Trailer rigs/ fuel mileage?

[RoperAB]

What kind of rigs are you useing to haul your stock and what are you getting for mileage?

[Faster horses]

We have a 2006 Dodge Ram Dually 4x4. 1 ton, 6-speed.

We get 13 mpg loaded (just checked it 2 weeks ago.)
We get about 17 empty.

But Mr. FH doesn't drive much over 65.

[RoperAB]

[Faster horses]

Featherlite Aluminum 24 ft. stock trailer.

Cummins Diesel engine.

He also has it equipped with a jake brake. He says they have the
new outfits so they can go fast, but can't stop very well. So he gets
an exhaust brake put on them before we ever take them home.

He also would like a 2-speed transmission. He uses the pickup a lot to haul mineral to our customers. He uses a cart and a ramp to load the mineral into the stock trailer and then again to unload at the customers place. Works real good. Reason why I mention this, is because he really needs that much pickup. It hardly moves without the trailer hooked on.
He can haul up to 7 ton of mineral with it~or that is the limit to what he hauls because the axles on the trailer are 14,000 lb. axles.

[RoperAB]

[Faster horses]

This trailer is a 1999 and he pulls it a lot. I added to my previous reponse so I elaborated there how he uses it.

It goes down a lot of country roads. The only thing we have had a problem with is the back door. I'm not sure what is the problem, but has something to do with the latch and some trim fell off. He is thinking of replacing the sliding door with a roll-up door like a Wilson has.

We had a Wilson and had problems with the brakes and the rubber edge on the back of the trailer came off. The Wilson was too low to the ground, but we have seen Wilsons that aren't as low as ours was. We were getting the Wilson fixed and the dealership loaned us the Featherlite. We liked it so we just traded. That is not to say we didn't like the Wilson, we did. But the Featherlite had a better floor for using the cart and ramp to place the mineral in the trailer. No ridges like the Wilson.

Don't have a clue to what the Featherlite weighs but our neighbor who has a steel 24' stock trailer borrowed our Featherlite 2 days ago. When he brought it back he said there is a lot of difference in the two trailers, that the Featherlite is a lot lighter. Mr. FH thinks it might weigh 3600 lbs. but I think he is using the SWAG system. (Scientific wild-assed guess.)

For how we use one, he wouldn't go back to steel. I'm sure others that have steel wouldn't have aluminum. I'll bet 90% of the miles put on our pickup are from pulling a trailer. Very seldom does he go anywhere without a trailer of some sort.

[RoperAB]

What I have heard about alunimun is that when it gets ten years old and lots of miles on it that it starts to crack because it gets brittle.
You can weld it up but then it will just crack again a long side of the weld.
The duribility issue has kept me away fom alunimun but with the [price of fuel being what it is alunimun is starting to look good

[Faster horses]

I keep editing my posts and adding comments so I hope you were able to read them.

All I can say about the aluminum trailer getting brittle is that our neighbor in W. Montana got one of the first Featherlites to come out. He was really hard on his equipment and everyone was waiting and watching to see how it held up. That was 20 years ago or longer. I think he still pulls that very same trailer. It was amazing that it stayed together but it did and it looked good for a long time.

My husband just came in and I asked him his opinion and he said the main problems were by the back gate, around the hinges, etc. and they have improved them a lot.

He says they must not have too much trouble with them because all the big cow trailers are aluminum. FWIW~

[RoperAB]

Wow 3600lbs is light!
Well I know when I had my trailer advertized one of the first questions people would ask is if it was steel or alunimun. Everybody wanted alunimun.

[Faster horses]

Thinking more on the trailer weight, I think Mr. FH could be mistaken.
It seems to me when we bought the Wilson, it was 24 ft and weighed
4500 lbs. which was what the 1990 20' Titan steel trailer weighed.

Now we'll have to weigh the Featherlite and see.

[theHiredMansWife]

'97 F250 Powerstroke, manual

We get 18mpg empty, and about 13 with a trailer. It doesn't seem to matter if we're pulling our little 16' Hart with a couple of horses, or a 26' stock trailer stuffed full of cows. Both are GN. (We've never pulled an aluminum trailer, so i don't know the difference)



'79 GMC 3500 (no idea what engine is in this thing, but it's gas), manual tranny

It gets around 9-11, empty, loaded or towing.



'74 F250 (390), automatic

Old Blue gets about 12 mpg empty. 10, loaded or towing.

[Northern Rancher]

I've went south loaded with bulls with Chevy's , Dodges and Fords and they all seem to get around that 12-14 loaded. I've seen some pretty old Wil;son aluminnums stand up pretty well for a long time.