Hauling a Case cx160 excavator with a dump truck.

I bought a new to me larger excavator. After looking for several years, I found something that I hope is about right for my truck and trailer, a Case CX160. I have not been able to determine the actual machine weight because it is listed as different amounts. The lowest I have seen is 28,500 lbs. But most every where online shows it weighting 36,500.00 lbs to 38,000 lbs. I have a tandem dump truck and an 20 ton eager beaver trailer. The trailer length is about right for a Cat 953, the truck does ok pulling the track loader. My trailer load capacity is 48,000 lbs and the trailer weight is about 9500 lbs. 20 ton pintle hitch. The machine I bought is 200 miles from me and I am wondering if I make the drive, if i can get it on my trailer and get it home. Would the boom go towards the cab or the rear of the trailer. The 953 puts the weight right on top of the trailer axles. Will I able to haul this with my dump truck or do I have too much excavator? My avatar shows my truck and trailer. If you right click it and open it in a new tab you can see my trailer better. I am worried about the tongue weight. What do you think?

Where are you at? If you are running the federal axle rule, you can't haul that and keep under the 34,000 pound limit on a tandem trailer. A 3 axle trailer hauls it with no questions. You may be able to fix that with a permit. .Load it up and knuckle it in tight with the boom to the back and everything curled up and laid between the tracks. Measure the top of the machine to the deck and the deck height to know how tall you are running. It will be close to 13', only 6" below the legal height. Ritchie brothers specs it at a little over 10' so the 3' deck gets you to 13'.

13.5ft? It's 15 here. Didn't realize it was so low elsewhere. 10.5 wide.

Well heck. It never crossed my mind that it could be a wide load. I wonder how much tongue weight I will have if I back it onto the trailer. Sure seems like a big counter weight. I will not need to get on an interstate but I have never been on the back roads that way so I don't know what bridges there are. Something that seems so straight forward now has a pucker factor.

It is not a wide load, it is 8'6" according to all the sources I can check, and all of them have the weight at around 36000 pounds. My 10' comment is the height not width. The 200's are wide but the 160 was made for no fuss hauling, across all the competitive brands. https://www.ritchiespecs.com/model/case-cx160-hydraulic-excavator https://www.constructionequipmentguide.com/charts/excavators/case/cx160/2544

If you are in Georgia you can haul 20,340 pounds per axle on a tandem, for a total of 40680 pounds.' https://oversize.io/regulations/axl... Route Gross Weight:,4 axles is 70,000 pounds . 36,200 excavator 9,500 trailer 45,700 total I run about 6000 pounds of tongue weight with my 120. I have to meet the 34000 pound tandem rule. You need to run a bit over 5000 on the tongue to be legal. It will be fine. It may take a few moves to figure out the driving sweet spot.

Thanks Sky King, I notice that the axles on your trailer seem more centered than mine. Mine are further to the rear of the trailer. Is it possible that the machine might need to be loaded with the boom forward?

Yes, if that is your truck you are a little forward eh? Note that the end of the tracks are even with the back axle in my setup, and that leaves me with 34,000 exactly on the rears and the ~6000 on tongue. You are way forward of that. I'd go even up or even a bit aft of that back axle with the end of the track. Remember that you will fine tune it after a short drive to get the sweet spot. I can drive across the state scales here when they are out of service, but if that is not an option you might just go pay $10 to get a scale ticket at a CAT scale or a rock pit. Drive on slow, let it stabilize as each axle comes on to the scale and note each weight. Then you are no longer guessing and you can tune it up right there.

I pulled my CX160 and now 160X4 with a triaxle trailer and 4 axle Mack dump truck. I wouldn't pull that with a double axle trailer. You are way heavy on the hitch as the pic shows and you may want to curl the bucket up against the arm and lower the boom more. It appears you are traveling about about 1 foot higher than you need to be. I have a prolink thumb and hyd coupler and I am just under 40k. If you ran that over a scale I think you would find your overweight on the truck axle and putting an aweful lot of faith in the pintle hitch. A triaxle trailer would make it tow much better and get some weight off the hitch.

