Ok now that you all have finished laughing. I have my 743 but have never had to load it on a trailer. I found a tandem trailer that I think will work. Although if you all can let me know if you have one that would be great. The trailer is steel plated floor and the bed of the trailer measures 7 1/2 feet wide and 10 feet long. I think the bobcat 743 will just fit in the space. My second question is when loading driving up ramps naturally I will connect the trailer to the hitch so the trailer front does not come up when I drive the loader on the back up the ramps. The question is should I back the machine up the ramps with the the rear of the loader (engine side) up first or should I drive up bucket first? I think I should back the machine up engine side first to not risk rolling it backwards but I'm not sure if it matter.
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OldMachinist
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You'll need to back up on to the trailer. If you try to drive on forward the engine weight will pick up the front of the loader and stop you from going up the ramps. The other thing is you should have rear trailer jacks or ramps that prevent you from lifting the rear of the towing vehicle.
skidsteer.ca
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Yes backwards, you always keep the heavy end "uphill" So if the bucket is empty then the heavy end is the back, and if you had a full bucket you would drive uphill forward be cause the heavy end would then be the front.
You need to keep the load balanced.
Ken
thanks guys. do you think a 10 foot bed will be long enough to hold a 743?
sterlclan
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should be measure the 7 bucket to rear and compare...
Also check out what the axles can carry Although most tandems will carry the smaller skids without a problem..Hope it worlks out. Scott
Whoops, should have previewed before I posted Scott
The important thing is that the trailer is long enough to allow you to get some weight (but not too much) in front of the axles so you can get enough tongue weight for a stable load. A buddy of mine has an 1845 with a short trailer, and he has to leave the bucket right at the back edge of the trailer to make it tow properly. It's also a good idea to have some blocks to put under the back of the trailer to keep from lifting the truck off the ground when you are going up the ramps. Some ramps have built-in stands to prevent this.
I, in my ignorance, once tried to go forward onto a trailer, and it was on a slight incline, too. Pulled The Big Wheelie; maybe the only thing keeping me from rolling was a stump. Dunno. But I do know that I was way closer to vertical than I wanted to be!
OldMachinist
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Everybody has to try it at least once I know I did.
This week a friend learned the wrong way to load up a machine on a trailer , he put his Hyundai 200 which has the rubber tired under carriage instead of tracks on his low boy and left the boom up in the air for what ever reason and got off the machine , I wasn't there but heard it went in slow motion , leaned over and layed on it' s side , took 1,800 dollars for three eighteen wheeler style tow trucks to right it up , bent the cab so bad with the boom up that they couldn't get the boom down as it hit the cab , so they hooked two tow trucks to it and pulled the cab back , a new cab is 8,500 plus and the glass , tracks and hardware , I was told it comes primed and not painted with no decals and is over seas a month at least away , with frieght and everything I am guessing 12,000 parts and a lot of labor to change it , avoidable
coreya3212
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OUCH! Thats a rough lesson.
Orgnoi1
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Glad this post was here for me to read...
skidsteer.ca
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It should be in your manual also. But all skidsteer operators need to become familiar with the idea of balancing the machine. Front to back and sideways to. They have such a short wheelbase and are often vary narrow for how high they will lift and how much weight they will lift. If you intend to drive them on any kind of slope, including a trailer ramp, you need to pay close attention to the laws of physics involed.
Watching loaders on youtube doing crazy things, does not invole anything crazy at all, it just involves understanding the way the machine is balanced, and working within the laws. If you don't understand how they pull some of the stunts off, you need to study more.
Ken
I surprised nobody mentioned trailer rating! Make sure your trailer is rated to safely hold the weight of the machine. Nothing worse then seeing someone with a lawn trailer trying to haul there machine around. Get a heavy duty trailer and MAKE SURE YOUR BRAKES WORK!!!!!!!!!! I was told that the machine should be attached to the trailer in 4 separate locations (4 corners), to comply with DOT. Usually the 'Bobcat" style trailers are weighted pretty well, since the machine usually only has a few inches of clearance on it to move it around. I found that most of these trailers have surge brakes. I hate surge brakes!! If this is your trailer, make sure they work! Nothing scarier than trying to stop and not being able to. Been there, done that.
I haven't hauled skid steers a whole lot on trailers, but when hauling a 743 I just drove it on, in hind sight, maybe that wasn't a great idea. When I recently purchased my 825 I was told to back it on, which makes sense I guess. Since reading this post, I have been noticing that the LARGE majority of skid steers I see on trailers around town are all drive on forward. I guess most people hauling them arn't as cautious as they should be. -Mr_C
skidsteer.ca
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I haul forwards sometime depending on what attachment goes with it. It depends on what I need to do to get the right weight on the tongue and on the trailer. If you happen to have really heavy attachment on the front, my backhoe when I had a 753 and the 84" power rake I have now, then you are better to drive on facing forward. Its all about keeping things balanced. You always keep the heavy end up hill. Which end is the heavy one does change from end to end sometimes though.
But if you have no attachment on the front the 700 series bobcat won't even think about climbing the ramps. You could let all the air out of the front tires and they won't go flat. There just is not any weight on the front axel.
My LS 160 will drive on forward with no attachment if your careful. But the 773 with steel tracks and 600 lbs of foam in the tires won't. And I have a fairly low trailer too.
Ken
That's the case with my 773 also. I have a gooseneck trailer and with the steel tracks we have to be careful to load the Bobcat only when the trailer is level both ways. Believe me, with the steel tracks, and an unlevel dovetail trailer, the Bobcat will slide off. This happened to my son the first time he loaded it on our trailer, and it wasn't a pleasant experience. He was loading the Bobcat at a jobsite and the road the trailer was parked on made the trailer have a slight tilt to the side and to the rear. So when he was driving it up on the trailer and when it was on the dovetail, it started sliding. It went off the rear corner and just laid over. He was ok and it didn't damage the Bobcat, but after about three months now, he's just feeling comfortable about loading it on the trailer again. But now, he definitely checks to make sure the trailer is level before loading. So be "careful" if you have steel tracks when loading the Bobcat onto a gooseneck trailer with a dovetail.
