Flatbed / Tag Trailers Upcoming Auctions

About Flatbed & Tag Trailers

Unlike flatbed semi-trailers, flatbed and tag trailers can be either connected to a towing vehicle by a gooseneck hitch in the bed of a pickup truck or to a ball or pintle hitch from a vehicle’s frame or bumper. The latter are generally known as “tag trailers” and can connect to a wide variety of towing vehicles, from pickup trucks to SUVs and mid-size cars. Flatbed trailers that attach via gooseneck are often valued for their stability and high payload capacity.

Flatbed Trailer Benefits

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PJ Trailers LD Low-Pro Flatdeck Flatbed Trailer

As their name suggests, flatbed trailers typically lack sides or a cover. This open-air configuration enables them to handle a variety of cargo types, including such items as large construction machinery, landscaping equipment, and much more. 

Constructed of wood, steel, aluminum, and other materials, flatbeds are designed to be easy to load and unload from the rear or either side without requiring the elevation of a loading dock. 

Some flatbed trailers include lips that help keep cargo in place, dropsides that fall away when it’s time to load or unload cargo, or simply removable stakes that provide a little extra load stability. Because flatbeds lack a cover, however, operators must ensure loads are strapped or roped down and protected against the weather and other elements.

Tag Trailer Benefits

Tag trailers (“tag” is short for “tag along” or “tag-a-long”) offer versatility and greater compatibility by connecting to a towing vehicle by either a ball hitch or a pintle hitch on a vehicle’s frame or bumper. For this reason, tag trailer flatbeds might also be called “bumper pull” or “drag” trailers. Pintle hitch models typically support more heavy-duty towing capacity, usually between 10,000 and 40,000 pounds, while featuring similar handling and maneuverability to trailers equipped with a ball hitch.

Manufacturers offer tag trailers in a variety of designs to suit your hauling needs, such as a beavertail (or “dovetail”) sloped extension, a tilting platform, and other features to simplify loading and unloading. Tag trailers are also used by construction crews and farmers to simplify equipment transport; hitching them to the back of a dump truck or tractor allows the operator to haul small construction or landscaping equipment to a destination without the use of a separate vehicle.

Gooseneck Flatbed Trailers

With a gooseneck hitch, the flatbed trailer will mount to the bed of the vehicle, above the rear axle. Distributing the weight over the rear axle helps to improve the trailer’s maneuverability and handling, thanks to greater stability (less trailer sway) and a shorter turn radius. Since the turn radius is sharper than a tag trailer, gooseneck trailers generally require some practice to operate safely. Many gooseneck trailers support up to 30,000-pound payloads, making them extremely capable for hauling equipment. Because the gooseneck hitch requires a custom installation, however, these trailers offer less flexibility in terms of switching between towing vehicles.

Find Your Flatbed & Tag Trailers

You will find hundreds of new and used flatbed and tag trailers for sale every day on TruckPaper.com, including models from such manufacturers as Big Tex Trailers, Diamond C Trailers, Felling Trailers, PJ Trailers, and Trail King, just to name a few.