Mechanical vs Hydraulic Goose Neck trailers.

It can be. Full lockers help but sometimes you have to chain up. really not that bad though. sometimes you run the load all the way back, then pick up the trailer and then position and secure the load.

 

mechanical necks just seem to work best if you got a run from the factory to a dealership hard surface is kinda a must have for several reasons. I have seen one of those fancy landoll rgns that they say you can hook and unhook on uneven ground or at a angle make a ### out of a driver before. my trailer is set up for pony motor or wet line or I can hook a farm tractor up and run the neck if those 2 crap out

 

My father's temisko rgn ngb 80 tonner has two speprate stinger cylinders and control levers for off angle pinning. Custom made the setup about 5 years ago There is still a limit to how off angle the gooseneck will go because if the bushing flex under the fifth wheel but goes really good once your used to it

 

I had a 35 ton hyd Dynaweld that would hook/unhook on fairly uneven ground. It had a single bar on the neck and a set of hooks on the trailer (same as Fontaine). We now have a 50 ton hyd Talbert that has two holes in the neck that line up with pins on the trailer. The Talbert is a pain to hook up on anything but flat ground. The Talbert is a better built trailer but they missed the mark when it comes to their neck attachment design.

We run wet kits on everything. Used to run pony motors but got tired of having to keep fuel in them and the upkeep to keep them running. I don't see how a pony motor setup could weigh less than a wet kit. One is powered by a PTO and the other is powered by a engine, that PTO isn't going to weigh as much as a small engine.

Another setup you don't see much of is a folding neck. They work pretty well. We had a hyd folding neck but sold it because it was getting rusty. We now have a mechanical folding neck we pull with a winch tractor on loads where we need to fold the neck.

 

I have been stuck in snow putting the neck back on, neck was attached to the trailer just pulling out to drop it down. Trying to put chains on when you can't move an inch on level ground kind of sucks in that warm wet snow. Also have chased the empty trailer across a icy steep landing trying to get it to stay still long enough to get under it (should have parked a machine behind it) and yes getting back under it even chained up can be a challenge.

 

I've pulled Talberts most of my career, I unhook on unlevel ground fairly often. There's kind of a trick to it, you back on n at an angle toward the high side. It's hard to explain but you get the knack of it.

 

Our wet kit is definitely heavier than the set up on the trailer, but just because we have a 50 gallon hydraulic tank in order to be able to pull end dumps as well. After fighting with the pump leaking and the old Honda not running well I removed the Honda, trailer mounted hydraulic tank, and some of the associated plumbing on our Aspen. With all the mag chloride used on winter roads now it is really difficult to keep all the battery connections clean when mounted on the trailer neck.

 

I have run both, really prefer the hyd neck. Like others have said plus and minus on both. Also ran a elc over hyd years ago, kinda slow but nice. Main thing with them. Make sure you have a good ground plug for them

 

Just to add this Keen is running Solar panel charging system. I asked driver about it, says he likes it. Running 2 battery setup,says it works great so far
They still have the cord to use main battery from trk if needed