How to Safely Load a Tractor or Skid Steer on an Equipment Trailer

What is the most dangerous part of hauling a tractor? Loading it. More people get hurt driving a machine onto a trailer than anywhere else in the process, and almost all of it comes down to a few avoidable mistakes.

Here is how to do it right.

Pick your spot before you start

Level ground matters more than anything else.

If the trailer is parked on a slope, the ramp angle changes and the machine can shift as it crosses onto the deck. A side slope is worse, because the machine can lean as the weight transfers.

Find flat ground. If you truly cannot, park so the trailer points uphill rather than sitting across the slope.

You also want a dry surface. A wet deck or a wet ramp cuts your traction badly, and a machine that starts sliding on a ramp is very hard to stop.

Give yourself a straight approach with plenty of room behind the trailer. You do not want to be correcting your line while you are already on the ramp.

Set the tow vehicle

Leave the trailer hitched to the truck while you load. An unhitched trailer can tip when the machine’s weight crosses the axles.

Put the truck in park. Set the parking brake. On a manual, leave it in gear.

Chock the trailer wheels if you have chocks. It takes ten seconds.

Walk the deck first

Before anything drives on, look at the deck.

Clear off dirt, gravel, leaves, mud, and anything left from the last load. Loose material under a tire is exactly how a machine slips sideways.

Check that the tilt deck is fully lowered and locked in position, or that ramps are fully seated and pinned.

Know your clearance

This is where a tilt deck earns its keep.

With ramps, there is a bend where the ramp meets the deck. A machine with a long wheelbase and low clearance can bottom out right at that bend. A tractor with a loader out front can catch the bucket before the front tires even reach the deck.

A hydraulic tilt deck lowers the whole back of the trailer instead, creating one smooth slope with no bend. That is why our tilt deck equipment trailer handles compact tractors and skid steers well. There is nothing to high-center on.

Before you drive on, look at the lowest point of your machine and picture it crossing the slope.

Drive on slowly and in a straight line

Slow means slower than you think. Idle speed, low gear.

Line up straight before you start. Do not try to correct your angle once the front wheels are on the ramp. If you are crooked, back off, reset, and start over. It costs thirty seconds.

Keep steering input to a minimum. Small corrections only.

Do not stop halfway up. Momentum interruptions in the middle of the ramp are where things go wrong. Pick your line, commit, and roll on steadily.

Which direction?

It depends on where the weight is.

Most tractors load nose first. The engine and the loader are up front, so driving on forward puts the heavy end forward, which is what you want.

Skid steers are usually loaded with the heavy end forward too. On most skid steers that means backing on, since the engine sits at the rear. Check your machine.

Zero-turn mowers often have the engine at the back, so backing on is frequently the better balance.

The goal is the same regardless: about 60 percent of the weight ahead of the trailer’s axles.

Nobody stands behind or beside the machine

This is the rule that keeps people alive.

Never stand behind a machine that is being loaded. If it loses traction and rolls back, there is nowhere for you to go.

Never stand beside the ramps either. A machine that slips off the edge comes down fast.

If you have a spotter, put them well off to the side, forward of the trailer, where the operator can see them and they are clear of any path the machine could take.

Once it is on the deck

Position it, then shut it down properly.

Lower the loader bucket all the way to the deck. Lower any three-point implement. This drops the center of gravity, takes bounce out of the ride, and reduces the load on the front axle.

Put the machine in park or in gear. Set the parking brake. Turn it off. Take the key.

Then secure it. Four-point tie-downs, chains for equipment, angled out and down at roughly 45 degrees, connected to real tie-down points on the machine and real anchor points on the trailer. Our post on securing a load on a trailer covers the details.

Unloading is the same in reverse

Same rules apply, and people relax too soon at this stage.

Level ground. Trailer still hitched. Remove tie-downs only after the machine is settled and only when nobody is standing in the path. Raise implements just enough to clear. Roll off slowly and straight.

Do not release the last chain and then walk behind the machine.

The short version

Level ground, dry deck, trailer hitched, wheels chocked. Straight approach, slow speed, no stopping partway. Heavy end forward. Nobody behind or beside. Lower everything and secure it properly before you move.

Loading a machine gets routine fast. The habits you build the first few times are the ones that keep it routine.

Questions about a specific machine? Get in touch or see our trailers.

Serving Montevallo, Alabaster, Pelham, Calera, Helena, and the south Birmingham metro.