A Toter, or Mobile Home Toter is a tractor

Ballast tractor

A ballast tractor is a heavy haulage road vehicle designed to pull or push heavy or exceptionally large loads. Unlike the tractor unit from an articulated trailer, the ballast tractor is designed or adapted to pull or push loads from a drawbar...

 specifically designed for the modular

Modular building

Modular buildings and modular homes are sectional prefabricated buildings or houses that consist of multiple modules or sections which are built in a remote facility and then delivered to their intended site of use...

 and manufactured housing

Manufactured housing

Manufactured housing is a type of prefabricated housing that is largely assembled in factories and then transported to sites of use...

 industries. Some toters are highly adapted for purposes of delivering or removing mobile home

Mobile home

Mobile homes or static caravans are prefabricated homes built in factories, rather than on site, and then taken to the place where they will be occupied...

s on smaller home sites

Trailer park

A trailer park is a semi-permanent or permanent area for mobile homes or travel trailers. The main reasons for living in such trailer parks are the often lower cost compared to other housing, and the ability to move to a new area more quickly and easily, for example when changing jobs to another...

. Others look and operate similar to over-the-road semi-trailer tractors with longer wheelbases and sleeper cabs.

Differences between toters and semi-trailer tractors

The toter is often confused or mistaken for a semi-trailer tractor. The key difference between the two is in the method of coupling. Semi-trailer tractors have fifth wheel coupling

Fifth wheel coupling

The fifth wheel coupling provides the link between a semi-trailer and the towing truck, tractor unit, leading trailer or dolly. Some recreational vehicles use a fifth wheel configuration, requiring the coupling to be installed in the bed of a pickup truck as a towing vehicle...

s designed to couple to a semi-trailer, i.e. a typical 18-wheeler truck unit. Toters do not have fifth wheel hitches. They are equipped with a 2.31" diameter ball that couples with the tow hitch

Tow hitch

A tow hitch is a device attached to the chassis of a vehicle for towing or a towbar to an aircraft nose gear, or paired main gears....

 on the tongue of a mobile or manufactured home or the removable transport frame of a modular home. Some Toters have a fifth wheel and a mobile home ball, these can be used as a Toter or Tractor-Trailer use. The ball and hitch is a more fitting design for the height demands of the housing industry considering that the homes must still be transported down public roads with overhead cables and overpasses.

Mirrors

Toters are required to have extending mirrors

Rear-view mirror

A rear-view mirror is a mirror in automobiles and other vehicles, designed to allow the driver to see rearward through the vehicle's backlight ....

. Home sections widths range from eight to eighteen feet. Toters have mirrors that can extend (manually, by electric motor, or hydraulically) to enable the operator to see beyond the unit. This increases safety for public road situations. The mirrors also enable the operator to better navigate narrow roads and obstacles such as signs, mailboxes, trees, and other automobiles.