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What Is Trailer Landing Gear? (Part 2)
- Theautus Plair
- Aug 13
- 6 min read
Types of Trailer Landing Gear: Light, Medium & Heavy-Duty
One of the biggest misconceptions about trailer landing gear is that it's only found on large semi-trailers. In reality, nearly every type of trailer uses some form of front support system. Depending on the trailer's size, weight, and intended use, that system may be called landing gear, a trailer jack, or a tongue jack. While the terminology and designs vary, they all serve the same basic purpose—supporting the trailer safely whenever it is disconnected from its tow vehicle.
The biggest differences are found in their size, lifting capacity, number of support legs, crank position, construction, and operating method.
Light-Duty Trailers
Light-duty trailers are among the most common trailers on the road and are typically towed by passenger vehicles, SUVs, and pickup trucks. Examples include utility, landscape, small cargo, motorcycle, ATV/UTV, boat, personal watercraft, and small camping trailers.
At the lightest end of the category, some trailers have no built-in support at all. Their tongue weight may be light enough for the front of the trailer to be lifted by hand onto the hitch. When disconnected, owners sometimes use wood, blocks, or other makeshift supports—including cinder blocks—although a properly rated and stable support is the safer option.
Most light-duty trailers, however, use a single trailer jack or tongue jack near the coupler. The jack supports the trailer while disconnected and allows the operator to adjust its height for easier coupling and uncoupling.
These jacks are commonly either top-wind, with the crank located above the jack, or side-wind, with the crank positioned on the side. Both perform the same basic function, with the design depending on trailer configuration, clearance, and jack capacity.
Well-known manufacturers serving the light-duty trailer market include Big Tex Trailers, Carry-On Trailer, PJ Trailers, Aluma, Sure-Trac, and Kaufman Trailers.
From a trailer light enough to lift by hand to one equipped with a dedicated jack, the principle remains the same: the front of the trailer needs a stable means of support whenever it is disconnected from the tow vehicle.
Medium-Duty Trailers
As trailers become larger and begin carrying heavier cargo, their support systems become heavier as well.
Medium-duty trailers are particularly interesting because they sit between the light-duty trailer jack and heavy-duty commercial landing gear markets.
Depending on the trailer's design and capacity, a medium-duty trailer may use a single heavy-duty support leg or two support legs. Some single-leg and lighter medium-duty applications may use either top-wind or side-wind jacks, while heavier medium-duty systems increasingly use side-wind crank configurations.
Dual-leg systems distribute the trailer's front-end weight across two support points and provide greater stability for heavier applications. On some medium-duty trailers, these systems begin to look and operate much like commercial landing gear.
Medium-duty trailers commonly include equipment trailers, car haulers, dump trailers, gooseneck trailers, horse trailers, larger enclosed cargo trailers, agricultural trailers, food trailers and contractor trailers.
Manufacturers in this segment include Big Tex Trailers, PJ Trailers, Diamond C Trailers, Load Trail, Texas Bragg, Iron Bull Trailers, Bwise Trailers, and Midsota Manufacturing.
These trailers are commonly used to transport skid steers, compact tractors, vehicles, livestock, construction materials, and other substantial loads, making the strength and condition of their support systems especially important.
Weight Class Fact
In the U.S., vehicle weight classifications provide a useful reference for understanding the terms light-, medium-, and heavy-duty:
Light-Duty — Classes 1–3: Up to 10,000 lbs. GVWR
Medium-Duty — Classes 4–6: 10,001–26,000 lbs. GVWR
Heavy-Duty — Classes 7–8: Over 26,000 lbs. GVWR
GVWR (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating) is the maximum operating weight specified by the manufacturer, including the vehicle or trailer itself and its rated cargo capacity.
While the Class 1–8 system technically applies to motor vehicles rather than trailers, these weight ranges provide helpful context when discussing the light-, medium-, and heavy-duty trailer categories throughout this guide.
Heavy-Duty Commercial Trailers
When transportation professionals talk about trailer landing gear, they're usually referring to the heavy-duty dual-leg landing gear system found beneath the front of commercial freight trailers.
