Medium to Heavy Hauling

You'll save some weight with a mechanical neck (or have the option of running an extendable without having quite as high an empty weight). There's also reduced maintenance on the trailer as there's no motor or hydraulics to keep track of.

That being said, one of the greatest advantages of a hydraulic neck is ease of loading.

It also means you won't need to outfit the truck with Cozad ramps on the rear of the frame.

Mechanical necks can be fussy trailers sometimes to hook back up. There is a form to it though. If you're hooked to a mechanical with a full-width deck on the neck, when dead straight, look in the mirrors at the outer rail of the neck. Then look at the outer rail of the deck (again, in the mirror). It should look like the neck juts out an inch or so beyond the width of the deck. It doesn't, this is just optics, but, that is how you know you're in the right position to get the pin to drop.

If you're using a mechanical with a basic neck that has no deck to it, you're going to gauge on the position of where the sidewall and tread meet on the tire. If that edge creates a line say with the inner edge of the outer rail of the deck, that's where you line up at (again, this is all looking through the mirror) to get the neck to hook up.

All of the above actually goes for both mechanical and hydraulic necks.

You will find that a mechanical neck is more labor intensive than a hydraulic neck is. You'll need to always carry a large block at minimum as wide as the frame of your truck or neck (whichever is wider), think a 4-5 foot long 8x8. A talented lowboy hand can break down, unload, and re-hook a mechanical neck quickly, but, that same hand on a hydraulic neck is likely to be a lot faster.

With a hydraulic neck you just back up, and if the pin drops, start picking the deck up, you're good to go.

Soft ground can be a pain in the ### with a mechanical. I've had them spit me back out as I was backing under the trailer (loaded) when the tires lost traction. You'll be sliding your fifth wheel a lot unless you have spacers for the ramps to extend from the end of the ramp to the fifth wheel (not really necessary on a basic 2-3 axle mechanical, just slide it all the way back against the ramps when loading/ unloading, and slide into position to be legal on weight before you go).

My general experience with mechanicals has been that you get more well space. The Trail King extendable I tend to pull has 29-feet in the well. There are hydraulic neck lowboys with that much well space, but, you'll find a lot with 26 and 27 foot decks, as well. By the same token, you're a little more pigeon-holed on your deck height versus a hydraulic. Hydraulics tend to have a lot more range on how high or low you can set the deck.

I pull both. I'd say I prefer a hydraulic neck, but, a mechanical certainly isn't a bad trailer.

 

What he said....weight and no power pack or hydraulics to worry about. Mechanicals are cheaper too for obvious reasons.

There is another type you didn't mention. Call it a PGN. It's a mechanical with air assist. That will be my next trailer.

I don't know this for sure because I only pull MGN's but HGN's probably can load more weight than MGN....on some heavier loads sometimes I have a hard time getting my 5th wheel back under the KP and getting the trailer up off the ground.

 

Agreed. There are times at which it feels like the truck doesn't want to get under it. I'm willing to bet, in the long run, the rear suspension on a truck that pulls mechanical necks only would wear faster than a hydraulic, just based on the somewhat-shock loading of the suspension compared to a hydraulic.

 

In my opinion, Trail King has it right when it comes to the hydraulics, at least in terms of location. Trail King's hydraulics sit at a near vertical angle, meaning most of the picking power is being directed at picking the load up. Compare this to a trailer like an Etnyre which has the pistons almost parallel to the deck. A buddy's 2-3-2 Trail King has two large pistons versus his Etnyre 2-2-2 which takes 3 pistons to pick up.

 

good info in this post....especially on the hydraulics.

 

Having owned 4 different hydraulic low boys for years and pulled a mechanical for 5 months I would never purchase a mechanical. Weight difference is nominal and mostly indifferent hauling permit loads.

 

now I feel bad for owning one and using it daily.