Fleet Equipment Trail King Trailers

Trail King's Story

The story of how Trail King's reputation was built began in 1974, when Gordon and Shirley Thomsen founded Western Ag Sales purchased another Mitchell-based manufacturing company, Plains Industries, and moved into their manufacturing facility. With this purchase, Western Ag also brought a new line into their product offerings...

A line of trailers called "Trail King".

During the next few years, Western Ag expanded this line to include trailers with many enhanced features to better meet customers' specific hauling needs, such as hydraulic tails and detachable goosenecks. Probably most notable of these was Trail King's development of what many at the time considered the best hydraulic detachable gooseneck in the industry - a system that made hooking up and unhooking a simple, one-person "60-second connection."

As the 1970's drew to a close, the company's emphasis shifted away from the distribution of ag-related equipment in order to focus exclusively on the manufacture of Trail King Trailers.

And to reflect this commitment to the manufacture of trailers only, Western Ag Sales officially changed its name in 1983 to Trail King Industries.

This focus on trailers, and trailers only, led to an expanded product line that included trailers designed not only to address construction-related applications, but to meet the needs of the Commercial and Specialized Hauling markets as well.

Along with this product line expansion came increased sales - which, naturally, came with increased production capability demands. To address this need, Trail King built a new manufacturing plant in 1987, right down the road from its existing facility. At 67,500 square feet, this new plant went a long way toward meeting the ever-increasing demand for Trail King trailers.

But not for long.

So, in 1992, as Trail King sales continued to grow and strain production capacity at the seams, the plant was expanded.

And only two years later, it was expanded again.

Today, the total square footage of Trail King's facilities in Mitchell alone stands at 295,000 square feet, providing state-of-the-art production capabilities for a workforce of over 450 employees.

Up to this time, Trail King had manufactured, almost exclusively, open deck trailers. But that all changed when, in 1995, it acquired the assets of Ti-Brook, Inc. As a respected manufacturer of aluminum dump bodies and end dump trailers, Ti-Brook brought a new Materials Hauling dimension to Trail King's product line.

Then in 2000, Trail King further expanded it product offerings with the purchase of Red River Manufacturing, based in West Fargo, ND. Red River had a well-deserved reputation for manufacturing outstanding live bottom and bottom dump trailers for the agricultural, waste, and construction industries. And, with the 2007 construction of a brand new 160,000-square-foot facility, it has further increased Trail King's ability to meet ever-increasing market demand in an even more timely, efficient, and quality-enhanced way.

TK Advantage Plus

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  New Arched Gooseneck Design The new arched design provides ample truck frame clearance, even at the lowest king pin height setting. The gooseneck l-beam's web, top flange, and bottom flange eature one-piece construction for exceptional strength and durability. Externally mounted gooseneck stirrups are easy to service/replace.

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  5-Position Gooseneck Door Adjustment The five-position adjustment allows for a full 8" range of king pin height settings. The notched setting control bar for the control handle takes the guesswork out of setting the gooseneck doors in the desired position.

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  Safety Lock When the gooseneck cylinder doors are closed in the transit position, a safety pin automatically locks the main pin in place so that it cannot jump out of the pin hole and accidentally disconnect the trailer.

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  V-Shaped Guide The v-shaped guide directs the gooseneck into position during hook-up, making the whole process a quick, easy one-person operation. The guide rim above the pin hole further prevents the main pin from jumping loose during transit.

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  Double-Hinged Ramp andSupport Ledge The 31" loading ramps are double-hinged and reinforced with a support ledge for added strength. Because both hinges rest on the ledge, even heavy track-type equipment can be loaded without risk of "peeling off" the loading ramp.

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  Front Outriggers Heavy-duty pullout front outriggers (standard) provide extra strength at the pivot point where the weight is concentrated during the loading process. Spring-loaded stainless steel latches can be turned and locked in the open position, leaving both hands free to pull out or push in the outrigger.

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  Outrigger Construction I-beam style outriggers are mounted on the top and bottom flange and span the entire width of the side beam for optimum strength and support. Removable pins allow outriggers to be easily removed. Close-set outriggers at mid-deck (standard) prevent planks from tipping up when load rolls over them.

TK Advantage Plus

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  Four-Beam Deck Design The four-beam deck design can accommodate a wide range of loads, whether the weight is concentrated on the outside edges or in the middle of the trailer. The lightweight strength of Trail King's four-beam design also means you haul less trailer, more payload.

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  One-Piece Construction I-beams are constructed of one-piece web and flange material and welded on all four sides to seal and protect the seams from rust. Then the entire trailer is primed and painted with a two-component polyurethane primer and paint before decking and air, hydraulic, and electrical lines are installed for complete protection from the elements - even in places you can't see.

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  Knuckle Trough, 3rd Lift Axle, Boom Trough Lowered cross members covered with 1/4" MF80 steel for a knuckle trough in the rear deck area are new standard. A third lift axle is new standard and, thanks to a new suspension system, lowered cross members through the entire wheel area, including a lowered center section in the rear channel, are also standard.

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  Adjustable Ride Height Control Adjustable ride height control is standard, with the controls conveniently located near the rear tail channel.

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  Sealed Electrical System Rubber-mounted LED lights are standard. as well as a sealed "plug and play" electrical system. Rubber grommets protect the wiring wherever it runs through the frame. And should you forget to disconnect the lines before detaching the gooseneck from the bed, a replaceable jumper cable between the neck and the deck makes replacing a damaged line easy.

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  Cross Members The deck area features 10' I-beam cross members, with 4" stub cross members for 12" centers in the outer bays, for optimum load-hauling strength and no bowing of the decking

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  D-Rings The deck area features seven (7) pairs of heavy-duty bent-style D-rings which wrap around the flange to protect the flange and safety chains from damage. Two additional flat D-rings are mounted on top of the main beam top flanges in the rear wheel area.

Specs