Mechanical vs Hydraulic Goose Neck trailers.

If I ever move this thing again, it'll be 3 times the price. I guessed at the time it would take... I was wrong.

 

A couple years ago, we moved a 265,000 lb tile press 1/2 mile, from rail siding to plant. Bill was $12,000. The catch is it took 2 days, and we had to pay for a engineered bridge inspection.

 

I think is was $3,500.

We ended up making 2 more moves the same route with comparable weight. They allowed us to make these moves on the same original bridge inspection.

 

If you have several bridges to cross, and have to hire a engineering firm, it's going to get costly. The good thing about it though, if the engineer says the bridge is ok and something happens, it's on them.

It was a county bridge we had to cross, and the county required us to use their engineering firm to inspect the bridge. It actually worked out well though, because the same firm were the people that designed it when built. They had the bridge design rating on file, they just had to do a current evaluation to check for any deterioration since built.

 

Good luck hooking up a mechanical RGN on snow and ice or mud. I have a mechanical RGN (trailking) and this is how I know. Otherwise it is OK.

 

I've got an 80 ton 16 wheel Aspen and a 60 ton Aspen tri axle, both with mechanical necks. I hook them up in snow, mud, and ice quite regularly. throw on a set of tire chains if traction is in question. sometimes the hard way is the easy way...

 

I have not yet had a moment when I could NOT hook it up, HOWEVER at times it was a pain in the butt. I have to pay attention on where exactly I unhook. I have to admit that I do not own tire chains.