Unlike the single support leg found on many smaller trailers, conventional commercial landing gear uses two heavy steel support legs, one positioned on each side beneath the front of the trailer.
The two legs are mechanically connected by a cross shaft, allowing them to extend and retract together. A gearbox provides the mechanical advantage necessary to operate the system under substantial loads.
Heavy-duty commercial landing gear uses a side-crank configuration. The crank handle extends from the side of the landing gear assembly, allowing the driver or operator to stand alongside the trailer while raising or lowering the legs.
Heavy-duty landing gear is commonly found on dry vans, refrigerated trailers, flatbeds, step decks, tank trailers, hopper trailers, curtain-side trailers, intermodal chassis, and many other commercial trailer designs.
Major manufacturers of these trailers include Great Dane, Wabash, Hyundai Translead, Stoughton Trailers, Utility Trailer Manufacturing Company, MAC Trailer, Wilson Trailer, Fontaine Trailer, Dorsey Trailer, Reitnouer, and Manac.
Whether the trailer is parked at a loading dock, sitting in a freight yard, being loaded with fuel at a terminal or waiting for another tractor, its two landing gear legs provide the front support necessary for the trailer to remain standing independently.
Not Every Heavy Trailer Uses Conventional Landing Gear
Lowboy trailers are a good example. These heavy-haul trailers are designed with a much lower deck height than conventional freight trailers, allowing them to transport tall, heavy, and oversized equipment while maintaining a lower overall loaded height.
Lowboys are commonly used to transport:
Excavators
Bulldozers
Wheel loaders
Cranes and crane components
Large agricultural machinery
Industrial equipment
Other oversized or extremely heavy loads
Unlike a conventional dry van or refrigerated trailer, some lowboy designs—particularly detachable gooseneck and specialized heavy-haul configurations—do not rely on conventional dual-leg landing gear.
Instead, the trailer's design may use the gooseneck, hydraulic systems, blocking, ground-contact structures, or other engineered methods to support and position the trailer during coupling, uncoupling, loading, and unloading. On a detachable gooseneck trailer, for example, the front section of the trailer can be disconnected so the main deck can be lowered toward the ground, creating a ramp that allows heavy equipment to be driven onto or off the trailer.
Manufacturers such as Cozad, Fontaine, Talbert, XL Specialized Trailers, and others build lowboy and heavy-haul trailers for these demanding applications.T his is an important distinction when discussing trailer landing gear: being a heavy-duty trailer does not automatically mean the trailer uses conventional two-leg landing gear.
Trailer design ultimately determines the support system. A 53-foot dry van may depend on two side-crank landing gear legs every time it is disconnected from its tractor, while a specialized lowboy carrying heavy construction equipment may use an entirely different system designed around its loading method, gooseneck configuration, and operating requirements.
Recreational and Specialty Trailers
Landing gear also extends beyond freight and equipment transportation.
Fifth-wheel RVs, toy haulers, horse trailers, mobile offices, construction site trailers, mobile medical units, mobile command centers, military transport trailers, and other specialty equipment may use support systems specifically designed for their applications.
Many modern fifth-wheel RVs use electric landing gear, allowing owners to raise or lower the front of the trailer with an electric motor rather than manually turning a crank.
Manufacturers such as Grand Design RV, Keystone RV, Forest River, Jayco, DRV Luxury Suites, and Heartland RV have made powered support systems commonplace across the recreational trailer market.
From a single top-wind jack on a small utility trailer to two side-crank landing gear legs beneath a commercial semi-trailer—and even specialized heavy-haul trailers that don't use conventional landing gear at all—the design changes with the job.
But whenever a trailer must stand independently, engineers must answer the same fundamental question:
How will the front of this trailer be safely supported when the tow vehicle is no longer supporting it?
Continue Reading
Although trailer landing gear comes in many shapes and sizes, they all operate using the same basic engineering principles.
In the next section, we'll take a look inside the system to understand how landing gear actually works, why commercial trailers have high gear and low gear, and how a simple gearbox allows an operator to safely lift thousands of pounds with surprisingly little effort.
Next: How Trailer Landing Gear Works
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