the pro's and con's of this set up? Why isn't it used more in the USA? |
|
| |
|
Agent Orange: Friendly fire that keeps on burning. | Yes the train came from Canada. Trailers are made in Anahiem, Saskatchewan. Canada has length restrictions that are more restrictive than ours. Canada's bridge laws are more lax. In some states, the bridge really works against the super-Bs so they aren't used much. |
|
| |
|
Alberta, Canada | I'll tell you one really big pro(compared to having a dolly in front of the second trailer). One less pivot point. Backing up a set of trailers with dolly's make me shudder. With the "B-Train" (tandem axle lead trailer) and the "Super-B" (tridem axle lead trailer) I've seen an experienced driver back a super-b through a figure 8.
They're really not that uncommon around here, though I don't actually know any regulatory reasons for/against them. The only time you see a dolly around Alberta is for secondary gravel trailers, either behind a lead or behind a truck w/ box, or with big grocery(store) chains, they often will use a day-cab with 2-3 refers with dolly's. Those things scare me. Then some people also use dolly's(aka 5th wheel converters) for pulling behind farm tractors.
One downside to them is that you can get more axles on the ground with a properly equipped trailer with dolly(essentially make a jeep out of the dolly). Then again, usually if weight is a problem, you wouldn't be hauling with a super-b type trailer in the first place.
I've attached a couple pictures of super-b's that I took this fall.
-Josh
 (IMG_0644 (Medium).JPG)
 (IMG_0850-Editted.JPG)
 (IMG_1766 (Large).JPG)
 (IMG_1772 (Large).JPG)
Attachments
----------------
 IMG_0644 (Medium).JPG (109KB - 638 downloads)
IMG_0850-Editted.JPG (60KB - 674 downloads)
IMG_1766 (Large).JPG (112KB - 652 downloads)
IMG_1772 (Large).JPG (77KB - 648 downloads)
|
|
| |
|
Southwest Missouri | It looks like you have 26 bales. I can put the same number on my 52 foot trailer. I am not over loaded, but then we just have grass hay. Maybe your bales are heavier.
Interesting how things are done in different parts of the world. |
|
| |
|
Near-north Ontario, French River | Im guessing the main reason for all the axles is , thats how many the trailer came with when it was purchased used LOL>.. Used flat beds, whether straight trailers or A or B trains seems to find a multiltude of uses around the farm. Here alot are used for hauling bales of straw, or have a tub mounted on them and used for hauling bulk tomato's. In their former life alot of the trailers are used as steel haulers, hence all the axles. |
|
| |
|
West Ky | How much grain (corn, beans, wheat) can a setup like that hold? Is the two trailers the maximum or can you have 3 or maybe 4?
|
|
| |
|
Near-north Ontario, French River | Super B's here, (dependent on the wheel base of the tractor/whether aluminum or steel trains etc) can be legal for as much as 45Metric tonnes or approximately 1775bu of dry corn. "Worst" load I have ever heard, and no it didnt originate in our yard LOL was 51 Metric and there was still room for more. |
|
| |
|
Thumb of Michigan | I've loaded lots of Canadian ( Ontario) trucks here over the years. Lots of things the same, many differences. Many that come in had 8' spreads, Michigan recognizes 9'. Really cuts the Ontario trucks load, another difference here is that our max on drivers is 32K, I think Canada allows 38-40? with the right spread. Doesn't answer your question, but I think Ontario anyway can end up with bigger gross weights than here if equipped right. Here, you can plate up to 165,000 on a total of 11 axles. Bridge formula is a mystery to me, if its something we're supposed to pay attention to, I guess I don't.
Fairly common to load 1600-1850 bu on a set of trains (legal) here, have a neighbor who claims he can almost get 2000 on. Very light setup compared to many trucks here, but he owns the truck- not real rammy getting it around so it seems to stay together.
Edited by pat-michigan 11/5/2007 18:42
|
|
| |
|
Rosemary AB, Canada | Legal load around here is about 42 metric tonnes. I have a set I use for hauling to the bin from the field, I don't go on any roads and I usually put on around 2200 bushels of hard wheat. |
|
| |
|
Statesville, NC | I saw a rig in "farm show" magazine several years ago. They used the rear end and frame from a wrecked semi tractor, removed the engine, cab, and front axle, and put a hitch on the front. They had brakes hooked up some way. They also used the transmission and drove it from the pto shaft to help pull out of wet fields. Looked pretty good to me if the haul was not too far. |
|
| |
|
West Ky | Say if a fellow only traveled a mile or two up the road (could be your own farm road that you own) how many of those things you could link up? |
|
| |
|
Alberta, Canada | Greg, those are not our bales, nor our trailers. The b-train behind the JD7820 is Slomp Dairies, just outside of Barrhead, Alberta. They're just over an hour away from me to the North West, and are the closest big squares in my area that I know(3x4x8's out of CNH balers).
