Trailer Surfing

How far have you surfed? I was moving a Dresser 125, around 10 tons, for a friend today. He was driving it on, and though I have blocked trailer tires many times to guard against surfing, and have advised others to do it a number of times, all I was thinking of was getting the crawler to the right place on the trailer. It was nearly level where we were loading, but it was smooth hard packed gravel. When he got the crawler up to where it tipped over, the weight went off the ramps, onto the back of the trailer and off the back of the truck. The whole outfit started to roll. I ran for the truck, and got on the seat at the same time as my friend got it backed off far enough so that the ramps were pressed hard on the ground again. We went about 25 feet. How far have you surfed?

Used to drive dump truck for a friend. We were working on a very steep lot on Mercer Island (near Seattle) got done and I backed the 10 yarder and tilt top down a steep concrete drive so we could load a Dresser 125 track loader.
I was in the cab as he started up the tilt top, just when he got to the balance point and put negative pressure on the hitch we took off bounce and bang down toward the lake, luckily he backed off quick and stopped us

I hate to tell this story but it might help somebody in the future to be a little more diligent on loading tractors. I was loading a fifty three foot semi van trailer with tractors several years ago to take to the
John Deere Expo and I didn't have a loading dock so I backed the first one on a goose-neck trailer with a hydraulic lift, then lifted the beavertail ramp and backed up to the semi. I had let the air out of the
suspension system as to lower the height of the van trailer but I was still about four inches from being level with the goose neck. The tractor that I was loading was a newly restored 830 Deere and I thought
that tractor would just walk up that four inches with no problem what so ever. Wrong!!!!!!! By the time the front wheels of the tractor got to the van trailer the weight of the tractor on the back end of the
goose neck lifted the back end of the pickup on the gooseneck up off the ground and the rear wheels of the tractor pushed the pickup and trailer forward enough to drop the front end of the tractor on the
ground. At this point I think that my heart just stopped but I shut everything down, locked the breaks on the tractor, got off, surveyed the situation and pulled the van trailer ahead. Next I let the hydraulic
ramp down and the pickup came back to earth. Damage done???? Absolutely none. The pickup and trailer went just far enough ahead so that the front end of the tractor just missed the van trailer on the
way down. Lesson learned??? It only takes a few scoops with the loader tractor to make a spot to lower the semi tires to lower the back end so the other trailer will lap over the van and then chain the two
together.

That's a good way to fubar a set of ramps.
Get onto the trailer and the weight back on
the truck.

I have an 18 ft car hauler that I haul tractors on. I put two trailer tongue jacks on the back of my trailer to keep the trailer
from lifting the back of the PU off the ground. Works good.

I put a couple of wooden blocks under the rear of the trailer to prevent this.

I've a toggle switch on my trailer that applies the electric brakes. My surf just a little until the brakes apply.

When loading my tractor or anything with some weight onto my trailer I put a block under the back
of the trailer so it can only settle 1-2". If the trailer is setting on it after I load I just
drive off the block but mostly I can guess it so this doesn't happen. When unloading I just block
up to touch or almost touch the trailer. Trailer stays level this way, and I try and avoid loading
and unloading on a grade. I have a 4"x6"x8" block and a 3"x4"x5" block and I can usually find some
combination that works by putting these together in different ways. I see that some fold down ramps
have supports on them that do this automatically. My ramps are not attached to the trailer. My
ramps store under the trailer when not in use.

EKKK. That is the first thing I think. Where I live the ground is dead level. I was loading my little 4x8 trailer with ramps so I could get up. On the front was my little toy JD 160 garden tractor with a ball hitch. It is my little Tug tractor. I was loading my big Husqvarna 21hp 46 inch cut machine. Lifted the JD right off the ground and it was hanging from the hitch with one wheel touching the ground!

Kind of a reverse situation here....I went to unload this 3010 this morning. It has a loader on it that I had blocked up, so I decided I would use the skidsteer with forks to pull it off. The bucket stuck out the back far enough to get my forks against it, then I ran a chain from the fork frame to the tractor and slowly pulled it off the trailer. All was ok until the rear wheels got to the ramps, then it pushed a little harder than I had anticipated and stood the skidsteer on it's tail! Fortunately it stopped, and even though it goes against your instincts I lifted up on the loader bucket and it brought the front end back down and I was able to get the tractor the rest of the way off the trailer. Never even thought of something like that happening, but I knew when I winched the tractor on the trailer last night that it was heavy!

I've never had that happen loading with my semi trailers. Though have been concerned if I loaded to much ahead of the landing gear with out the truck under the front end of the trailer. Was afraid the back of the trailer might just come up and dump things off the front end. I have taken and loaded to the landing gear then put on a couple others to hold the trailer still before putting one all the way forward.

Tom:

Since you already have Hydraulics to the Beaver Tail on the Goose Neck Trailer, why not put a manual Diverter Valve in the system and run a pair of Stab-Jacks under the back of the trailer; and if you use large enough Hyd. cylinders you could actually lift the back end of the trailer to make up that 4 inch difference with the Van Trailer.

Doc :>)