Major damage

Good idea but and I have done that myself but…Some large equipment counter weights are more or less just hanging on there possibly with a soft tire machine and the right combination of bumps in the road or wrong technique applying the wedges you could have it come unhooked and then what…
When I load something like this on my rgn I put oak boards over the floor where the machine is going to drive otherwise it falls through and problems follow. My boards are 2.5 inches thick and 13 wide about 6 foot section is all I can handle I only carry them when needed so they don’t get soft from the weather. I also try to park the heavy end over a cross member as was suggested. I would also bet the rear axle on that forklift is pushing 30k especially with the mast resting on the trailer and not hanging on the machine.
Possibly could put your chains more parallel to the deck so they aren’t pulling down as hard.

 

Replacing Cross members are a PITA. My trailer has all the deck boards fastened to each cross beam.
I had to remove rub rail and winch track on one side.
It's not hard but is time consuming.

I don't know if it's ok just to replace the damaged part a weld in a 2' piece.
I think bent or damaged Cross members are a CSA violation. Not OOS.
Good luck.

 

^^^^ this. It appears in the pics the tire of the forklift was not directly over a crossmember? Even with a 2” thick piece of wood, that flooring is not much support for that heavy of a machine. Weight of machine, plus vibration from the ride, combined with the pull of the chains pulling downward…..

 

This was on a step deck with an aluminum floor not an RGN, the crossmembers are aluminum too. There was between 12k and 15k on the single crossmember on each side and there was obviously a soft spot in that crossmember from previous minor damage or possibly the axle was out of alinement and put more weight in one side of the crossmember than the other. Never the less, yes heavy oak planking spanning at least 3 crossmembers will spread the weight and should stop this from happening but why would you carry this on your Conestoga step deck when you are running spot market freight 80% of the time? A couple hardwood 4X4s are standard dunnage carried on that same trailer and the wedges I recommend can protect the crossmembers almost as much as the long planking will, especially on an low riding indoor machine with solid rubber wheels.

 

Yes I realize its an aluminum floor flatbed and you would be crazy to carry the extra planks unless you were doing that routinely it adds up to a lot of extra weight.
I think the safest solution is let someone else haul it but it’s to late for that lol. You have a good idea,I just wanted to point out that on some machines that counter weight is just hanging there or maybe has one or two small bolts holding it from coming up off the hooks and things could go south really quick.

 

Yes many counterweights are almost gravity mounted with only stabilizer bolts but these wedges can not lift but they do support the counterweight on the main beams were the trailer is strongest.

 

Just make sure forklift wheels are on a crossmember. If not it’ll bust through or bend every time. I haul a lot of large high mast lifts and I learned the hard way too lol

 

The lighter the trailer the less concentrated weight you can carry ironically… they make them so thin to be light than you get a surprise like this.

 

Wonder how much of that $2500 is labor?

I was in County Supply today, was thinking about you!!!