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Hauling cattle with a tractor/trailer

Bruce from Can.

Bruce from Can.

Well-known Member
Location
Woodville, Ontario, Canada

cvphoto27590.jpg

Maybe not what you might have been expecting, but a tractor and trailer no less. Been wanting to try pulling a livestock trailer with a farm tractor, before taking the plunge and buying a trailer. And I got the chance to rent this trailer complete with the 3pth for a few days. So this was a great opportunity to give this combo a try. I like it really well, and now I am on the hunt for a trailer of my own. Pulling with a tractor works good for me. Only two miles to the sales barn, and 5 miles to our other farm, so pulling with a farm tractor is practical. No need for a big 4wd pickup. And here in Ontario, truck and trailer must both pass safety inspection every year, carry a license plate, and insurance. Just another farm implement when pulled by a tractor. Anyone else doing this?
 
I agree! Tractors were meant to farm with, & every task You can add utilizes it ever more. Never liked pulling anything behind a truck. But I do sometimes. I dont like how far the Ball hitch sticks out past the tractor. I would place it a lot closer to the operator; just makes it a lot more stable.
 
We have done this on our farm. But just from the muddy yard to solid ground. Sale barn is 20 miles away.
 
Looks like you have plenty of tractor to handle it fine. No license, insurance or inspections needed. I have thought about getting a JCB fastrac just to drive to work in. But then tires would cost a lot more than all my car expenses.
 

Have a bumper pull. If it's too muddy for the truck, easy to put a ball on the tractor. Always can move cattle if need be.

I will say hauling with tractor no comparison to truck for long highway trip. I haul with truck even short haul, easier for passenger to come along and open gates etc too. Easier to back to places with truck with tow mirrors too.
 
Common practice to haul cattle with a tractor/trailer combo here in the UK, but usually with a bumper pull type hitch (2" ball), or a custom built agric flat bed trailer fitted with a livestock box. Very seldom see a '5th wheel' type hitch here. Jim
 
We move all our bales from the fields home with a similar setup using a 30 foot gooseneck flatbed. Tractor has no problem pulling 14 bales whereas hooked to a pickup going through those soft fields and some tight driveways I think the transmission and engine get a big workout.

Last year I think we hauled nearly 700 bales home like that. The gooseneck ball is located directly above the 3-point arms, not sticking out the way yours is. Never had a problems with turning sharp... Even with the duals on the tractor. Either way it's a handy method to move stuff.
 
Bruce, my brother uses cattle trailer (not a 5th wheel) like that behind his tractor. One farm is about 1 mile and the pasture farm is about 2 miles.
Much easier to maneuver backwards into a loading ramp with a tractor than a truck. I know some experienced truck drivers can do it with both eye closed!!
 

cvphoto27603.jpg

As you can see, this tractor has two seats, so I can
take a passenger along. And the mirrors on the
tractor are every bit as good as any pickup hauling
a trailer has. I agree, if I was hauling a distance, a
truck would be faster, but I have never needed to
haul cattle more than 30 miles. Typical trip for me
would be a ten mile round trip. If I did need to haul a
animal farther, it would be far cheaper to hire the
hauling done for a long trip, than owning a truck
capable of pulling a trailer like this.already have the
tractor, and need it for many other jobs, and it is
already paid for. Just seems the most economical
way for me to transport my cattle.
 
I?d love a JCB too, but nearly cost twice what this tractor did. If I had a JCB fast track, I?d be looking for a flat bed hyway trailer to haul bales with. The JCB comes with air brakes, so the trailer would also have brakes. Getting a load moving is one thing, stopping is another story.
 
When i milked i had my stock trailer hooked to a tractor a lot.always cows in far pasture about to freshen id haul them to barn easier and take dry cows there also.
Always hauled my hay with big trailer i built.1 loader for l9ng time and basicly no other choice
 
Not cattle, but I have a heavy flat/tilt bed single axle trailer I move my small dozer around with, behind a tractor. SMV sign on back, and I'm good to go. Farthest I've gone is several miles, and that's as far as I'm going to go!
 
Most one ton trucks are rated for 14000 just on the truck plus weight of the trailer for the gross combined vehicle weight rating a 2 5/16 ball is rated at 30,000 pounds gross trailer weight . Either I highly doubt you?ll ever hurt the top link . I never could figure out where the one ton rating came from a ford ranger will carry over a ton of cargo in the truck
cvphoto27620.jpg
 
On a gooseneck truck the ball and trailer is centered over the rear end pushing straight down.

With this setup the 3 point arms are carrying very little weight and are nothing more than a pivot point.
Most of the weight is being carried by the top link and it is multiplied over and over for every inch the ball is away from the top link mounting point.
Picture a seesaw in your mind and think of the forces at work there.

Like I said before; great trailer setup.
But the top link is the weakest point and will be the first thing to break in this setup.
 
Pretty slick! You could do the same thing with a bumper pull trailer, in that case, you would have the option of using your truck without having to install a 5th wheel plate in the box.

Ben
 
Top link will support enough weight to lift the front of the tractor off the ground. Ever seen a tractor with a large fully mounted plow?

In this setup, I would put money on the lower link arms failing first. They will fold up like an accordion from the compression load.
 
That was a pretty common sight over in Ireland a couple summers ago. They don't have the big diesel pickups or gas for that matter like we have here. Allot of tractors running the road there pulling trailers.
 
A tractor that size is typically rated to carry 6000 lbs or more at a distance of 24" behind the lift links. You probably have half that on your trailer ball so you're not overly stressing the tractor. Makes a lot of sense in your situation and certainly less costly than a truck would be.
 
The top link here isn't carrying any vertical load since it is more-or-less horizontal and free to pivot so the entire hitch weight is being supported by the lower links. The horizontal distance from the hitch load to the lower links looks to be a little more than the vertical distance from the lower hitch pins to the 3rd link so assuming the trailer hitch load is 3000 lbs the tension on the 3rd link would be a bit more, something around 3500 lbs. Due to the geometry of this hitch any horizontal draft load will be pulled mostly by the 3rd link but that would be relatively little.
 
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