Powered trailer dolly?

Does anyone have any experience using a powered trailer dolly to move/park a trailer? I'm trying to turn around & park a 24' enclosed trailer in a space too small to allow the truck to move it.

I don't know if it will work in your case; but a 2nd hitch on the front of your tow vehicle might be cheaper and will give you very good turning ability and visibility to get into tight places.




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Jason
ITB 17 (NER SCCA)
VW Scirocco

I looked in to getting a front mounted hitch (02 Burban), but the truck is so damn big that I don't have enough clearance to be able to manuver. What I hope to do is turn the trailer 180 degrees in not much more than its own length.

We had one down my father's shop for a while...quite a handy tool, but it does take up some space. The one we had we used to push cars around as well as move trailers.

Ours was battery powered, and had tons of torque...weighed a lot (I think it used a couple diesel truck batteries)

EDIT: Just looked them up online...ours was COMPLETELY different from those I found online.

We had a backup method as well, an old john deer lawn tractor (small) wihtout the mower deck. As long as the trailer has a wheel jack on the tonque, a tractor should be able to push it. (you can usually pick these old clunkers up for a $100 or so)

[This message has been edited by itbgti (edited June 04, 2004).]

I'm not sure if this will be usable with an enclosed trailer, but with a 2000 lb. open trailer, this works.

First, you must have a compensator system, not the individual axles on the trailer. If you have leaves and a compensator, read on.

Jack the tongue of the trailer as high as possible/neccessary. A very large gap will appear between the frame and the front of the compensator on each side. Place a block of wood of appropriate size between the frame and the compensator, one on each side, and lower the tongue.

As the trailer returns to level, the rear wheels will be off the ground, converting the trailer to a single axle type. This will make maneuvering very easy, as the tires won't scrub when turning.

If a tongue wheel in on the trailer, turning in its own radius will be possible.

Hope it works for you.

Good racing.

Bill

Try a trailer dolly like this:

Graphic
http://www.overtons.com/graphics/products/...dium/23560M.jpg

Whole page
http://www.overtons.com/cgi-bin/overtons/o...large.cgi?23560

I also have a front receiver hitch on my dodge 2500 truck. Lifesaver for putting trailers in their place.

I use a power trailer dolly to move my 24' trailer around. I've been using it for the last year and a half. I could not get by w/o it as the space I to have to park and turn the trailer around is very limited. My dolly is electric and uses a 3/4 hp motor. It will move my 6500 lb loaded trailer with no problems. When turning the trailer around I usually spray the turning area with water to help reduce the tire scrub involved when turning the trailer in such a tight radius. My trailer has two axles, I don't know if I could make the turn with a 3 axle trailer. I got mine from here:

http://www.powermoverinc.net

Mark

Pick up an issue of Trailer Life magazine should be some listed. I think there was one called power caster and they sometimes had some used movers.

Thanks for all the input. Mark, do you have an AC or DC powered model?

We use the AC-powered PowerCaster http://www.powercaster.com/ to park our 10,000 lb stacker trailler in our driveway, tongue first. We load it completely, then back it into the street and hitch up the motor home.

In moves the trailer at a very lesiurely pace, but get's the job done -- highly recommended.

The unit I have is the 3 wheel unit that uses a 3/4 hp AC motor. There are lots of options for how to attach the trailer to the dolly. It is worth a call or email to powermoverinc.com to discuss your options.

Mark

[This message has been edited by markn (edited June 08, 2004).]