What You Need to Know About Moving Heavy Equipment

Moving heavy equipment can be a real headache. Picture this: it’s 2:00 PM.  It’s raining. And your only skid steer needs to get from Job A to Job B right now.

With a standard trailer, that means slick ramps, alignment anxiety, and a two-man loading crew. It’s a recipe for blown schedules, and sometimes $6,000 worth of undercarriage damage. 

For contractors juggling multiple job sites, daily equipment moves require a completely different approach to transport. here’s how drop deck trailers like the GT13FL or GT19FL eliminates the daily logistics bottleneck. 

Table of Contents

• The Multi-Job Shuffle
• Rental Yard Savings
• Equipment Protection
• Small Wheel Logistics
• No CDL Required (Usually)
• What Can You Haul?
• Caveats
• FAQ
• Key Takeaways
• Get a Good Solution

The Multi-Job Shuffle

If you’ve got to move machines between two sites in one afternoon, every minute spent loading is a minute of lost productivity, which is, in turn, a minute of lost money.

Standard trailers often take way more time than hydraulic drop deck trailers. With a standard trailer, you’re going to need to unpin heavy ramps, wrestle with chains, and get your gear loaded on a pair of narrow ramps that sometimes feel no safer than your average tightrope. Plus, you have to put two or more guys on the job. 

With the GT19FL you get a single operator drive-on experience. Unhitch the trailer. Lower the deck to 5.4″. Unpin and fold down the spring-assisted, full-width 22″ ramp. Drive right onto the trailer. Secure the equipment. Flip the ramp back up. Raise the trailer. Hitch up and go. You’re loaded and on the road in less than 5 minutes.

Rental Yard Savings

Tired of losing $300 per trip on pickup and delivery fees? 

If you have your own reliable, fast-loading trailer, you can drive to the rental yard yourself, pop the gear onto the trailer, and then head straight to the job site. It saves money and prevents crews from sitting around waiting for a rental truck to show up at 10 AM.

Plus, when you bring the GT19FL, you eliminate so many other points of stress. A steep, slippery ramp on a standard trailer can make loading a finicky rented machine stressful. With a GT19FL, you get a stress-free experience that gets the rental to the job site that mcuh faster. 

Equipment Protection

Undercarriage damage accounts for roughly 50% of equipment repairs. When every repair costs thousands of dollars, choosing a trailer that won’t scape up the chassis or create the circumstances which cut lines or cause structural damage becomes absolutely paramount.

The #1 place where those undercarriages are going to get messed up is on the apex of a steep, slippery ramp.

Drive-on loading at ground level solves that problem. The 11° angle of our 22″ long and 76.5″ wide ramp just isn’t sharp enough to cause the “breakover” point that causes so much damage. See for yourself when you watch this video!

We’re not saying you’re never, ever going to have a problem ever again. That would be a wildly irresponsible claim. Stuff happens, and we can’t account for every weird condition or operator’s bad day. We can say that you can cut the number of incidents by a margin so significant that the trailer will pay for itself fast, simply because it helps you avoid so many repair bills.

Attachment Protection

On a standard high-deck or tilt trailer, trying to safety chain down a loose attachment while balancing the machine can be a logistical nightmare. 

Bringing a GT19FL to ground level gives you a stationary staging area. Organize and secure attachments at ground level, eliminating another job site hazard and creating a secure load that helps reduce in-transit liability or damage risks. 

Order our stake pocket D-ring add-ons to make securement even easier.

Small Wheel Logistics

Construction sites often require crews to move palletized finishing materials, commercial HVAC units, or industrial toolboxes. Using a forklift is a headache, but it’s often the only option. 

Pushing a manual pallet jack up a steep standard trailer ramp becomes physically impossible. A 16° standard trailer ramp requires 551 pounds of force to move a pallet jack with 2,000 pounds of goods on board. 

The low-angle ramp reduces the incline that compatible wheeled loads need to negotiate. For heavy palletized materials, select handling equipment approved for the load and slope, and follow its manufacturer’s operating instructions. 

No CDL Required (Usually)

Moving equipment between jobs does not automatically mean you need a Class A CDL driver for every trip. The GT19FL offers an estimated 8,000 pounds of carrying capacity with an 11,800-pound gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR). Paired with an appropriately rated pickup, it can be part of an equipment-hauling combination that stays below the federal Class A CDL weight threshold.

