I am in the process of finishing up my flatbed trailer and need some advice about jacks. I will be mounting one jack on each side at the rear but I am not sure what weight rating I should go with. The trailer will not see any weight more than 8k so will a pair of 2k jacks be enough? I just don't want to have a load on the trailer and not be able to retract the jack due to weight. Thanks for any help.

 

I am not sure I am understanding your question and admittedly I know very little about flat beds save for the ones I have rented.

Are you wanting to put a jack on each side at the rear so as you back something like a skid steer off the bed does not drop at the rear the lift the truck?

Steve

 

That is exactly what I am wanting to do. I need to be able to load safely and not damage the truck, trailer, or load.

 

I know my skid steer weighes in the range of 9k. I would think you would want to bump up the jack size just to be on the safe side. However, I've never worried about the back dropping too low or the front coming up too high when loading. But, I use a gooseneck trailer when towing.

 

A good while back I posted pictures of my 02 at the bottom of my driveway jack knifed when the trailer lifted the back wheels clear up while unloading a backhoe.

I am not sure exactly what kind of jack you intend to use, but there is so little difference in price according to my catalogs, I would go 4,000 or 5,000 pounds. It looks to me like that would be less than $20.00 difference for both jacks.

 

Thanks for the info. My trailer is a 20ft bumper pull that I use mainly for my mud truck. I haven't had the problem of lifting the rear of the tow vehicle but I have had a trailer coupler pop off the ball before because of the weight and leverage of the trailer length.

I would like to use a swivel jack so that I don't have to worry about clearance while I am driving. Here is what I was looking at

http://m.tractorsupply.com/en/store/...on-swivel-jack

 

That's what I thought you might use. It should work fine and I believe you will find them at Northern Parts also.

Steve

 

Keep in mind, those jacks don't like a side load like the one you will invariably put on them while driving up a ramp.

Might I suggest a hinged block? Do you have folding ramps that you could integrate a block into?

 

The ramps I have won't work with that type of application. What do you mean by side load?

 

The strength of the jack is straight vertical so if the load were to shift to one side or to be markedly uneven so the bed twisted to one side, they may not be able to handle it.

 

Even a solid jack gives so much leverage to the trailer that it can rip the material apart. I fixed a ton of trash trailers that had the jack ripped off by abusive roughnecks moving them with heavy equipment. The jack would come through fine, even the cheap HF ones, but the mount would get broken off or tear the metal out of the channel it was welded to.

 

Thanks for the info y'all. I am still trying to figure out which way I want to go with this. The higher weight rated jacks don't have the swivel function but I am leery of the lower rating of the swivel jacks.

 

Consider a 2.5" square drop leg jack with a sand foot on it.

The don't swivel but since the drop down and pin, then crank, the are quick and retract fully.

Generally they are 7k rated and if you weld them on up each side of the case that should spread the load on the frame of the trailer and albeit you'll never rip them off.

They are available in a top wind or side wind.

 

I ended up getting two of these jacks from TSC. I would have preferred a side mounted crank but they didn't have one with the mounting style I wanted. I had them welded onto each side at the rear and promptly tested them out the next day when I picked up my uncle's 2000 lb. Cub Cadet 7200. I understand it isnt a very heavy tractor and the real test will be somewhere down the road when I get my truck (F250 single cab) put back together and able to go play with it. I will try to get some pictures of the trailer soon. Thanks for all your help, it took me about an hour at TSC going back and forth trying to decide on which jack to get.

http://m.tractorsupply.com/en/store/...-mount-2000-lb

 

I always have some 4x4 wood blocks to stack up for that reason with the car hauler. But now I'm spoiled with the gooseneck.