So I was just thinking for some odd reason about this. Anyway I was wondering if anyone has personal experience on this. I have a 27ft 7ft wide enclosed we haul 4 sleds in. My tow vehicle is now a 08 F250 6.4L. I also have a 2place enclosed and was wondering which is easier to tow on bad interstate roads at speed. Not worried about turning around on tight roads or backing up or anything like that were most people say a deck is easier. Just wondering if when a enclosed starts to sway if a deck will want to get pushed around to or if it will be more like just pulling a 4 place open. Don't know if I would want to give up the benefits of a enclosed but just curious.
Whats easier to pull sledeck and 2place or 4place enclosed
- Thread starter ndmtnsledder
- Start date
i dunno about sledecks, but aren't you creating work having to unhook the 2place to get at the 2 on the deck?
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Bkinz
Well-known member
Ya, that would be a hassel. Unless a guy had a big ramp and could go from the sledeck to the flat of the trailer. I know I did that unloading my dirt bike out of the pickup. It seemed to work pretty good, just dont fall or it may hurt.
Not to worried about that part to get all the sleds in my trailer we do some creative packing so it takes awhile anyway and a 2place open is pretty easy to move around and once we get there we we ride for 4days. Don't think i'll change anytime soon as I'm not sure I would want to give up the benefits of an enclosed. I'm just looking for information on towing experience only on those days when it feels like the trailer is gonna pass you which is an easier tow. A bit of ice and 30mph+ cross winds seems to happy to many times on our trips.
It has been my expirience that anytime we have had sleds on a deck on the truck the towing is way easier on nasty roads. The weight of the sleds help keep the truck planted. I personally love four place enclosed setups but I dont use one very often at all. It is just so much easier to deal with bad roads when your trailer (or lack of one in my case) cant push the truck. By going to a two place and deck you increase the control you have with the tow vehicle and decrease the effect the towed vehicle can have on the towing vehicle....
JMO
Jake
JMO
Jake
I have a deck and two place open trailer. Sleds on a deck is a world of difference on icy roads. A 2 place trailer is hardly noticeable, it pushes a bit down hill but nothing like my buddies 4-place enclosed.
No problem getting sleds on and off the deck; just jack knife the trailer and unload both sleds off of the same side of the deck.
No problem getting sleds on and off the deck; just jack knife the trailer and unload both sleds off of the same side of the deck.
Sled deck and 3 place inclosed is what we usually go with. We extended out the tounge to clear the deck and also it it long enough to where all you have to do is semi jackknife the trailer and you can unload the sleds right off the deck onto the ground. Just have to slide the one sled over. Works slick and no unhooking.
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Supplicate
ACCOUNT CLOSED
I've been debating this as well, going to try the four place enclosed for a couple years and see how parking is. I can see the sleddeck more for parking issues then anything else.
My biggest reason is just in the last few years more times then not the roads are bad atleast part of the way and its just under 2000miles round trip so even a quarter of the way wears on you. I've been told a load leveling hitch with sway control would help some and plan to give that a try.
So how much extension are you using, what type of enclosed trailer with how much clearence on the hitch, and is it a long or short bed.
So how much extension are you using, what type of enclosed trailer with how much clearence on the hitch, and is it a long or short bed.
decks are nice for spring and roads you just cant or should not do with a trailer....but in crappy weather at the snow park nothing beats the comfort of a warm trailer, especial when you come back down.... But the deck is nice and fast on the sunny days.....
Interstate 3 place trailer(you CAN get 4 longtracks in there but real tight), the extenstion is about 1 foot. I can go look and double check. And long box pickup.
It pulls really nice, plus just being able to put gas and oil under the deck and all the gear in the trailer is awesome
It pulls really nice, plus just being able to put gas and oil under the deck and all the gear in the trailer is awesome
Deck and trailer for sure. We go out west and kicked this idea around for years and came up with the deck and 2 place. We saved a ton of money by doing this as the deck and sled bed (we bought used) cost us about $2,300 vs. an enclosed which was over 6k used. Also, we can use the 2 place for the wheelers, and other stuff.
