Utility, flatbed, enclosed, dump
The first question is not what you are hauling. It is what you are hauling it with.
Every yard in the county will let you pick a trailer off a list and then find out in the gravel that your ball is the wrong size, your truck has no plug for the lights, or the thing you have hitched needs brakes you do not have. So this page asks about your vehicle first, tells you which half of the yard you can actually leave with, and then prices it.
Go and look at the back of your truck
Four numbers are already stamped on your hitch. They decide everything.
You do not need to know anything about trailers to rent one. You need these four, and every one of them is written on parts you already own, usually in raised letters you have never had a reason to read.
Read them out to us on the phone and the conversation takes ninety seconds. Turn up without them and we will read them for you in the yard, but you may have driven out for a trailer you cannot legally tow.
- Ball diameterStamped on the top of the ball itself. Almost always 1⅞, 2 or 2 5/16 inches. A coupler will happily sit down on a ball one size too small and feel closed. It is not closed, and that is how trailers come off on the highway.
- Receiver class and ratingOn the sticker or plate on the receiver tube under the bumper. It gives a maximum trailer weight and a maximum tongue weight, and the tongue figure is the one people blow through first.
- Tongue weight you can carryAbout ten to fifteen percent of the loaded trailer should be pressing down on the ball. Too little and it sways at fifty five. Too much and your front wheels get light.
- Lighting plugLook at the socket by the receiver. Four flat pins runs lights only. Seven round pins also carries the brake signal and the charge line, and without one of those you cannot run an electric-braked trailer no matter what else is right.
The real thing, coupled and chained. The stamped plate at the left is number two on the list, and it is the one nobody has ever read.
Everything in this yard sits on one side of
3,000 LB
Gross weight, meaning the trailer plus everything on it, not the empty trailer. Missouri treats a trailer over that figure differently from one under it: over it, the trailer needs brakes the driver can operate from the cab, and it needs a plate. Under it, most of that goes away. This is why the rest of this page is in two columns and stays that way.
The half you can almost certainly tow today.
Single-axle open utility trailers and the small enclosed cargo box. Yard waste, a mower, a couch, a motorcycle, one pallet, a dorm room. This is about eighty percent of what leaves here.
- What your vehicle needs
- A 2 inch ball, a receiver rated for the load, and a four-flat plug. Any half-ton pickup and most mid-size SUVs and crossovers with a factory hitch will do it. A car with a bolted-on hitch sometimes will, and we will look at the rating plate with you rather than guess.
- Brakes
- Not required, and these trailers do not have them. Nothing to plug in and no controller in the cab.
- Plating
- Ours carries the plate. You do not register anything and you do not go to the licence office.
- What we hand you
- The trailer coupled, chains crossed under the tongue, lights tested with you standing behind it, tyre pressures checked in front of you, and a strap count you sign for. Four minutes.
The honest limit Three thousand pounds gross goes faster than people expect. A single axle trailer weighing 700 empty is full at about 2,300 pounds of load, and wet dirt, gravel, shingles, brick, block and green wood will all pass that before the trailer looks full. If what you are hauling is dense rather than bulky, you are in the right column and it is the other one.
The half that needs something in your cab.
Tandem-axle flatbeds, the car hauler, the dump trailer, the big enclosed box. A tractor, a skid steer, a vehicle, a full load of stone, a house move.
- What your vehicle needs
- A 2 or 2 5/16 inch ball to match the coupler, a seven-round plug, a receiver rated for the whole gross figure and not just close to it, and a brake controller wired in the cab. Many newer trucks have one from the factory with a dial on the dash. If you cannot find it, you probably do not have one.
- Brakes
- Required, fitted to the trailer, and useless without the controller. This is the single thing that turns people around at the gate, so it is the thing we ask about on the phone first.
- Plating
- Still ours. Still nothing for you to register.
- What we hand you
- All of the above, plus the controller set with you: gain adjusted on the gravel with the actual load on, and a demonstration of the breakaway cable and where it clips. Fifteen minutes, and it is not optional.