For contractors, that can mean more flexibility when assigning pickups and deliveries. Instead of organizing every move around a CDL driver’s availability, you can plan a qualifying setup that trained, otherwise properly licensed crew members can operate. That is a practical advantage when equipment needs to move on your schedule.

Under federal rules, the Class A CDL weight requirement generally applies to commercial combinations when both conditions are met:

The gross combination weight rating (GCWR) or actual combined weight—whichever is greater—is 26,001 pounds or more.

The trailer’s GVWR or actual loaded weight—whichever is greater—is more than 10,000 pounds.

Because the GT19FL’s GVWR exceeds 10,000 pounds, the combination’s rating and loaded weight are the key checks. Keeping both the applicable GCWR and actual combined weight at 26,000 pounds or less avoids this federal weight-based Class A requirement. Carrying a lighter load does not cancel a higher applicable rating.

Watch the GVWR of your truck. Check the certification labels and towing documentation and confirm the GCWR on the certification label applies. Make sure the truck has the towing and payload capacity your loading setup requires.

Confirm your combination with your state licensing agency before assigning drivers. Non-CDL operation can still carry commercial-vehicle requirements, including inspections and driver medical qualification where applicable.

But the opportunity remains straightforward. Choose the right combination, retain substantial equipment hauling capacity, and give your crew more flexibility to handle the next move.

What Can You Haul?

Need some examples of the types of equipment you can safely haul on a GT19FL?

• Mid-size track loaders
• Scissor lifts.
• Pallet jacks.
• Compact track loaders
• Mini excavators

This list is not exhaustive. Always check the weight of the machine you want to use against the carrying capacity of the trailer you want to use.

We do recommend leaving some “weight wriggle room” any time you are moving heavy equipment. A machine’s dry weight on the brochure doesn’t include 400 pounds of mud packed into the undercarriage, a heavy hydraulic auger attachment, or a set of foam-filled tires. If you like to keep a healthy 1,500 safety buffer on your trailer capacity—which we highly recommend—the GT19FL is the perfect match for the industry’s most popular 3-ton workhorses.

If you typically haul smaller equipment, you can save some money with our GT13FL instead.

Caveats

Let’s be realistic. The GT19FL isn’t designed to haul a 12,000 pound industrial earthmover. If your daily fleet consists of monster-class machines like the John Deere 333G, you’re going to need a heavy gooseneck and a CDL.

But for 80% of daily construction workflows, contractors are generally moving small and medium frame equipment. With an estimated carrying capacity of 8,000 lbs., the GT19FL is engineered to be a perfect fit for the industry’s most common workhorses.

FAQ

Key Takeaways

The TL;DR if you’d like to save time, money, and headaches when you’re moving heavy equipment.

• Slash inter-site transit bottlenecks. Traditional trailers force a crew to manually wrestle heavy ramps. An integrated hydraulic drop deck allows a single operator to drive on and load out far faster.
• Eliminate costly fleet delivery fees.  Owning a fast-loading trailer allows crews to pull equipment straight from the rental yard themselves, saving up to $300 in carrier fees per trip and eliminating 10:00 AM job-site delays. 
• Protect undercarriages. The apex of traditional trailer ramps causes severe breakover scraping that accounts for half of all equipment repair bills. An 11° entry slope removes the geometric peak to eliminate chassis drag.
• Lower pallet jack handling force. Pushing a 2,000-pound pallet up a standard 16° trailer ramp demands an exhausting 551 pounds of force. Dropping the incline to an 11° entry slope removes the geometric peak.

Get a Good Solution

Modestly, we don’t just think we’re a “Good” solution for moving heavy equipment on the daily. We actually think we’re a great solution! If you agree, here’s how you can get in touch.

• Call us right now at (360) 889-9789.
• Find a dealer near you.
• Click the green icon to the lower right to chat with Tow-Bot.
• Or contact us to send a message using the form below!

See also:

Easy Loading Enclosed Trailer: Evaluating Options

How to Choose the Right Ground-Level Loading Trailer

Does GoodMFG® Make Durable Trailers?

This resource was compiled by the GoodMFG® Product Team, drawing on a combined 75 years of experience in hydraulic systems, heavy-duty transport, trailers, and modular structures.

P.S. – We build trailers every day, but we don’t run your crews. If there’s a specific logistical headache or a “field reality” we’ve missed, we want to hear about it. Help us refine the equipment that makes your day easier! Email our Marketing Lead at devan-h @ goodrv.com and let us know what we should solve next.