Anyone run a landoll?

A friend down the road from my Indiana yard has a few; I know one of them has a 30k capacity. It is a KW, I think 660, it is a Century bed on the back of it. We have used it for a customer who had to move a 25k die set and locomotive engine.

He does a lot of recovery-type work with it, he also has a rotator or two that is used for towing tractors.

He is busy most of the winter.

 

From memory the most common telehandler sizes we rented (10k and 12k) were too heavy for a tandem rollback to haul. The company we used for delivery were pushing close to max gross weight on their tridrive rolloff when they hauled them with it.

Some of the straight boom man lifts were too long to fit on the deck of a rolloff as well.

 

They both have their place. The tandem industrial carrier (rollback) is great for rental lifts and similar equipment going into tight areas but is somewhat limited due to the vertical clearance. A rollback is usually 4' deck height where a Landoll is 32-36" deck height depending on model. Rollbacks are great for forklifts.

The Landoll, or any other brand of sliding axle trailer, is very versatile which is why so many towing companies have them. If I had to choose only one I would pick the trailer 9 out of 10 times.

Now, as for keeping them busy, it is possible if you are a good salesman. For the local work you are describing you will need to pound on doors and build relationships, the work isn't going to come from loadboards or brokers, at least not local work worth anything. The towing companies pretty much have the big houses like Hertz, United and Sunbelt locked in for overflow work but there are still plenty of others that would gladly build that personal relationship.

The other nice part about a Landoll is that it is a trailer, so when the season changes, you park it and hook to a different trailer. I always have said, trailers are cheap to own and park when not needed. Whereas the industrial rollback, well it is expensive to sit when not needed.

 

Landoll is very versatile trailer, most rental companies around here have gone to a folding tail , trail king seems to be the better of them. The rental companies are good customers,some pay 60 days out , but the money is dependable. They will have a variety of different demands for insurance, United is the most expensive to get set up with because of the insurance requirements. If you're in a area with multiple rental places you may find smaller local companies easier to deal with. The bigger the company the more you really need to watch the paperwork , cross it's and dot i's. If you do buy a Landoll or folding tail I'd recommend one with a good winch and a all way remote control. Those 2 things are a life saver for a one man loading dead equipment kinda thing. Also check with local wrecker companies, if they don't have a Landoll there could be times they would use you.

 

I run a landoll type trailer with my current employer when they need something moved.

When I had my own company we had one as well. We had contracts with Hertz and sunbelt rentals. Also with construction companies to move vehicles and equipment from site to site, did some recovery work, but the big payday was the underground mineing equipment we moved .

Think Procon, Cementation as a couple companies. This did require running good i to the mines to deliver so hard on equipm5bit we charged accordingly.

 

My uncle had one for a while, too tall to do much of anything with it and sat in the yard while the low bed strayed hooked

 

Yeah, depending on what you move regularly, the lowboy and a landoll style trailer are really for two different types of work.