Construction equipment has become so expensive that contractors no longer can afford to have a machine standing idle at one job site when it's needed at another.

For that reason, said Brent Hohman, TrailEze western U.S. marketing manager in Mitchell, S.D., equipment must be used efficiently. "To make equipment efficient," he said, "make it mobile. A $250,000 machine is made more efficient by the use of a $40,000 trailer that helps in the total life cycle cost of the machine. That trailer is essential."

And, therein, lies the rub. Matching trailers and equipment is no job for amateurs.

Despite the fact that all trailer manufacturers break load capacity down into "pretty standard categories," said Roger Magers, western sales manager for Towmaster Trailers in Scottsdale, Ariz., there are numerous variables involved in getting the right trailer for the right job.

Magers identified the standard capacity categories this way: "On small utility equipment, you're generally looking at a load capacity of 23,000 pounds. For this job there are drop-deck trailers. That is, trailers with decks between the fenders. They are designed to haul such equipment as skid steers and mini excavators. The drop deck is between the wheels and has a width ranging from 78 inches to 84 inches."

Second, he said, are 20,000-pound capacity trailers that can accommodate typical tractor-loader-backhoe configurations. Most of these machines, he said, weigh about 16,000 pounds to 18,000 pounds, so a 20,000-pound capacity trailer will take the broad cross section of that market category.

Third, according to Magers, is the 40,000-pound to 50,000-pound category designed primarily for bigger crawlers, small and mid-size excavators, and what he calls "a dying species," the large rubber-tired backhoes.

Both the 20,000-pound and 40,000-pound-to-50,000-pound categories require deck-over trailers that usually have an 8-foot to 9-1/2-foot bed width over the top of the tires.

Despite these categories, according to Hohman at TrailEze, selecting a trailer is not simple due to the many variables involved. They range from state and federal regulations to trailer load angles to load transfer to the towing vehicle.

Legalities play into the equation when you consider that, traveling east of the Mississippi River, height restriction, without a permit, is 13 feet 6 inches. But if you travel west, your height restriction is 14 feet. In addition, state regulations vary when it comes to load limits, number of axles and internal bridge dimensions, among others.

"For instance, California is particularly tough," said Towmaster's Magers, "because the entire truck and trailer, from bumper to bumper, can be only 65 feet long."

Hohman said a trailer's load angle and what the piece of equipment is capable of climbing up on must be considered. Some scissor lifts, for example, may have an 8-foot wheelbase, but a very low ground clearance. Using calculations you can figure out what sort of load angle that type of machine can actually climb. "If the machine can't climb a beaver tail ramp or hydraulic ramp and if it high centers before it climbs up onto the main bed, you could be in for trouble," said Hohman. "In those situations sometimes you have to look at hydraulic sliding axle trailers that allow you to achieve a lower load angle."

George Hinkley, marketing manager for Best Trailer Corporation, Kewaskum, Wis., gave another illustration of the trouble you can run into. "Contractors have used ramp style trailers for a long time. Such trailers require you to go up 5 feet of ramp, 5 feet of beaver tail and at the top of the beaver tail you have to break onto the deck. Your machine is going to go up, climb past that and, boom!, it's going to come down on the deck. That balancing point is the danger point when you're loading track equipment onto a beaver tail ramp style trailer."

If you have an inexperienced operator, or weather conditions that are slippery or windy, Hinkley noted, "It's at that balancing point that an operator can lose control of the machine. You then have three levels of damage — one, you slide off and damage the trailer. Two, you slide off the trailer and damage the machine. Not only have you damaged a very expensive piece of equipment, now it's not doing any work. Three, worst of all, you slide off the trailer and injure the operator. Then you've got an OSHA problem."

TrailEze's Hohman put it this way: "If you're trying to load a piece of equipment onto a trailer that is not designed to handle it, it can be dangerous. For example, with older trailers with beaver tail ramps, you have a 16-degree to 18-degree load angle. If you're trying to climb up there with a machine that has only a 10-degree to 12-degree load angle, it's not safe. People back off, and get a run to force the machine up on the ramp. Doing this creates great potential for damage to the equipment, the trailer and injury to the operator."

And Magers commented, "Crawlers will go up a steep incline. Excavators will do similar things, but they don't go up as steep an angle as a crawler because of the high centering affect. Pavers are especially difficult to load. Invariably, a paver requires about an 8-degree to 9-degree approach angle and, therefore, the only thing that will work for that type machine is a tilt trailer where you can get an approach angle down to 8 degrees or 9 degrees."

If a contractor decides to avoid ramp trailers altogether and goes with a tilt bed trailer — which costs 20-percent to 30-percent more, said Hinkley at Best Trailer — there are other factors that must be considered. To illustrate the complexities involved, Hinkley spoke of hauling a 35,000-pound excavator from one job site to another.