The honest limit We will not send a braked tandem out behind a vehicle with no controller, and we will not accept a customer's assurance that they will drive carefully instead. If you do not have one, an installer in Kearney or Liberty fits one in about an hour, and we would rather you came back tomorrow.
The whole rack, with the line drawn through it
Every trailer, every weight, every rate.
Payload is gross minus empty, and it is the only number that answers what you can put on it. It is in the table because most rental listings publish the deck size and the price and leave the customer to work out the one figure that decides whether the trip is legal.
| Trailer | Deck | Empty | Gross | Payload | Ball | Plug | Brakes | Day | Week |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small utility Single axle, open, ramp gate | 5 × 8 ft | 620 lb | 2,000 lb | 1,380 lb | 1⅞" | 4 flat | None | $35 | $175 |
| Utility Single axle, open, fold ramp | 6 × 12 ft | 780 lb | 2,990 lb | 2,210 lb | 2" | 4 flat | None | $45 | $225 |
| Small cargo Single axle, enclosed, side door | 5 × 10 ft | 1,050 lb | 2,990 lb | 1,940 lb | 2" | 4 flat | None | $55 | $275 |
| Everything below this line needs a brake controller in your cab | |||||||||
| Tandem flatbed Two axle, open, stake pockets | 7 × 16 ft | 1,980 lb | 7,000 lb | 5,020 lb | 2 5/16" | 7 round | Electric, both axles | $85 | $425 |
| Car hauler Two axle, open, slide-in ramps | 7 × 18 ft | 2,140 lb | 7,000 lb | 4,860 lb | 2 5/16" | 7 round | Electric, both axles | $95 | $475 |
| Large cargo Two axle, enclosed, rear ramp | 7 × 16 ft | 2,600 lb | 7,000 lb | 4,400 lb | 2 5/16" | 7 round | Electric, both axles | $110 | $550 |
| Dump Two axle, hydraulic, barn doors | 6 × 12 ft | 2,900 lb | 9,900 lb | 7,000 lb | 2 5/16" | 7 round | Electric, both axles | $135 | $675 |
Written down so it is not an argument in the gravel
Five times we will say no.
- No controller, no braked trailer.Covered above and it is the one that comes up most. There is no version of this where we take the deposit and wish you luck.
- No mismatched ball.If your ball is 2 inches and the coupler is 2 5/16, the coupler will close over it and the latch will drop. It will also come off. We swap the ball mount or you do not leave, and we keep the common sizes on the shelf at cost.
- No load we can see is over the payload.If you tell us at the counter you are picking up four tons of rock behind the 6 by 12, we will put you on the dump trailer instead or send you to somebody with a truck. The scale ticket at the quarry does not care what you rented.
- No towing without a working light on both corners.We test them with you before you go. If your vehicle's socket is corroded, which is common on anything over ten years old, we will clean it once. If it still will not pass, the trailer stays here.
- No open trailer for a household move in July.Not a rule so much as advice you can ignore. Every summer somebody straps a sofa to the open 6 by 12 and drives through a thunderstorm on 35. The enclosed box is ten dollars more.
Practical
What it takes to leave with one.
- What to bring
- A driver's licence, proof of insurance on the towing vehicle, and a card for the deposit. Your own straps if you have them, and we rent them if not.
- Deposit
- Held on a card, released when the trailer comes back on the same day it was due, with the ramp and the straps that went out on it. The figure is on the counter sheet and it is not a mystery.
- The weekend rule
- Anything out after 4pm Saturday comes back Monday morning at the one day rate rather than two. This is the single most asked question at the counter, so it is answered here.
- Yard
- 19420 Jesse James Farm Road
Kearney, Missouri 64060
Gravel lot, gate on the north side - Hours
- Monday to Friday, 7am to 5:30pm
Saturday, 7am to 3pm
Sunday, returns only, drop and call - Service area
- Kearney, Smithville, Liberty, Excelsior Springs, Holt, Lathrop and Plattsburg. No one-way rentals and no drop-off at another yard, because there is only one yard.