Towing a utility trailer with 2 pallets of sod

+1. TTTF is better, but not by a discernable amount, than KBG in regards to heat stress, drought tolerance.

OP - even better than my previous post...just overseed with TTTF. Having a non-monostand lawn is far better, with multiple KBG/TTTF cultivars. More impervious to disease, each cultivar will thrive at different times of the year, etc. Plus, it's a whole bunch easier to overseed, than rending a sod cutter to remove your KBG or spraying with glyphosate/ripping it up with a dethatcher.

 

Tried that. It didnt work. Sod is the only way out where I live.

I am east of Denver. About 5,400 feet.

Rain is good in April and May and part of June. Then not much from mid June to September. Very dry.

My fescue in my backyard has been thriving this summer in the heat. I have a sprinkler system and water the fescue 23 mins per zone (3 zones) every other day at 4 am. Then 13 mins on the alternating days at 8 pm.



Grubs decimated me last year but its made a very nice recovery this year.

By contrast my KBG front yard drinks and drinks and drinks and still looks like shit. It got watered 30 mins per zone, 6 zones total. My last water bill was $775.

I don't have a recent pic of the front yard, but I'll post one here in a bit.

I ripped out all of this earlier this month.


Replaced it with crushed asphalt.


Up next is removing all of this and putting down more mountain granite.




Then this patch of KBG is coming out and putting the fescue sod down. (This pic is from May when it was still nice).


Overall going from 5,500 sq ft of grass to 3,000 sq ft of grass on a 10,875 sq ft lot (0.25 acre).

Reducing from 29 sprinkler heads to 17.
Reducing from 9 zones to 6 zones.

 

This is the front yard today. It actually looks better in the photos than it does in person. And it's having a decent day. Layer this week it'll got hot again and regress.

 

Wow. Replacing that grass would be #4128 on my to-do list.

 

Truck will be fine but check the weight rating on the trailer. At best it's probably a 3k axle minus the weight of the trailer. There should be a sticker on the trailer somewhere that says the max payload.

Also I would not pull both pallets at once if you don't have functioning trailer brakes (You'll need a trailer with brakes + a brake controller in the truck.) I pulled a heavy load on a trailer without functioning brakes a few miles down backroads home once and that was sketchy AF. I wouldn't go 50 miles.

 

Going back to the seed thing, I got this mix from a place down in colorado springs. i only water like 5-10 minutes each zone 3 days a week and its pretty green. only been watering the last month or so with all the rain we have had. grass is still pretty green. would be greener if i watered more, but have had some mushrooms popping up not sure why. Here is a screen grab from taken last weekend. it needs to get mowed again but we spent the weekend putting down gravel instead

 

Mushrooms popping up means your soil is really healthy and fertile. That's a good thing.

My lawn would die if I only watered 5 minutes, 3 times a week. Holy hell. But in contrast your lawn is 75% smaller than mine.

 

thats only 20-25% of my lawn. there is a bigger area past the garden down a wall that is all grass and my front yard is bigger than the area pictured. theres 4 zones of grass total. we put in the irrigation and grass a few years ago.

 

Truck won't be fine at all. Have you ever towed 6500 pounds on a single axle? That is 3/4 ton territory just from the tongue weight. Ride and control would be terrible while you bend your frame on bumps from the tongue weight

That tractor supply trailer looks like junk because it is, carry on is some of the worst trailers on the market.

Sticky situation here, with truck rental rates, fuel, fees, taxes, damage deposits OP would be close to that $500 delivery fee.

But if it were me I wouldn't take this with a Tacoma even with a nice 18 foot dual axle 6 lug flat bed

 

Interestingly, KBG is extremely drought tolerant. If you let well established KBG go brown it can survive a long time on extremely little water, and most of it will come back when water and cool temps return. TTTF will die under the same conditions. But TTTF should take less water to keep it green through the summer. Buffalo grass takes even less water, but it will probably be brown most of the year since it's a warm season grass, and it probably won't grow in shade.

 

Your problem could be insufficient topsoil depth. That really makes a difference for holding the water.

 

Arapahoe Rental has them. But the trailer alone is probably over 2000 pounds.
https://www.arapahoerental.com/westminster-co/large-deck-over-equipment-trailer

 

4x4 3g Tacoma is rated for 6400lbs. Tongue weight will be fine if the trailer is loaded correctly (9% - 11% of the weight according to owner's manual.) If you put all the weight at the front (or back) of the trailer obviously it will cause problems but that's user error. Somewhere on here there's a thread with a guy who pulled a 7k dump trailer with his 3G OR for work with a million miles on it. It's fine so long as you do your research and know what you're doing.

And to answer your first question, almost. That sketchy short trip I mentioned in my first post was 5.5k lbs of gravel on a single axle trailer for my dad. Only problem I had was getting the thing stopped. But no issues with understeer and no damage to truck.

 

All this talk about grass, seeds, sod, etc., as I stare at my yard where as long as it's kind of green, I let it grow and mow it every week or two weeks. There's stuff in my yard that I can't even match using Google image search.

 

I'm in the golf course business and Kentucky blue grass can handle the drought conditions. Water deep and infrequent to get really deep root growth. You want the roots to go down and search for water. Keep your watering the way you are doing for now. Next spring aerify pulling cores, have a landscape company do that if you can or diy but you'll have to haul your plugs away. Then start with the deep watering plan, 20 minutes then wait 30-45 minutes then another 20 minutes. Try that twice a week through the spring time and then just water a few times a week as needed.

 

I wanted Buffalo grass but the sod was way too expensive and the seed never took off in the backyard.

I will never have KBG in my yard ever again. I absolutely loathe it. 85° and it gets stressed, turns black and starts to go dormant. I'm over the KBG. It also never gets as dark green as I want it or as dark and rich as my fescue in the backyard gets.

My TTTF has stayed dark green all spring and summer. Never once has it gotten stressed or gone dormant.

to hell with KBG. I want no part of it ever again.

 

50 miles - 1 hour there and 1 hour back. 30 minutes to unload. Minimum 2 1/2 hours to pay an employee plus taxes, insurance, benefits. Fuel cost 100 miles at 8 mpg - 12 gallons. Truck and trailer payments, maintenance, insurance, etc.
Building/land payments, taxes, insurance, etc.

$500? I would not consider that price gouging. If you add it all up they're really not making a whole lot.

 

This is a load of BS, have to call it out lol. How are you buying sod from your area but can't grow grass? Grass germinates in the dark. You don't even need sun or oxygen. Has to be user error or bad grow medium/seed. People grow grass in alaska and mexico, you're smack dab in the middle. Have you gotten a soil test before you do this all? I'm a landscaping and turfgrass consultant, this is directly in my wheelhouse. if you need help (or anyone else) just ask or DM me.

 

Same. As long as it is green, I am good. My front 3 acres are full of some grass and serpentine grass from hell. Back 3 is a mix of some grass, mowed down wild blackberries and poison ivy.

 

Sometimes some really weird stuff pops up, and I mow around it to let it grow just to see what it ends up being.