We always go with 5 sleds in the enclosed and one in the back of the truck. The 2nd truck also has 4 or 5 sleds in the trailer and a topper. Tool chest and all the spare parts go under the topper. Clothes and gear in the trailers with sleds. Its nice having everything inside out of the elements.
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merlin2569
Well-known member
We pull a 29x7 Enclosed with 4 or 5 sleds usually going on the trip. I use the load leveling hitch and the sway control and that makes a world of difference. We've done 4 in the trailer and 1 in the box too. That seems to help. I agree with you though i wouldn't want to lose the benefit of the enclosed trailer.
Sled deck & 2 place trailer.
Last May when we went to Cooke City we were concerned about turning around on some of the roads if we had to trailer out of Cooke so we left the 4 place enclosed at home and took a sled deck and a 2 place. It worked just fine other than the fact we bucked a very strong wind all the way on the way out. As it turned out we only had to trailer about 1/2 mile out of Cooke and did not have to go down any narrow roads. After a little trial and error we found that we could back the 2 place up to a snow back with a slight jack knife to get the slush guards on the trailer folded down. We were then able to load and unload the sled deck with out unhitching the trailer.
Last May when we went to Cooke City we were concerned about turning around on some of the roads if we had to trailer out of Cooke so we left the 4 place enclosed at home and took a sled deck and a 2 place. It worked just fine other than the fact we bucked a very strong wind all the way on the way out. As it turned out we only had to trailer about 1/2 mile out of Cooke and did not have to go down any narrow roads. After a little trial and error we found that we could back the 2 place up to a snow back with a slight jack knife to get the slush guards on the trailer folded down. We were then able to load and unload the sled deck with out unhitching the trailer.
I used to pull a 26 footer I could get five into. Then I bought a sled deck and a 2 place and haven't pulled the big trailer since. My buddies have enclosed trailers I can change clothes in and warm up. And I just jackknife the trailer and can unload all four sleds at once or I can run sleds up trailer up ramp onto deck either way works. We have a couple gnarly access roads and the extra weight on the truck versus dragging behind helps alot for traction and ease of getting through deep snow.
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Trailtoy - when you ramp down onto the trailer, do you use the full length of your ramps or just half of the ramp? Any pics?
Agree weight on drive wheels = more control.
My experience is this is a no brainier, I arrived at this conclusion after owning 2 4-place open trailers. The first one I towed with a std cab 3/4 ton 4x4. It would walked the truck around in marginal conditions, had a couple of "moments" that I didn't like. Sold the 4-place went to a deck and an open 2-place, worked good.
Then sold the 3/4T and bought a 1T 4x4 crew dually for more room. Sold the 2-place and deck and bought another 4 place again figuring I should be good with the bigger truck. That was a mistake, slid backwards on my driveway on ice coming home one night. Plus a couple more close calls all on ice.
Sold the second 4 place and bought a 2-place aluminum enclosed and a power deck. Absolutely no more white knuckle driving for me. This set up is solid as a rock no matter what the weather is. I live in NW Montana, most of my winter driving is on snow pack, ice and narrow mountain type roads. Like mentioned above just jack knife the trlr makes the deck easy loading.
Some will say it's overkill but I always cringe when I see a 1/2T pulling a 4-place enclosed on ice. I watch them like a hawk. my.02
I would encourage you to get most of the complete total GVW on to the truck, at least 60%, 70% to 80% sure makes for a comfortable trip.
Then sold the 3/4T and bought a 1T 4x4 crew dually for more room. Sold the 2-place and deck and bought another 4 place again figuring I should be good with the bigger truck. That was a mistake, slid backwards on my driveway on ice coming home one night. Plus a couple more close calls all on ice.
Sold the second 4 place and bought a 2-place aluminum enclosed and a power deck. Absolutely no more white knuckle driving for me. This set up is solid as a rock no matter what the weather is. I live in NW Montana, most of my winter driving is on snow pack, ice and narrow mountain type roads. Like mentioned above just jack knife the trlr makes the deck easy loading.
Some will say it's overkill but I always cringe when I see a 1/2T pulling a 4-place enclosed on ice. I watch them like a hawk. my.02
I would encourage you to get most of the complete total GVW on to the truck, at least 60%, 70% to 80% sure makes for a comfortable trip.
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