Whether you’ve been wondering what tilt trailers are or asking yourself the question, “How do tilt trailers work,” you’re in the right place. While these machines may sound incredibly complex, they’re actually relatively simple but useful pieces of equipment.
Read on to learn all about tilt trailers, including the different types, how they work, and the various benefits that they offer you.
What Is a Tilt Trailer?
A tilt trailer is a specific kind of flatbed trailer, capable of tilting towards the ground to facilitate easy uploading and removal of items from the trailer. This added ability has made these heavy-duty trailers a revolutionary part of the trucking industry.
Types of Tilt Trailers
There are two distinct types of tilt trailers to choose from when you purchase this kind of trailer. Specifically tilt-deck or industrial tilt deck trailers. Let’s take a brief look at these trailer types and the differences between them.
- Full Tilt Deck – The full tilt deck allows for tilting of the entire deck, maximizing efficiency and providing the most possible accommodation. Furthermore, since the deck acts as a ramp, it makes it easy to load and unload heavy equipment or machinery. When you have loads that are easier to roll than carry, then this type of tilt trailer is ideal.
- Industrial Tilt Deck – As the name suggests, these trailers are intended for heavier-duty applications. They have a fixed front end coupled with a tilting back end to facilitate easy on- and off-loading. The back end can be tilted to various degrees, making it ideal for a range of different situations and transport needs.
How Does a Tilt Trailer Work?
A tilt trailer is, in many ways, like your traditional flatbed trailer. However, unlike the standard flatbed, it is capable of going from a purely horizontal angle to a sloped angle to allow for easy loading and unloading of heavy equipment.
Depending on the type and model of the trailer in question, it may work in different ways. The main options to be aware of are sliding or gravity tilt trailers and hydraulic or pneumatic tilt trailers.
How Does a Gravity Tilt Trailer Work?
A gravity tilt trailer relies on gravity, rather than any kind of mechanism, to create a slope to the ground. Typically, the trailer will have some kind of hitch or fastener that, when released, allows the trailer to move from a horizontally-oriented plane to a ramp, under the force of gravity.
These trailers are also known as sliding tilt trailers, as they allow you to manually adjust the degree of tilt and lock it in place to secure it.
How Do Mechanized Tilt Trailers Work?
Mechanized tilt trailers rely on either pneumatic or hydraulic systems to operate the trailer tilt. Depending on the model, they may have a built-in operating mechanism or they may rely on the mechanism of the vehicle used to pull the trailer.
When you activate the hydraulic system, it will lift the front end of the trailer, forming a ramp which can easily be used to load cargo. When the mechanism is deactivated, the hydraulic pressure will slowly decrease, returning the trailer to its previous horizontal position.
Benefits of Tilt Trailers
Tilt trailers offer a wide array of benefits to the discerning, including the following:
Easy Loading and Unloading
The main benefit of these trailers, and the reason why tilt trailers are so popular, is the fact that they streamline the loading and offloading process significantly.
Thanks to the gentle incline (or steeper slope, when required) created by these trailers, they significantly cut down on the numbers of people and equipment needed to load and offload cargo.
They are especially useful in the transport of heavy wheeled machinery and equipment, which can simply be rolled or driven onto the trailer.
Improved Safety
When using a secondary ramp to move wheeled equipment and other types of cargo onto a trailer, there are many associated risks and potential pitfalls. For example, the risk of having equipment slip or slide out of place are significantly higher when using a ramp.
On the other hand, since tilt trailers become the ramp, they significantly reduce the risks involved and offer enhanced safety for both the loading and offloading processes.
Additionally, when using the tilt trailers with hydraulic or pneumatic components, they can help to maintain stability throughout these processes, as you can use them to balance the trailer and its load. This significantly enhances safety and efficiency.
Excellent Versatility
Tilt trailers are incredibly versatile, offering a wide range of different uses for various industries. Whether it’s the construction industry, where moving small, heavy machinery is commonplace, or in agriculture, where weighty implements and tools require regular moving, the applications are nearly limitless.
This flexibility makes these trailers ideal for people in a wide range of different businesses and industries.
Low Maintenance Requirements
If you take good care of your tilt trailer, ensuring that loads are distributed evenly and that you regularly grease moving parts that may require it, then tilt trailers have relatively low maintenance requirements.
Of course, the maintenance needs of pneumatic and hydraulic systems may be higher than for sliding tilt trailers, but they won’t be all that high if you care for the trailer well.
They Save Time
Thanks to the excellent efficiency offered by these trailers, they can cut down significantly on the amount of time taken to load and offload cargo.
Not only do they make it easier, but the added stability and other factors make the whole process easier, reduce the manpower required, and facilitate faster processing of loads.
They Offer Improved Towing Stability
With the way tilt trailers are designed, they generally allow for more equivalent distribution of loads. This can help to improve the stability of the trailer as a whole, while improving towing stability as well.
Many hydraulic or pneumatic trailers may even have self-levelling designs which further help to improve the overall stability of both the load and the trailer.
Not only is maximizing stability crucial when transporting heavy loads over long distances, but it also drastically reduces wear and tear on both the trailer and the towing vehicle.
How To Use a Tilt Trailer
While we’ve shown you what a tilt trailer is and shared some of the manifold benefits of these tools, you may still be wondering how to use a tilt trailer. The basic concept is simple enough: you tilt the trailer, load the cargo, then release the tilt so the trailer can be towed.
But here are a few places and industries where you can use the tilt trailer to make your everyday hauling experience so much better.
Construction
The construction industry, by necessity, relies on many different types of heavy equipment that often need to be transported from one place to another.
Since it isn’t legal for many of these construction vehicles to drive from one place to the next, that means they need to be loaded and transported that way.
Other heavy tools and pieces of equipment like augers and shovels or building components like bricks, siding, and roofing tiles may also require transport.
All of these things, and more besides, make tilt trailers an ideal transport option for people in the construction industry.
Agriculture
In the farming industry, heavy equipment and tools are commonly used for a wide array of different applications. In these cases, having a trailer that simplifies loading, transport, and unloading, can make a significant difference to the overall experience.
From plows and harrows to tractors and skid steers, there are many different pieces of heavy equipment that need to be transported on a farm. And that doesn’t even mention sundries like hay bales, bags of animal feed or seed for planting, and even things like irrigation lines.
Landscaping
Landscaping falls somewhere between construction and agriculture in terms of tools and equipment, which results in often having to transport many types of equipment (or other heavy items).
From loads of mulch and compost to small sheds, heavy tools like shovels and rakes, and even loads of timber or living trees and plants, there’s a lot that goes into this industry.
The tilt trailer is an ideal, and effective, option for landscapers that need to transport things like mowers, ride-on lawnmowers, grass seeders, and various random items and types of garden waste.
Of course, these are only a very few examples of all the many ways that you can use tilt trailers. They can be an invaluable tool in any industry where you need to move heavy equipment, vehicles, or other heavy and unwieldy items.
Many homeowners also choose to invest in these vehicles since they make simple tasks like removing waste or bringing home larger appliances so much easier. In the end, the only limit is your imagination.
Final Thoughts on Tilt Trailer
As you can see, tilt trailers are relatively simple, but they’re also incredibly versatile and useful. If you use them well, they can be a beneficial addition to any business or industry. From construction to agriculture and even home use in the case of DIY homeowners, these trailers are invaluable.
If you’re ready to get a tilt trailer of your own, no matter what the reason, feel free to contact us or browse our inventory of available trailers. We’d love to help you find the tilt trailer of your dreams and make your hauling experience even better and more efficient.
