Demountable Livestock Trailers

Native Hawk

I am currently looking around at cattle / sheep trailers. i am looking into buying possibly a 12' x 6' trailer (maybe a 14'). The Ifor Williams demountable trailers (small wheels underneath) have been catching my eye as a useful trailer as it can also be used as a flatbody also. Has anybody any experience with these trailers? How do they compare to the other type with bigger wheels at the side? Are they hard pulled? What did you find good / bad with them? Any help appreciated! Thanks

lakill Farm

i have a 12x6ft ifor demountable with built in sheep decks. its 2006 i think. I have it 1 year and love it. I prefer it to the 12x5.9ft (landrover wheels.) its easy to pull with a 2.5tdi pajero. its twin axle

I have never taken the body off my own but have pulled a 12ft tri axle ifor. the demountable kit to lift the cattle box of is about €150.

I would never go back to the landrover type wheels, however i dont do massive milage with the trailer. a few times to collect calves, move yearlings and dropping yearling to the mart.

49801

I would not be too sure about the trailers with the wheels underneath myself.... wheels to the side is a lot more stable on the road.

very few people end up using the demount type trailers... its better to get a trailer that is dedicated for the job.

just MO

snowman707

unless you have a very small amount of usage demountable are a sheer PITA,

if you want to go for a pallet of feed the cattle body is on, you come home with your feed and need to collect a sick animal and the body is off .

I agree totally with 49801.. a dedicated trailer for each job and also I am not a fan of the wheels underneath, my neighbour had 1 and only kept it 6 months

Muckit

Native hawk. It appears to me from your other post that you are only getting into or starting back into livestock?

Buy the smallest trailer you can get away with would be my advice. An 8' X 5' (not 4'9") is a lovely sized trailer for behind a jeep. 10 X 5'' max. You'I find most of the time it will be parked in the shed. An 8' X 5' will fit 4 X 280-300kg weanlings or 3 X 400-450kg stores. If you are buying cattle, 3 or 4 is plenty at any one time. Your mind will be addled and you will start to make poor decisions after this, unless of course, you are in the mart every week;)

Bigger isn't always better

Oh and forget about those trailers with the wheels underneath unless you have a death wish. They are fine for sheep, but not heavy cattle. Wheels out the side is the way to go. You have a lower, more stable trailer.

Farmer Pudsey

wheels underneath are a disaster verp prone to punctures if trailer is overloaded. i see acoule of people with demountable trailers they never take the cattle box off or else it is off all the time.
Like Muckit says a 8X5 or 10X5 will do most of your work. 10X5 are easy to buy second hand most people consider them too small for a jeep however a lot of jeeps cannot pulll a full 12X5 legally.
If you go to the mart and buy more than you can carry
two loads or pay someone to bring them home or a neighbour may bring as far as his place got away with this twice last year. If you need to move 10 cattle to an piece of land a distance away 50-70 euro's usually sorts it.

Native Hawk

OK - I think the demountable option is not as good as I first thought. Taking your advice, I am now looking at a 12' trailer with landrover wheels. Can you get a 12' tri axle? Would this be a better option than a twin axle? What makes of trailer would you recommend / not recommend?

Farmer Pudsey

How often will you be useing it will you be moving many cattle a year, how much land have you and are you becoming a cattle dealer?

blue5000

The only good thing about those ifor williams DP120 trailers is that they are very cheap to buy second hand, I wonder why?

AFAIK if they get bent at all it gets very hard to put the cattle body back on. Tyre pressure HAS to be 90 psi, OP unless you have only a few short runs to make stay away.

I used an Ifor tri-axle flat bed 14 ft and found it very stable with 2.5 tons of seed on it. They are a good well built trailer and lots of builder types are trying to sell similiar trailers at the moment.

Muckit

Is your farm fragmented? Are you buying in all your stock? How do you manage at the moment? These are all questions you need to ask yourself truthfully.

... and all of these issues could be resolved in other ways aside from the purchase of a 12' trailer...set stocking of outfarms to meet grass demand (remove/introduce 2-3 animals at key times - only requires small trailer), paying a lad for haulage if you are purchasing/selling same age animals etc etc.

