The hotshot trailer: length, type and the mistakes that cost

For general freight, the versatile standard is a 40-foot gooseneck flatdeck. Published hotshot guides agree on it because 40 feet takes most single loads and many paired loads, and a gooseneck puts the weight over the truck's rear axle where it belongs. The right trailer still depends on your freight: a trailer bought for cars does freight poorly, and a trailer bought for freight does cars poorly.

Why 40 feet became the standard

Length is deck you can sell. A shorter trailer turns away loads that would have fit, and it forces awkward loads to hang or sit badly. A much longer trailer adds weight of its own, which takes away from the freight you can legally carry, and it is harder to place in tight yards and farm lanes.

Forty feet is the middle that works for the widest range of work: equipment, building materials, crated freight and vehicles. If your confirmed work is all small and local, a shorter deck can serve. If you do not yet know your freight, 40 feet is the size that closes the fewest doors.

Deck-over against lowboy

• Deck-over. The deck sits over the wheels, so it is flat and full-width from front to back. Crates, pallets, steel and wide equipment sit anywhere on it. The cost is height: the deck is higher off the ground, so loading low machines and steep ramps take more care.
• Lowboy. The deck sits lower, between or in front of the wheels, so machines load easier and tall loads stay lower overall. The cost is the wheel wells and the dropped shape, which break up the flat deck that general freight wants.

Neither is better in the abstract. A driver hauling machines all week feels the lowboy's easier loading every day. A driver hauling mixed freight feels the deck-over's clean flat deck on every load. Match the trailer to the freight you actually have, not the freight you hope for.

Gooseneck against bumper pull

A gooseneck hitch sits in the truck bed, over the rear axle. A bumper pull — also called a tagalong — hitches at the rear bumper or a frame hitch behind the truck.

Can you hotshot with a bumper pull trailer? For light work, yes. As your main freight trailer, it caps you. A bumper-pull hitch carries less hitch weight, and the trailer has more leverage to push the truck around, so sway control becomes the limit long before the deck is full. It is fine for a light local trailer. It is the wrong base for heavy paid freight.

The gooseneck carries more, tracks straighter, and backs and turns in a tighter space. That is why working hotshot rigs are built around it.

Fifth wheel against gooseneck ball

These are two different hitches that both mount in the bed. A gooseneck uses a ball mounted low in the bed, and the trailer coupler drops over it. A fifth wheel uses a raised plate and a kingpin, the same idea as a semi in smaller form.

They are not interchangeable without the right adapter or a changed coupler, and an adapter changes how the load pulls, so use only what the trailer and hitch makers rate for the job. Gooseneck ball is the common hotshot choice because the ball folds or removes and leaves a flat bed when you are not towing. Fifth wheel shows up most on car-hauling and RV-style trailers. Buy the truck hitch and the trailer as a matched pair, not as two separate bargains.

What equipment you need beyond the trailer

The trailer alone does not make you ready to load. Freight has to be secured, covered and loaded, and an officer can stop you for how it is secured, not just what it is.

• Chains and binders for equipment and heavy pieces that straps cannot hold safely.
• Straps in good condition, with their rating tags readable, for crated and lighter freight.
• Tarps large enough for your deck, plus padding to protect freight from chain and strap edges.
• Ramps rated for the machines you plan to load, if your trailer does not have built-in ramps.
• Spare tire, jack and tools that fit this trailer, not the last one.
• Lights, chocks and basic repair gear so a small fault does not strand a paid load at the roadside.

Buy securement for the heaviest and sharpest freight you plan to take, and replace worn straps before an officer or a torn load makes the decision for you.

The wrong-first-trailer mistake

The expensive mistake is buying for the wrong kind of work. A car trailer is built low and narrow in the ways cars want: drive-over fenders or a low deck, car tie-down points, and ratings set for cars. Put general freight on it and you fight the shape on every load, and its ratings often leave less legal freight weight than the deck suggests.

The reverse is just as costly. A heavy freight deck-over makes a poor car hauler: high deck, steep loading, and tie-downs in the wrong places. Drivers who buy one trailer to do both usually end up with a trailer that is ideal for neither, then pay twice — once for the wrong trailer, and again for the right one.

Decide your first freight first. If it is cars, buy the car trailer and work the car doors. If it is freight, buy the freight deck. A second, different trailer later is cheaper than one compromise trailer now.