Gooseneck Car Haulers and Gooseneck Cargo Trailers in Louisiana: What to Buy and What to Tow It With
Gooseneck Car Haulers and Gooseneck Cargo Trailers in Louisiana: What to Buy and What to Tow It With
Two searches bring more people to our site than almost any other and leave most of them without an answer: "gooseneck car hauler near me" and "gooseneck cargo near me." They are really two different trailers, and sometimes three. This is the plain-English guide we give customers on the lot at 2601 SE Evangeline Thruway in Lafayette, written for the buyer who already knows a bumper-pull is not enough and wants to know what comes next.
What people mean by "gooseneck cargo"
A gooseneck is a trailer that hitches to a ball in the bed of a pickup, over the rear axle, instead of to the bumper. That is the whole definition. What rides on top of it is a separate choice:
- Gooseneck flatbed, also called a gooseneck equipment trailer or gooseneck car hauler. An open wood or steel deck with a dovetail and ramps at the back. This is the trailer that hauls skid steers, tractors, mini excavators, two cars, hay, pipe and the general "cargo" of a working business. When a Louisiana contractor types "gooseneck cargo," nine times out of ten this is what they are picturing.
- Enclosed gooseneck cargo trailer. A box trailer on a gooseneck frame: a rolling garage for a race car, a mobile workshop, a show rig or a car hauler that keeps the vehicle out of the weather. Both of the enclosed brands we carry, Rock Solid Cargo and Wells Cargo, build gooseneck versions to order, and the gooseneck lets you go longer and heavier than any bumper-pull box can.
- Gooseneck dump or roll-off. The same hitch under a dump bed or a Drop-N-Go roll-off frame. Different job, same reasons to go gooseneck.
If you are not sure which one you are shopping for, the deciding question is weather. If the load can get wet, buy the flatbed; it costs less, weighs less and loads from three sides. If the load cannot get wet, or it has to be locked up overnight on a job site, buy the box.
Why a gooseneck instead of a bigger bumper-pull
Payload is the first reason. A tandem-axle bumper-pull equipment trailer tops out around 14,000 lb GVWR, and a triple-axle around 21,000 lb. A gooseneck on two 10,000 lb axles is rated 24,000 lb, and on 12,000 lb axles it reaches 30,000 lb. Subtract the trailer's own weight and a 24K gooseneck carries roughly 17,000 to 18,000 lb of machine, which is a full-size skid steer plus attachments, a compact track loader with a trailer full of pallets, or two pickups.
Stability is the second. A gooseneck puts about a quarter of the loaded trailer weight on the truck's rear axle instead of hanging it off the bumper. The result is a rig that does not sway at highway speed on I-10 with a crosswind, turns tighter than you expect for its length, and backs into a job site driveway without the pendulum effect a long bumper-pull has. Our earlier post on gooseneck versus bumper pull goes deeper on the physics.
The third reason is deck length. Bumper-pulls get awkward past 24 feet. Goosenecks are comfortable at 30 and normal at 40, because the hitch is over the axle and not behind it.
The gooseneck car hauler, sized for Louisiana work
Width. A 102-inch deck is the standard for a car hauler or equipment gooseneck, because it fits a full-size truck or a skid steer with room for straps. The 83-inch width that works on bumper-pulls is too narrow for most of what people buy a gooseneck to carry.
Length. Thirty feet handles two cars, or one piece of equipment with room for a bucket and attachments. Twenty-five feet is enough for a single machine and is easier in town. Thirty-two to forty feet is hot shot territory: see our hot shot gooseneck buying guide before you buy that long, because the truck and the licence requirements change with it.
Axles and tires. Two 10,000 lb Dexter axles with electric brakes on both, on 10-ply 16-inch tires in a dual configuration, is the 24K setup. Duals matter more than people think: a blown tire on a dual axle gets you to the shoulder; on singles it can put the trailer in the ditch. Step up to 12,000 lb axles and 14-ply tires for the 30K rating if you haul at the limit every day.
Low-pro or deckover. A low-profile gooseneck runs the deck between the fenders, lower to the ground, which makes loading a car or a tracked machine easier and keeps the centre of gravity down. A deckover runs the full width over the wheels and gives you an uninterrupted flat deck for pallets, hay or anything wide. For a car hauler, low-pro wins. For bulk freight, deckover.
The dovetail and ramps. A 5-foot self-cleaning dovetail with MAX Ramps is the setup we recommend on every equipment gooseneck. The ramps are spring-assisted and fold flat, so one person can load a skid steer in a minute without lifting a 90-pound slide-in ramp out of the rear tube. For a straight car hauler, slide-in ramps are fine and save money.