Meh. Looks good. Just make sure you get a hitch like this. Pintle Hook | Holland | Air Cushioned Rigid Mount | 50 Ton Holland PH-550 pintle hook with air cushioned rigid mount. Not able to find the right pintle hook? Call Mike at 1-800-358-4751 or visit TruckSpring.com. www.truckspring.com

Those are good, the dump truck has a Buyers with the air gate on it similar to that. No knocking like that loose pintle on the 1 ton. As suggested by @KSSS above, you may not be knuckled in as tight as you can be. When all is said and done, I climb up and drop a tape down so I know what I am running. My trailer has no deck between the deck frame rails, and I welded some channel in that the stick rests on, I get it lower that way.

That don't look good. Almost the entire excavator is forward of the front duals on the trailer. Run that over a CAT scale and at least know how your loaded.

What should the truck rear tandem have on it?

Here is what mine looks like on a Triaxle.

Very nice ksss. How much weight should be on the truck tandems axle?

State limits are the most important ones, as these will determine how much and if you can move within that state. Again, there are two numbers you need to know, the maximum legal and maximum permitted weight. When you know those two numbers, you'll have three ranges, for example for Texas, maximum legal weight on a tandem is 34,000 pounds and maximum permitted weight is 46,000 pounds. That is, you can load your tandem up to 34,000 without purchasing a permit, you can load 34,000..46,000 with a permit, and if your tandem is loaded over 46,000 you cannot legally enter the state of Texas I googled this. Your State may have something different.

Like I said, you're way forward. You need to have the tracks back over the rear axle on that trailer so at least flush with it. @KSSS I posted his limits up there above, he's in Georgia so he can run up to 40k on those two axles on the trailer. I'd get more weight over those axles and less on pintle.

Ok. I understand the legal limits. I was more asking if you had a preference on how much you want on the truck. My trailer tires are only good for 4500 lbs each x 8 means that the trailer cannot have more than 36 K on the tandems, which is inline with the federal 34 k limit. Truck weighs 26,500 lbs, trailer is about 10,000 lbs and machine weight is to be determined. I am guessing I need at least 25 k on the truck tandems...

Georgia Iron said: Ok. I understand the legal limits. I was more asking if you had a preference on how much you want on the truck. My trailer tires are only good for 4500 lbs each x 8 means that the trailer cannot have more than 36 K on the tandems, which is inline with the federal 34 k limit. Truck weighs 26,500 lbs, trailer is about 10,000 lbs and machine weight is to be determined. I am guessing I need at least 25 k on the truck tandems... Click to expand... You're going to needing at least 28k on the drivers, because with a pintle, you're only going to end up with about 10k on the steer, if you're lucky. I think he has that hoe right where it needs to be. We hauled a 25 ton hoe for 10 years on a 25 ton tag trailer. Steer had 9k, drivers had 29k, and trailer had 48k, with the hoe 18" from the front of the trailer.

Shimmy1 said: You're going to needing at least 28k on the drivers, because with a pintle, you're only going to end up with about 10k on the steer, if you're lucky. I think he has that hoe right where it needs to be. We hauled a 25 ton hoe for 10 years on a 25 ton tag trailer. Steer had 9k, drivers had 29k, and trailer had 48k, with the hoe 18" from the front of the trailer. Click to expand... I agree with that, but my preference would be more rubber on the trailer than the 4500 pound tires he has, and the excavator farther back. The way it is that is the way it has to sit. OP, scale for your trailer axles. Go get a load ticket on a scale, and move on. Keep in mind when you load that hard behind the axle on a pintle hitch, it will do some umwelcome pushing in downhill corners. Nothing that can't be handled but the first time it happens on a slick rainy day it is an eye opener. It is not the same as a tractor 5th wheel, it gets a little more leverage on you.