A half loaded big trailer is a potentially dangerous towing partner behind a jeep. Live loads are very different to dead loadings.

Keep all your options open

Juniorhurler

49801 wrote: »

I would not be too sure about the trailers with the wheels underneath myself.... wheels to the side is a lot more stable on the road.

very few people end up using the demount type trailers... its better to get a trailer that is dedicated for the job.

just MO

Agree 100%.

Somebody else said that there are a lot of builders selling trailers now, but they still ain't cheap. I have been looking for a dropside one for a while now as i have an outfarm and it would be fierce handy about the place for moving feed, fert. etc about and they are hard bought still.

The only thing about the demountables is the wheels underneath are nice and tidy in traffic if you are crossing towns a bit. Having said this I have a 12x5'9" with wheels outside and love it.

Juniorhurler

Muckit wrote: »

Is your farm fragmented? Are you buying in all your stock? How do you manage at the moment? These are all questions you need to ask yourself truthfully.

... and all of these issues could be resolved in other ways aside from the purchase of a 12' trailer...set stocking of outfarms to meet grass demand (remove/introduce 2-3 animals at key times - only requires small trailer), paying a lad for haulage if you are purchasing/selling same age animals etc etc.

A half loaded big trailer is a potentially dangerous towing partner behind a jeep. Live loads are very different to dead loadings.

Keep all your options open

I have an outfarm that is wet and the home farm is dry so at times depending on weather I want to move a lot of stock one way or the other. For example I finish the last rotation on the outfarm first every year. This year in March when we had the dry spell all stock went out and two and a half weeks later they were home. There is 8 miles from farm to farm. We would not even contemplate doing that with the jeep and box, we have a 20' trailer for behind the tractor and its a great job.

9935452

Native Hawk wrote: »

I am currently looking around at cattle / sheep trailers. i am looking into buying possibly a 12' x 6' trailer (maybe a 14'). The Ifor Williams demountable trailers (small wheels underneath) have been catching my eye as a useful trailer as it can also be used as a flatbody also. Has anybody any experience with these trailers? How do they compare to the other type with bigger wheels at the side? Are they hard pulled? What did you find good / bad with them? Any help appreciated! Thanks

I have a 12x6'6" demountable ifor williams. It suits us to the fround as we only have a small amount of cattle to move, and occasionally we take off the body for other jobs.
15 minutes when you know how, no loader needed.

But they are unstable, i have heard of numerous ones beng turned over going around corners.
Smaller wheels dont travel well in fields eithre.
We dont have a jeep to pull it, so it is taken by a tractor. I deliberately got one that most jeeps legally cant pull so no one would want to borrow it, ie end up doing damage or getting disease from them. The trailer is rated to 3.5ton.

I would stay away from any trailer that has sheep decks. Alot of weight high up puts stress on the body.

One chap i was talking to had a tri axel and wouldn't go back to double axel. He reckons that they pull way better on the road , no snaking

Native Hawk

My farm is fragmented alright. With regards to the mart, I anticipate I will be going around 2 / 3 times a year. I am sick of borrowing / begging for lend of trailers of my neighbours and would like the comfort of having my own. With regards to size - I think a 12' would be a good size for me, I now realize that 14' is just too big and 10' might do but would hate to have to do 2 runs for the sake of one extra animal! rom looking around the 12' Ifor Williams with big wheels looks a good trailer although I am keeping a lookout for a 12' tri-axle. I met one one the road yesterday with smaller fat wheels outside the cattle box - looked low to the ground and very stable - does anybody know who manufactures these?

denis086

Native Hawk wrote: »

I met one one the road yesterday with smaller fat wheels outside the cattle box - looked low to the ground and very stable - does anybody know who manufactures these?

my first thought was nugent but it might have been a hudson trailer they do look fairly well planted to be fair we had our tri axle ifor with the wheels out the side beside it and it looked a hell of alot nicer

jimmy G M

On our third Ifor Williams 12' x 5'8'' purchased aprox 2 mths ago. Wheels outside. Seriously considered one with wheels underneath, however didn't go with it in the end for the points already made here - less stable, more punctures, not as good in the field etc.

Sold the previous one privately (8 yr old in v. good condition) @ €3,800, new one cost €5,800 just ta give you a guide on price.