Metal Deck Trailer and Steel Tracks

Except for the tippers and side loading floats, all of my loading and unloading has been over beavertails and by far the great majority of it has been steel-tracked machines. The ONLY times I have ever backed a machine up ramps have been to load or unload drawn rollers or similar drawn implements.

I have yet to have a machine slide or roll so I don't yet know what that feels like. Am I missing something worthwhile? Like everybody should try it at least once?

For mine, it is BS to make any hard and fast rules such as never driving a tracked machine up steel ramps face first or never loading them over a beavertail. You need to also consider which is the best way to have the machine on the trailer for load distribution.

With dozers and track loaders, you may need to have the blade or bucket up on the gooseneck to get your weight right. With dozers, where the blade is overwidth, it is best to have the blade up on the gooseneck, both so that it is higher than at least most cars and because it 'follows' within the track of the prime mover and trailer better that way.

For crawler tracks on steel decks and ramps there ought to be round steel bars of about 5/8 to 3/4 inch diameter welded at about 12 inch spacings on both ramps and decks. One good rule is to never weld one of these bars right at the peak of a beavertail. It is better to space them 3 to 6 inches either side of the peak for better grip and also to smooth out the transition over the peak.

I have seen rubber matting and/or old tyres bring some people undone when used on flat steel decks in wet conditions, although I do agree that they work just fine when everything is dry.

I have even loaded and unloaded a couple of track-mounted cranes with the totally smooth track crane track plates and never had a problem. Old tyres did the trick there.

Self-propelled sheepsfoot compactors are far more dangerous to load and unload than crawlers, dozers or loaders as they have all their tractive potential concentrated in the tiny areas of the few pads on each roll that are actually in contact with the deck at any one time.

The best defences against losing a machine while loading or unloading are and always have been experience, a steady hand and mind and good ole-fashioned common sense.

And make sure your steel deck is as close to level as you can get it in the circumstances.

Happy loading and unloading.

You all have a wonderful day. Best wishes. Deas Plant.

When I first started out working as an operator for some smaller excavation companies, locally, I recall how much I disliked loading a rubber tired backhoe on them. Small crawlers were usually much better to load.

Frosty deck, be it wood or steel, well that is usually extremely slick and nothing to fool with, if it could not be scraped off and the sun allowed to dry it up, sand, sawdust anything to get some grit on there will work, but you cannot over-do it and have it flying off going down the road. I know one of my former employees lost and totalled a 550 JD crawler, heard the story, might have been a lack of chains and frosty deck, on a turn in the road.

With a crawler, when breaking over the center and the front drops down, you can't sit there and wallow, you need to keep going, I'm thinking this is what happened above, like goin through the mud, if you stop or slow down you'll get stuck, it's kind of a weird feeling when on an incline and the nose finally drops down, but at that point, pivoting is really easy, and is why I always believed that you must stay in forward motion and get more weight on the deck. If the tracks are slipping going up, you need to take care of that though. Each to their own on these matters, but a crawler is usually no problem.

I lost a 655 Ford on the way up once, and ended up sideways on the ramp, had to work my way off, start over, but needless to say, it was an awful feeling as it happened. These backhoes are heavy on the back end, and boy does that front get light, it happened so fast, I never was to sure as what mistake I made, had loaded it many times before, but each time you are within the edges of the balancing act, it don't take much with some of these, this 655 and the old 580 case models, were always a bit intimidating to load on a tag trailer. The 416 cat was easier. I can recall leaving the hoe unlocked and working my way up over center, using the hoe to stabilize the back end, then folding it up when safely over center. Not for the lighthearted, and I never enjoyed the practice. I'd much rather make equipment moves with a dedicated lowboy tractor trailer set up.

Have to wonder if things have changed with trailers and the machinery since then. I used to get sent with a tag trailer, dozer or hoe on, behind a tandem or triaxle with a full load of gravel, or stone on, was nice to have air brakes on the tag trailer.

I'm not sure what the minimum requirement is called for but acknowlege what was posted, there is no substitute.

I used to try and pull from either when binding a machine down, front one direction back the other, really helped keep things tight, in the middle, I would go straight across. You need plenty of tie down loops or places to set your hooks, I'm sure all trailers have them every so many inches now, it was always a pain when one was too far away, although like I said above I would use offset ones to pull in either direction, especially with a rubber tired machine, the bouncing action always loosened things up, so it's good to be able to see your tie downs in the mirror and find a safe place to pull over and re-tighten. Some machines like the big scrapers you could set the bowl down and eliminate the bounce, but no matter what, the load has to be kept secured and kept from getting in motion, that's when things go wrong quickly. It's best left to the individual as to how they prefer to do it, but a very important part of safely transporting heavy equipment.

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