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I need some advice on trailer. I'm looking to mod it so I can side load to the front of trailer. I want to remove one upright angle iron and top rail between front corner and fender. Will this decrease trailer strength... Any idea is greatly appreciate. Picture shows how I load quads now, pain in the butt... At this point not looking for bigger trailer.

 

If you cut that top rail you are going to seriously compromise the strength of the trailer. With a heavy load towards the front and some road bounce, it could buckle. One way would be to strengthen the trailer by welding on additional beams from the tongue to the front end of the axles. Not a perfect fix in your case since the existing tongue only extends about 2' under the trailer deck. It could still work though - probably take another of the same ~3" C-channel like what is used for the tongue now. Down side is the extra weight, need for a welder and cost of the steel.

A more simple and less expensive fix would be to bolt two 2x10's or 2x12's from side to side on top of the upper rail - leaving all existing rails in place. You may want to add a 2x4 as a side rail and maybe even stop blocks on one end. By doing it this way you could even cheat a little towards the front and overlap that front rail by a few inches - this will give you a little more room to load the quad in the back. It also gives you some room to stash some gear up underneath the front quad. Downside here is that the ATV is riding higher so you have less view out back while towing and it's a little higher angle to load up a ramp. (but still lower than a pick-up bed). Biggest plus is the cost - you could build the whole thing with pressure treated wood for about $30. Another advantage is that if this is a temporary fix, then you could sell this trailer after removing the two planks - all you'd have is a few holes drilled into the top railing.

 

Thanks Jaybee, I was also thinking about removing tailgate and adding 8inchs to trailer length. Quads will fit like that but tires do hang over.

 

I built a ramp out of scrap wood that stays on the inside of my trailer. When I use ramps to ride quad up over side rail, the wood ramp on the inside allows the front wheels to stay higher as the rears are coming up the ramps so the quad does not bottom out on the side rail. It beats the hell out of wrestling the quad sideways and doesn't compromise the trailer at all. I can post a picture later if needed...it is kinda hard to explain in words!

 

If you can post image.... I've been lifting quad by hand but it's getting old fast. Even thought about over laying deck boards to 12ft and remove rear ramp.

 

You could also cut the toprails off on one or both sides where the front ATV sits and lower them to about 2 or 3 inches above the bed. You would still retain the strength of the toprail but it would be much easier to load a quad using a small ramp, and the toprail would also function as a wheelstop.

 

Whether or not the rails are part of the strength/structure of the trailer probably depends on the particular trailer. They may make a flat bed model on the same frame, and the rails may not be needed for strength.

Contacting the maker of the trailer might be worthwhile.

 

Thats another thing that I was thinking about. Wouldn't it be the same as side loading trailer. Here is same brand but it's next size up. I'm going to email maker..http://triplecrowntrailers.com/images/atv-side.jpg

 

Here is a picture of what I was talking about. I use it on a 14 foot trailer to load 2 utility quads on sideways and pull one on the back.

 

It's hard to tell from the pic but the factory side loader should have more of a framework under it than yours. As it is, your trailer has a light frame to define the bed and then has an 'A' frame for the tongue. I would bet that on the factory side loader that the tongue framing continues all the way to just in front of the axle (which was what I was describing in my first post.)

Extending the deck out the back is fairly easy to do but you need to be really careful to keep enough tongue weight. If you do hang a quad out the back, maybe you can offset the balance changes by adding some form of tool or equipment box on the tongue. You need to keep about 15% of the weight on the tongue, otherwise that trailer will wag all over the place.

A lot of how you do this will come down to how much money you want to spend. Steel extensions or reworking can get expensive, unless you have the equipment and know-how to weld. Wooden extensions or ramps are fairly cheap to do.