Why does a trailer need a dovetail?

In my experience, the dove tail, in combination with a tilt bed will allow loading without any ramps.

Paul

The big thing with a beavertail trailer is that you can use shorter ramps and the drop on the tail also allows loading of some items without a ramp. Long ramps will work BUT the longer the ramp the heavier it has to be to carry the load. Those long HEAVY ramps get old really quick...

Around here it is usually referred to as a beaver tail rather than dove tail but same thing.

If you mostly do vehicles, you will like the beaver tail, much easier to load. Most vehicles have some sort of rear overhang, you need the trailer there to attach tie downs but level is not important. If you mostly haul steel or lumber, the beaver tail is a pain. You need to support the ends of the steel/lumber, you can't load pallets on the back end.

We load a race car with full ground effects fairings on the front and 3" of ground clearance in the middle onto a flat trailer. I have to pick a good spot to load it, set up long ramps, then add some strategic 2x10's and assorted blocks to get up 18" in the air.

Sounds like you want the flat versi> I'm thinking about getting an open trailer for general hobby use

I've seen equipment trailers that had a set of ramps that pretty near turned the beavertail back into a flat area when they were folded up onto the back of the trailer. Or you could build a steel tube framed filler for the times you need to have a dead flat bed, and pop it off when you want to load a wheeled vehicle.

Although I don't have any names or links for you, I *have* seen hinged, beavertail trailers where the beavertail is raised up level with the trailer bed (I believe hydraulically) for normal transportation. Lowered for loading cars, etc., but left up for "flat" loads. The hinged beavertail seems to be a good design improvement where you can meet both demands. Ken.

I have a 14' trailer that I built for my racecar and the bed is flat. The ramps I built are made with 1' X 1'. .090 steel tube with diamond plate welded on top and hinges in the middle and they will, indeed, bend. I cured that problem with a pair of HF aluminum jack stands which I place just forward of the hinge line. Works great. I've even hauled the '81 Corvette on it. The ramps fold up to about 4' and are stowed across the rear of the trailer with two shortened ratchet straps. Made a hook for the trailer end of the ramps out of 1" angle iron and that fits into a slot formed with 2" by 1/4" strap that goes the width of the rear of the trailer. That way you can adjust the width of the ramps to suit different vehicles.

Jim