Excavators are problematic, he said, because of the long boom and the fact that all the weight is at one end. "You lose the ability to move it back and forth on the deck to get the proper load transfer," he said.

"If you want to put it on a trailer and transport it with the boom down you'll find that the excavator is approximately 30 feet long from back to counterweight to the end of the boom where it is knuckled under. To stay legal, you can't have more than 4 feet hanging off the trailer. So one very important consideration for contractors is trailer length."

With a tilt bed trailer, he said, "True, you don't have the beaver tail to worry about. The machine can climb straight up and you can back it up to the front of the trailer, boom hanging 4 feet out the rear, but at this point you have to pay attention to the weight of the machine and how it sits on the trailer. That's assuming you have, at a minimum, a 20-ton load capacity trailer. Still, for a 35,000-pound machine, that doesn't guarantee that the trailer can carry the excavator legally."

The reason, he pointed out, are weight concerns. One is a federal regulation that says you need an overweight permit if you are over 34,000 pounds on the suspension; two, if you get that permit, you can't exceed the gross axle rating.

"So you go to the opposite end of the trailer, the hitch," said Hinkley. "What is your pintle eye rating? There are two — a load transfer rating and a gross vehicle rating. Most likely, manufacturers have put on a pintle eye with a gross vehicle rating that exceeds the trailer, so that shouldn't be a problem. But pintle eyes have different load transfer ratings, depending on the manufacturer and the style of trailer."

A 20-ton trailer — the most commonly used — only allows 15,000 pounds of load transfer onto the back of the truck. "If you take what is pretty much the industry standard on a 20-ton flat bed — 24 feet of deck — and you put a 30-foot-long machine on it, to keep from having more than 4 feet off the rear, with a 35,000-pound machine, you've probably got around 20,000 pounds sitting on the pintle eye. The only thing you can do," he said, "is back up, but you can't do that because you'll have more than 4 feet hanging out the rear."

At Towmaster, Magers said too many times contractors buy a tilt bed trailer for their own convenience. "They don't want to mess around with raising and lowering the ramp," he said. "However, a lift trailer is probably one of the least desired trailers for most hauling applications. A tilt trailer is heavy, it's expensive and it doesn't have good tow ability. And tow ability — being able to have a trailer that's properly designed to transfer a particular load to a tow vehicle for safe pulling down the road — is one of the most critical issues in purchasing a trailer. Many times a contractor buys what he perceives as convenience rather than what's applicable for his hauling needs."

If you can't use a ramp bed or a tilt bed, then what do you do? Modify the trailer, Best Tralier's Hinkley said. "You can build the trailer with a longer deck, longer tongue and do other modifications to make it carry the machine legally," he commented.

That doesn't necessarily mean trailers have to be tailor made for each piece of equipment, he noted. "If that standard 20-ton ramp or 20-ton tilt bed trailer will handle a 35,000-pound bulldozer, it's fine. A bulldozer doesn't have a long boom, plus you can move it back and forth on the deck to get the proper load transfer."

On top of legalities, load angle and load transfer, matching trailers to equipment requires you to consider other factors as well, said Hohman at TrailEze. "As a generalization your track equipment also requires some special decking material so the track doesn't rip the deck all to pieces. A steel bed and a steel track won't work unless you have browser bars welded to the trailer so the browser bars on your equipment can get traction to climb up on the trailer."

Other things that make the trailer more user friendly, said Hohman, include type of tie downs, number of tie downs, locations of the tie downs, type of traction aids that are put on the trailer, decking material, and deck height.

"Where we run into problems in this industry is when a contractor needs a trailer right away and takes whatever he can get. He'll simply buy one that is in stock, or pick a used trailer, if it will get him by," said Hohman.

And at Best Trailer, Hinkley said the most common purchasing mistake a contractor makes is not telling the dealer what he intends to haul and how he plans to use the trailer. "If the dealer doesn't ask what he wants the trailer for, there's a good chance the contractor is going to buy a trailer that will not legally carry the machine," Hinkley said.

Although trailer technology has made tremendous strides — higher strength; light weight materials; better lighting and wiring systems; constant evolution in paint, decking and traction material — there remain two common sense tips contractors should heed in matching trailers to equipment, according to Hohman, Magers and Hinkley. Tell the dealer what you plan to haul with the trailer, and, two, always deal with a knowledgeable sales representative.

As Hohman phrased it, "Regardless of whose trailer you're looking at and regardless of what you need to haul, there isn't a manufacturer out there that isn't capable of providing you with the load angle, load capacity and deck heights that you need to run legally and safely."