trailer gate length

[seymour_glass]

OK, seriously, how long are your guys' drop gates on your trailers?
I just payed 800 bucks for a 5 X 8, my first trailer, got it home only to find that the mower hangs up on the gate. Now, I can get it up, but its a bit of a pain. I realize thats its also partly due to the fact that I have a fixed deck walkbehind, but I'm still wondering if I bought the wrong trailer. I honestly didn't even consider gate length when looking at trailers, but I don't think I saw any other trailers with gates longer than the own I got. Still, I'm wondering if I made a stupid, and costly, mistake.
So - My trailer gate is 4 feet, how long is yours?

 

[Gilla Gorilla]

My gates are 4 foot also. I think that you will find that 4 foot is a pretty typical length for a landscape trailer, although I have seen a few 5 and 6 footers running around. Most are 4 though

 

[Fishin LCO]

Mine is 4 also, try going up it at an angle

 

[CELS]

I've got a 5 footer on mine. My Kubotas load and unload without any problems, but I have and older JD STX38 rider that hangs up on the gate.

 

[Shady Brook]

I have the same exact problem. My biggest concern is my Stander. It hangs up terrible! A walkbehind is easy, as you can just pop a wheelie and get up. You can with a stander as well, but it can get kind of interesting. My Super Z also catches a little bit.

I am trying to figure out if I go to 5 foot ramps, if it will make any difference for the stander? I have lost my geometry/trig skills, but was thinking if I could find the ramp angle on my old trailer, could tell pretty close what the ramp length would need to be to achieve the same angle on the new. The Dove tail may through a wrench in the deal though.

Jay

 

[Tharrell]

I had mine reworked to a longer length because of this problem. You can maybe weld some small blocks on the edge to lift the overall gate or maybe check your hitch. Do you have a drop down hitch?

 

[Tharrell]

Mine is 5 ft. Here's a photo.

 

[Kelly's Landscaping]

That's experience when I worked for someone else we had that problem so I made sure when I left I did not make the same mistake. Trailer one my baby has a 4 1/2 foot gate with drop axles that fixed the problem before it ever began. Trailer two doesn't have drop axles but has a 4 foot 8 inch gate and has also eliminated mower hang ups. It isn't a laughing matter when you hang up on the spindles infact my former employer ruined his brand new lazer deck that way day one. So he's been cutting with a bent deck ever since if its realy hanging up the mower the spindles can bend or pull the deck out of level. Something to think on BEFORE you buy a trailer.

 

[seymour_glass]

Thanks so much for all the help everyone! So it seems that 4ft is pretty much the standard, but some of you guys use longer ones if needed and/or drop axles. So I guess those are my only two options, and I will look into both and see which would be cheaper.

Summer is coming up in full heat now though, so I'll be raising my blades a bit this up coming week. This might be a temporary work around and solve the problem for now at least, but something will eventually have to be done.

CurrituckCaretaker and Shady Brook - popping a wheelie does work, but it's annoying to do and can be dangerous!

Shady - haha, i guess that would be interesting! But dangerous too. Figuring out the legnth is easy! (But i can only say that since I just took geometry anyways, cuz I know I aint gonna remember **** soon...) All you need to know, obviously, is the height of the tailer and the angle of the gate. I'm not sure wether it would be more practical to measure the top angle or the bottom angle, but assuming you know the top angle:
length of gate would = height of trailer / sin of the angle. It's all right angles, baby...

Tharrell - I was thinking something similer actually, maybe just bolting some wood to the edge to lift the gate up. I haven't completely rulled it out, but it seems to me that would make it harder to get the mower up over the edge. As for the hitch, I don't know what a drop hitch is, but I do know that I have the biggest/tallest drawbar I could find, and I can't get the front of the trailer any higher. Don't laugh now, but thats mostly because I don't have a truck, but a car, so the hitch is much lower.

Kelly's Landscaping - Good advice, which will be well-heeded next time I go out for a trailer! Even more so, because I know it's the bolts going through the spindles that the gate is catching on! So I admit it, I'm a moron....

Thank you so much everybody!

edit-
holy **** that was long!

 

[seymour_glass]

hey! I got censored! haha