The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

Since I acquired my Power Major and started to use it to collect firewood Ive been wondering how safe it is to hitch a heavy trailer behind a tractor without air compressor that feeds the air brakes in classic trailers Im familiar with.




Im using an modified army trailer which originally housed a diesel generator. It has an impact brake which I think is better that nothing.


Here in Czech Republic a Zetor 3011, Super 50 or older 25K is what people have at home. (nothing western was available before the fall of communists) Great machines all with air compressors.

So I would like to hear your experiences about the way you handle heavy loads, maybe im too frightened, but I think you can never be too cautious.

Hello
For pulling heavy loads on the roads and in rough terrain i would prefer a trailer with wheels at the rear,as you put more weight on the tractors rear end.That is better for braking And pulling.
Svend

Are you going to use it on flat or hilly countryside. Farm tracks no problem, you need to be careful on public roads. Used to pull a two wheeled trailer with a four wheeled trailer coupled behind full of sugar beet between farm and rail station (1960's). A journey of five miles on public roads with hills. Needed to get into low gear at bottom of hill, changing down on the move was problematic and descend hills in low gear. Drum brakes on Power Major and earlier weren't that effective and wouldn't do emergency stops. Just had to plan ahead.

Back in the day of the fordsons brakes on a trailer were virtually in existent. Over here low price prevailed safety. Luckily netherlands is flat. Just 5 miles from me in Germany at least inertia brakes are necessary below 8 tonnes.

With the speed of a major and a bit of common sense inertia brakes should be more than enough. Without brakes hills should not be to steep and the traffic very rural.

You could fit the original trailer vacuum brake as offered by Ford, it was sold mainly to industrial users with very heavy trailers (in the 20 ton plus mark), I think you'll be fine, none of our local grape trailers (around the 12 ton mark, with many similar age tractors in use with them on the road) have driver operated brakes, only parking brakes operated by rods or cables. I would say you have 4 or 5 tons there, pretty light for a Major.
Sandy

The issue you really have is the position of the axle on the trailer - it's virtually central. This means little weight on the tractor drawbar and if the trailer is not carefully loaded you will have uplift on the drawbar taking weight off the tractor rear wheels. When travelling you could have the trailer bouncing and pivoting around the axle position snatching at the tractor drawbar upwards and potentially causing skidding of the tractor wheels - very dodgy! With a better axle position towards the rear of the trailer enabling a consistent weight to be put on the tractor drawbar, the drum brakes on the Major - assuming they are in good condition - would cope with the loads you are likely to have especially with a little help from the trailer over-run brakes.

I wouldn't put the wheels too far back either as you want plenty of weight on the front wheels, I would however suggest you load the trailer so you have the load positioned adequately depending on what you're doing, further forward the more downhill you're going.
Sandy