Semi urgent- Air-ride Deck-over Trailer rental/hire New England

I bought a small Fadal(VMC 20, 7200#ish)

I was planning on trailering it myself(rental 10k lb equipment trailer) this weekend. (Weather permitting)

I have proper fork trucks both ends.

Between the seller recommendation and things I have read here, I am starting to second guess myself on the need for an Air-ride trailer. These don’t seem to be available to rent?? I have a class 4 receiver with pintle, no ability for a gooseneck)


Anyone know a Hotshot driver with a air ride trailer that can reliably make a trip from Pa/NJ border to Central Ct?

If I pull the console and the main cards(wearing anti static strap and placing cards in anti static bags) do I really have to worry? (Should I even bother??)
I moved a Anilam Cnc knee mill same trip, same way, no issues, maybe lucky(I pulled the console only, left the boards/ control cabinet alone)

I would imagine lots of Fadals have been drug around the USA on non- air ride trailers, of course I don’t know how many(if any) had related issues.
I’m an ex Electrical/controls guy, I can certainly chase down loose boards/ connections- assuming no physical damage

Am I over thinking this?

Thanks for any real world advice/experience you could offer


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Just my two cents.. you will NEVER be sorry that you over protected any machine. Install the pins in the counter weight, "fix" the table to the spindle head if possible at the very least 'block' it. Remove the whole pendant from the front, then stretch wrap it to the table. personally I would not remove the cards, but, your call. The cost of moving it properly FOR ME outweighs the idea of doing it
any other way. Lot's of fellas will disagree, but, this is my opinion. Call trucking a broker, see if you can add your machine to an existing load with air ride, and tarps for weather protection. If so, decommission the machine, and stretch wrap EVERYTHING.
Best of luck,
Chris

Thanks for the reply, the seller has the counter weight bars, I’ll even bolt them in. I will have the table full -Y and head blocked to table with wood/ t-nuts etc.

I’d love to just hire the move out, but it gets expensive fast, especially if I have a $300/day fork truck sitting around waiting for a truck that was supposed to be here two days ago.

Thanks again




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I'd rather a spring trailer with a driver that tries to avoid potholes and slows down in rough conditions than an air ride behind someone who just hammers down. I've drug older machines out of Long Island on the cross Bronx exp with a 20k spring trailer without issue. Coming in empty the trailer tires are often airborn many times, leaving is a different story. Slow and steady with a watchful eye on the road, maybe even both eyes.

Above is my thinking too(however flawed)

Nobody is going to care more about it getting there in one piece more than me, if I have to slow down to 35 and put the flashers on- oh freaking well, I’ve heard horns before


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There is an inherent amount of risk in everything productive we do. While we can try to calculate and minimize risk, if none at all were taken then nothing would ever get done. That's how I look at life anyway.

Spring suspension is most effective when it is loaded at 70+ percent of capacity. An air ride semi trailer with a light load would not ride "better" than a spring ride 14K trailer loaded at 10K. A large trucking company did a study of ride quality with air ride/spring ride trailers, when loaded to the 70% range spring ride trailers actually were smoother than air ride.

The comments about the driver are spot on, a careless driver with a feather bed is still a careless driver.

Steve

Steve in SoCal said:

Spring suspension is most effective when it is loaded at 70+ percent of capacity. An air ride semi trailer with a light load would not ride "better" than a spring ride 14K trailer loaded at 10K. A large trucking company did a study of ride quality with air ride/spring ride trailers, when loaded to the 70% range spring ride trailers actually were smoother than air ride.

The comments about the driver are spot on, a careless driver with a feather bed is still a careless driver.

Steve

Click to expand...

This is good to know, I will be right around 75-80% depending on which exact trailer they give me.


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I wonder....if the pallet is larger than the machines footprint, if you could/should take some scrap tires with you.

Setting on tires laid down on the trailer floor might approximate what you desire.

Keeping chain binders/ratchet straps tite will be another problem.

digger doug said:

I wonder....if the pallet is larger than the machines footprint, if you could/should take some scrap tires with you.

Setting on tires laid down on the trailer floor might approximate what you desire.

Keeping chain binders/ratchet straps tite will be another problem.

Click to expand...

Too tippy, IMO. Better to use the trailer suspension, not something ad-hoc.

I bought a horse stall mat . 3/4” rubber, might be too heavy duty to help much, don’t see how it could hurt, it will definitely keep anything from wanting to slide(wood on wood).
It’s listed as being for vibration reduction

I like the tire idea, maybe not for this application, but I’m storing it away


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ripperj said:

I bought a horse stall mat.

Click to expand...

Do not get confused and try setting machine on horse rather than mat. Don't ask how I know...

I like to set the machine on some dunnage if possible so it's easy to grab with forks.

Milland said:

Too tippy, IMO. Better to use the trailer suspension, not something ad-hoc.

Click to expand...

Tires have:
1. no rims
2. and consequently, no air in them


But yes, the suggestion was, if the thing was on large timbers
the full width of the trailer, and maybe just use 1/2 tires, like for holding covers on sileage pits.

Home and in, no real issues -took a day to make the round trip drive , was only 200ish miles one way, but I had to fill up 4 times ( last tank I filled up to get the last 6 miles according to the trucks computer) I was going to wing it , but needed to get out and walk around anyway.
For anyone else in the future:

2012 Ram 2500 Crew cab, 4x4 Hemi. Oversized 34” Toyos

Trailer- 18’ 12000gvr equipment trailer

Ended up getting 6mpg, towed just fine, lots of tranny shifts going up the biggish hills in Pa.

Toyota 8100# diesel fork truck with 8’ forks- this was supposed to be a 10 or 12k machine(what I ordered), but the rental place swore it would work( they dropped it off when I was out)
I gave him big numbers and worst case cg(7500# at 36”) everything I could find said 7500, and most said much less(6800)
Not to go into real details , but if I had not been driving these things for 25 years , it would have been a f’n disaster, so either the machine can’t handle 7500# at 36”, or the machine is 8k+. It worked fine on perfectly flat or up hill. A minuscule down grade(we are talking the down side of the road crown) had the rear(steer) wheels in the air.
The machine was actually really nice to use otherwise, the bigger machine would have been perfect.

Glad to have it in my shop, will be a while before I can see if it survived the ride ,I need to manually move it a bit in my shop.

Thanks for all the help

Oh the important bit , garage opening 83 3/4”, layer cable chain over 45 degrees and layed Z Servo flat. Just squeezed in.




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