Things that are not options. Electric brakes on every axle: Louisiana requires brakes on any trailer rated over 3,000 lb, and a gooseneck is well past that. LED lights. A spare tire and mount. D-rings welded, not bolted. A front toolbox between the risers, because the hitch area is dead space otherwise. A winch plate so the day you buy a winch it has somewhere to go.
What is on the lot, and what is a factory order
As of this week our yard has a Load Trail 102x30 Low-Pro gooseneck rated 24,000 lb: two 10,000 lb Dexter spring axles with brakes on both, duals, a 5-foot self-clean dove with MAX Ramps, treated wood floor, 16-inch cross-members, a full-width front toolbox, MAX-Steps, LED lights, winch plate and rub rail, in black powder coat over primer. It is a car hauler, an equipment trailer and a hot shot starter in one unit, and it is the only one of its kind on the ground in Lafayette this month. Our inventory page shows its live price and photographs, and whether it has sold.
Everything else gooseneck is a factory order through us from Load Trail's Texas plant, usually two to four weeks out: 102-inch low-pro goosenecks at 25, 28 and 32 feet rated 14K, 22K and 24K; gooseneck deckover dump trailers from 14K to 21K; a tandem-dual 102x20 gooseneck dump rated 24K; and Drop-N-Go roll-off frames for the dumpster business. The current factory list is on our Load Trail factory stock page. Enclosed gooseneck cargo trailers from Rock Solid Cargo or Wells Cargo are quoted to your spec; call and we will price one.
Beside the goosenecks sit the bumper-pull alternatives, for the buyer who reads this far and decides 14,000 or 21,000 lb is enough: a Load Trail 83x24 triple-axle equipment trailer rated 21K, two 83x22 car hauler / equipment trailers rated 14K with MAX Ramps, and a Falcon 83x20 car hauler rated 7K. Our Load Trail versus Falcon comparison explains the difference between the two brands.
The truck you need
A 24K gooseneck wants a one-ton pickup, and a dually is the comfortable choice once you load it. A three-quarter-ton can legally pull many 14K goosenecks and some 22K ones, but check two numbers in your door jamb and owner's manual before you buy: the gooseneck tow rating and the rear axle weight rating. The pin weight of a loaded gooseneck, about 20 to 25 percent of the trailer's gross, lands on that rear axle along with whatever is in the bed. Our free towing check does the arithmetic for your truck and the trailer you are looking at.
You will also need a gooseneck ball in the bed. Factory puck systems on 2016-and-newer heavy-duty trucks take a drop-in ball; older trucks need an under-bed hitch installed. Budget for that, and for a seven-way plug and a brake controller if the truck does not already have one.
The CDL question, briefly
Here is the line most buyers care about: if the truck's rating plus the trailer's rating adds up to more than 26,001 lb, and the trailer is rated over 10,001 lb, operating that combination commercially requires a Class A commercial licence. A one-ton pickup rated around 11,000 to 14,000 lb with a 24K gooseneck is over the line for commercial use. Behind a half-ton or three-quarter-ton with a 14K gooseneck, you are usually under it. Farm use and personal use have their own exemptions. We wrote the whole thing up, with Louisiana's licence classes, in Do You Need a CDL to Tow a Gooseneck in Louisiana. Read it before you buy the big one, not after.
Paying for it
A gooseneck is a business purchase for most of our customers, and it is financed like one. Standard bank financing and rent-to-own are both available through our financing page, and buyers who put the trailer into service before December 31 should talk to their accountant about the Section 179 deduction we covered earlier this month. Free delivery within 50 miles of Lafayette applies to every gooseneck we sell, and we deliver regularly to Broussard, Youngsville, New Iberia, Opelousas, Lake Charles, Baton Rouge and Alexandria.
One more thing we get asked after a gooseneck conversation: the trailer that hauls a kitchen is a different animal, and we build those too. If what you need to move is a restaurant, start with our custom food trailer builder instead.
Come stand next to one
The fastest way to know whether you need a 30-foot gooseneck or a 22-foot bumper-pull is to stand on the dovetail of each with your truck parked beside it. The 102x30 is on the gravel at 2601 SE Evangeline Thruway, Lafayette, Monday to Friday 8 to 5 and Saturday 8 to noon. Call 337.504.3820, text 337.279.2620 with a photo of what you haul, or bring the machine and we will load it.