I've got a single axle 26' Box van. The empty weight is around 11,000. After unbolting and removing the box, I hope to load the Case 580 on the frame rails. The tractor tires should fit outside the 36" wide truck rails. Anyone think I could bolt the loader bucket to the truck frame and transport that way ? The most important issue for me is safety. I'm going to be extremely close to 26,000. and the height limit. I've got a CDL and may have to use it if I go over the magic weight but don't want to jump through the hoops required. Driver logs, IFTA, this is for recreational use. Wife is a bookkeeper so the fuel tax is do-able but I don't have a business and can't figure out how to get a fuel tax number without one. Again, the most important issue for me is safety. I'm also thinking of an underslung deck below the frame to support the tractor tires. Or, am I just being stupid ? Thanks in advance for your response.
First off a medium duty truck frame is not designed for spot point loading but for distributed load weight. All beds are designed to SUPPOSEDLY distribute the weight evenly across the flanges of the frame. In no way loose hanging a TLB sitting on frame rails is safe. Use a flatbed on the frame or get a decent trailer. You also have to consider overall height limit where I have seen these inside dump truck beds but that is really frowned upon as no realistic way to tie down and puts a great deal of HIGH load center of gravity on suspension.
I guess it would make a difference how far you're going to be traveling with this, and how often. If its just a hobby, and you're just trying to get it home, I wouldn't mess with setting up a truck to haul it. Just pay someone to do it. If you're just getting it home, and then going to be driving from your place to your neighbors pushing snow, just road it. I think what hammertime shows is a slick rig, I don't think I'd want a 580 up on a old cut down single axle, ryder truck, I don't see you making gross, and/or being over on a axle. Seriously, if you have less than 10 miles to travel, you'll have a lot less headaches just roading it. Turn on your flashers and have someone follow you. Somewhere on here there's a thread, where someone built a flatbed on a straight truck, and added beavertail and hydraulic ramps, but I can't find it. I'm thinking it was a tandem truck also.
That should give you some idea of how to do it right and safe. Legal height in SD is 14' which helps a bit. HeavyEquipmentForums
I haul my TD7G crawler on my Chevy C 65, 14600LBS. The Case 580K is too long, and too tall. For that I use a trailer. It's my opinion that you'll be over the GVWR of the truck by the time it's loaded. Case, with its cam over center backhoe position makes for a very tall load. For a short haul you might risk the ticket if you were too wide, Too tall, you're going to hit wires, or bridges. Once set down, the hoe makes the truck too short to support. the hoe. Off hand, I think my trailer is 20' of deck, and four feet of beaver tail. That barely allows me to set the rear bucket on the tail. On a low slung 9 ton lowboy, I'm about thirteen tall. 13' 6" is the legal limit here. I believe hiring a trucker would save me a fortune. It is possible (in VT) to register a backhoe to drive on highway. This is practical for ten mile trips.
Stay away from that. Run away from that. IFTA is for operating in multiple jurisdictions. That's just the beginning of the nightmare- IFTA, IRP, UCR, drug testing consortium, ELD (pre-2000 model year paper logs are OK)........ IFTA audits are brutal & random. Ask me how I know.
OP here... D Miller sounds like an extremely smart, experienced, articulate engineer. That would explain the purpose for the full length wooden compression spacers between the truck frame rails and the van box frame rails with the 6 month re-torque check on the U-bolts. Adding doubler plates to the frame would probably put me over 26,000. Crummy's - nightmare is exactly what he describes - a full blown expensive nightmare, which is what I'm trying to avoid. Hammertime's got more than one axle, regardless of weight, which would require a CDL nightmare. Sorry :-( I've got the CDL driver's license with the bells and whistles, I just can't jump through the bureaucratic hoops that go with the truck. After being shut down by D Miller, Crane Operator's and Willie B's advice is what I'll do. These answers have saved me many headaches. Thanks guys.
By the way, I have a CDL, and within my own state I don't have to keep any of these records. I put on about two thousand miles a year.
Most Scales in SD. are closed most of the time. I could drive 150,000. miles per year, not keep any records and never have a problem. The other side of the coin; that one time - the roving DOT patrol stops me chances are that he'll be a frustrated bully that thinks he knows all the Federal and or State rules. (Whether he's correct or not, I'd end up with a T$$$cket that I'd have to fight). Willie B. "I believe hiring a (Pro) trucker would save me a fortune". I second the motion !