Mechanical vs Hydraulic Goose Neck trailers.

Are you saying without blocks in you have 12" under the deck to the road? On mine if I pull the blocks I have 4" of clearance, that's low enough to run down the road. If I need lower for a short time I just retract the pins and let it on down but it's close to the fenders, I've been waiting on Talbert to join the band wagon and build a high arch neck. They do build what they call a ratchet neck now. It has a height adjustment like a Fontaine, a set of dogs that engage a set of notches controlled by a lever. They said they would even retro my trailer to that, I would like that instead of carrying different blocks. They did build a trailer for a while called a Phelan, it was a Talbert with a Fontaine style neck. From the neck back it was identical to a Talbert but the neck was A Fontaine clone, they didn't sell very well. I think Phelan was an old trailer company Talbert bought, I also think they had/have a big wig named Phalen so I don't know the real story.
Here's a pic of one someone posted here a while back, from the neck back it's pure Talbert.

 

Phelan trailers were built in Nashville,TN many years ago. They made a world of fixed neck dovetail trailers mostly used by dirtwork contractors to move their dozers and such. You still see quite a few of them around here on farms and such. They haven't been in business in quite a long time, one would assume Talbert ended up with the rights to the name somewhere along the way.

Yes, in my lowest position the front of the trailer is 12" form the bottom of the trailer to the ground. I do have a high 5th wheel. Only way to get it any lower is to let it ride on the cylinders, which I've done to get under a obstacle but wouldn't want to run down the road like that.

I like the ratchet neck which is what I had on my old Dynaweld. I also liked that the neck support on the Dynaweld went all the way across the truck frame. On my Talbert, it's just a single rod that hits on the rear crossmember. Sometimes if you get on a little side hill with the neck unhooked it will slide off to one side. Then you have to let the neck down on the ground and just drag it back around straight.

Does anybody know when the first detachable neck trailer was produced? Rumor has it around here that a local heavy haul outfit (McCord Heavy and Specialized Hauling) were the first and Talbert copied their design to produce the first commercially available detach trailers. We do have one of the old McCord detach trailers and the title is a 1953.

 

I think they go back before the 50' I seen one that used a cable instead of hydralics to take the neck off you had to have like a tulsa 64 on your truck Phelan trailer was bought by Rogers in the early or mid 80's and built some trailers in nashville branded Phalan-Rogers . One of the toughest fixed neck trailers ever built in my opion

 

Look up the temisko trailer rgn out on notre Dame du Nord quebec (same location as el rodeo du camion) about ten different height adjustments without doing anything to the gooseneck. By far best design I have seen

 

I don't have one and have never pulled one, but my impression is that they are a good mid-range (price) trailer. Far better than Witzco, but not as good or as expensive as TrailKing or Aspen.

 

my first choice is a fontaine. second trailking, which I own now. talberts had a history of cracking at the front of deck. but they have since redesigned to fix that. I just strapped all four rails on my trailking and welded stiffeners on the outer rails. didn't need it still had original arch but the machines I haul are pretty heavy in a 12 ft area. a 587 cat goes about 95000 to 105000 depending on the attachments and the 594's I move every now and then are about the same. strapping it just helps in getting a longer life out of the wagon.

 

Strapping?

 

I assume he's talking about welding a flat bar on the bottom of the beams, the length of the deck. We've done that before. The heat of welding along the bottom will cause the metal to draw and put some arch back in the beams.