The red Freightliner Argosy is the other big square producer in our area, about 1/2 hour to the South East of us. He's the one running the two 4910s behind CaseIH 4wds(now replaced by 7444s behind JD9330s). His are the 4x4x8 bales, and I think he does have more bales on there than you counted. I tried counting but kept getting different totals each time I tried! LOL
As for so many tires, I believe it's moderately true what Thud said, that's just how many wheels were on it when he purchased it --- it's a relatively common configuration.
Personally, we use the 53' tandem axle highboy, and a 53' tridem axle drop deck. I'm sure we've loaded some "over weight" loads on both.
In getting another trailer, it would definitely be a tridem, or more likely, a super b, with tridem lead and tandem pup. May not be overweight on the road, but in soft field conditions...
I've now attached some pictures of OUR bales on our trailers.
 (IMG_1248 (Large).JPG)
 (IMG_1257 (Large).JPG)
 (IMG_1258 (Large).JPG)
 (IMG_1270 (Large).JPG)
 (IMG_1275 (Large).JPG)
 (IMG_1282 (Large).JPG)
Attachments
----------------
IMG_1248 (Large).JPG (96KB - 645 downloads)
IMG_1257 (Large).JPG (76KB - 630 downloads)
IMG_1258 (Large).JPG (71KB - 628 downloads)
IMG_1270 (Large).JPG (92KB - 632 downloads)
IMG_1275 (Large).JPG (72KB - 608 downloads)
IMG_1282 (Large).JPG (59KB - 613 downloads)
|
|
| |
|
Agent Orange: Friendly fire that keeps on burning. | 1150 bushels of good heavy wheat will fit on the front 28' Trailer. Back one is a 31' and will hold about 1250. I cannot haul to the elevator with both of them full as the scale doesn't go high enough to weigh both trailers at once and split weighing a super-B isn't very accurate. I have never tried to pull both fully loaded and I'm not sure that the 16 ton tractor would be able to pull them without spinning in some conditions. I'd bet money that 3 trailers would be too much. |
|
| |
|
Alberta, Canada | I've often wondered the same thing.... I'm sure that theoretically it is an infinite number, you are limited only by...
a) the number of lead trailers
b) the power to pull it
c) the number of lead trailers available to you
d) the strength of the first few leading trailers (so as not to stress the 5th wheel, pin, frame, etc etc)
Eventually you'd like get to a point where the tractor's air supply isn't enough but... And when you look at all these road trains?
I see no reason why you couldn't make a habit of pulling around 3-4 trailers, as quite often I see 3 48' trailers being pulled down the interstate with dolly's in between. And if you've seen some of those road trains over in Australia....
Just my over-active imagination causing trouble again...
-Josh |
|
| |
|
West Texas | I come up with 32 bales.
The guys hauling our peanut hay can only haul 28 but I do not now how long their trailers are. I think 48' but not sure on that. |
|
| |
|
Kansas | I have seen that exact same scenario more times.
Guy owns a 325,000 dollar combine.
Then a 6500 dollar truck and a 2500 dollar trailer.
LOL!!!
|
|
| |
|
| Theres a chap around the Ilderton area who runs B train hoppers on a joe dog, pulled by 8420's. Really, its a cheap way of hauling grain. If you have the brakes, its still safer then 2 or three Brent wagons |
|
| |
|
| 164.000 lbs is the limit
a tractor 5 axle and three nine pup can scale 169,000
18000 front
32000 drives
65000 lead on the 5 close axles
18000 dolly
18000 mid of pup
18000 back axle
still only can haul 164 000 |
|
| |
|
Thumb of Michigan | Oh geez, I was off by a grand. I knew it was pretty close. Sorry LOL |
|
| |
|
| no biggy if you are not stopped ?? |
|
| |
|
| 42 in Alberta
net or gross |
|
| |
|
Thumb of Michigan | I got escorted to the county road garage scales a few weeks ago, as a matter of fact. No problems, though. |
|
| |
Pulling Semi grain trailer with tractor
