Thanks for the responses.
What I failed to make clear was the fact that the "float" was not lowered. The winch cable was hooked to the 'dozers drawbar and it was winched up and over the trailer's rear "rolling tail board". This was about a four foot vertical lift, making for a high "pucker factor" for the 'dozer operator.
Yes; I have confirmed this was really done, and from more than one source but I have no photos.
The reason for this was the oilfield winch trucks had the "kingpin" mounted to the truck bed and the "fifth wheel" was attached upside-down under the trailer where the "king pin" is on other trailers.
Thanks again for any info,
Craig

yes i understood what you meant from the beginning and i have no doubt it was done at one point or another. i have a deep respect for a gin truck and operator and his swamper.

Look at the links I posted for the pics I posted, it shows an old Cat doing that.

Another odd one...
www.ebay.com/itm/R-G-LeTourneau-flatbed-...0:g:g-0AAOSwn4BehACv

Back in the early Sixties Dad had a oil field single axle IH winch truck and a dual axle flat bed oil field trailer. Dad always dropped the trailer, ran the old 3T up on it and then winched the trailer back up onto the fifth wheel. I wish I had that set up now. Lex

Biggest thing was with oilfield history was rarely was a Camera to be found!
Dirty Greasy Hands and Equipment was not good for the older "Film" cameras.
Lingo used by Oil field teamsters was often handed down from the Horse days.
As the older guys passed on, none of this history was recorded!
Example would be in 1964 my Grandfather and Great Grandfather would use a team of horses in place of a winch tractor for Well Service if the farm tractor was busy doing farm work. I walked a lot of Rods and Tubing out on the pile that was pulled by a farm tractor into the early 70's. Many small operators worked like this up to the 1950/60's in Southwest New York State and Northwest Pennsylvania!

to me, a bed truck or sows are a straight truck with a bed that did not need a trailer. yet most had a 5 wheel plat that could flip up so they could tow a trailer. what I see in the oil patch these days is cat 740 ATC that have a hole bed truck back end and the cab section of floater tires tuned up to about a 1000 hp I was told but that seems hi??? with Canadain cured at 6.00 barrel and brake up not much is happening with or without a virus. a float trailer some times with having a pop-up roller in the middle of the bed to help in offloading a skid shack so it can role on till it get's over-center on the til roller.

"mog5858" wrote:

to me, a bed truck or sows are a straight truck with a bed that did not need a trailer. yet most had a 5 wheel plat that could flip up so they could tow a trailer. what I see in the oil patch these days is cat 740 ATC that have a hole bed truck back end and the cab section of floater tires tuned up to about a 1000 hp I was told but that seems hi??? with Canadain cured at 6.00 barrel and brake up not much is happening with or without a virus. a float trailer some times with having a pop-up roller in the middle of the bed to help in offloading a skid shack so it can role on till it get's over-center on the til roller.

yes Mog, that's what i call a bed truck...those trucks with a good operator are impressive in what they can do in a day moving camp shacks, rigging, etc..
-when you see a couple trucks working together, guys that know what they're doing....WOW

Hello everyone! I figured I would add to this discussion a link to a video of us loading our D68U onto a float a few years ago. It was dead at the time - oil cooler line broke and well, lets just say it was too late when it was figured out. We moved it to a nearby place for the work, as we didn't have a good safe way of pulling the engine ourselves. Happy to report that she is back in top operational condition now though. This is also how we move it around locally for the work we do on our property and occasional small jobs. As others have said, just drop the trailer to form a ramp, drive the truck up enough with the winch clutch out to make room for the tractor. kick the cable to the side, and then drive tractor on to the trailer. Chain down, and then pull the trailer up onto the truck, hook the air hoses and drive off. It really doesn't take that long to do. It can get sketchy quick if the only place to drop the trailer isn't level though - can pull the trailer off to the side of the rolling tail and end up with a mess.

As far as loading over the tail, I too have heard this occurs. I think my Father may have seen it once or twice. Seems like it would be a bit bigger pucker factor than I'd like to attempt, a long way up yet to get after the drawbar goes over the rolling tail, but I bet it would suck up on the trailer - those winches have quite a pull and things tend to follow them up over that roller even if they put up a fight!

Here is the link:

Thanks to everyone especially ROME K/G, I bought one of the photos you provided a link to.
Craig