I have a 1985 Ford F-700 that I have been wanting to sell and buy a tandem axle in order to tow my Komatsu PC-120 Excavator. But when I mentioned it to a trucker freind of mine he laughed and asked why I didnt just tow it with the F-700 and a twelve ton trailer... He says that as long as I put enough weight on the tag I am good to go. The truck has electric over hydraulic brakes and a single rear axle. The GVW is 29,000 lbs. The excavator weighs 24,000 pounds. The way he explained it was as long as the truck isnt over its Gross Wieght and the trailer isnt over its gross weight then the combined weight dosent matter as long as the weight on your tag is enough to cover the entire load. I guess it makes since what he said. Especially since I have seen many an F-350 pulling a 10 ton horse trailer down the road. I just really dont want to invest the money in more weight on my tag and an electric brake trailer if its just going to leave me with an illigal set up. Thanks in advance for the info.
the weight of the truck, trailer and the machine need to be under 29,000 Cheers, nick
:beatsmeI don't know what the laws are down your way, BUT up here our regs have a max on gross weight for electric brake, no matter what axle configuration you have ...... for the gross weight you have there, truck/trailer/PC120 you might be exceeding the max Check the weight of your PC120 as well, on a legal weigh scale, and not what paper says, or your buddies.... lol...... I'd bet yours weighs more than 24,000 Lbs too, up here we have called the Komatsu's the Japanese CAT for a very good reason .... they are very well built ..... the 120 stands for 12 metric tonnes not 12 standard tons or 24,000 Lbs .... the conversion is 2.2 or 2200Lbs = 1 metric tonne or in your case that would be 26,400 Lbs. My Cat 312 has a bare bone weight of 12,860 Kgs x 2.2= 28,292 Lbs (not LC, short boom/stick and narrow pads) the actual weight is 14,750 Kgs x 2.2= 32,450 Lbs (long boom/stick and wider pads option, thumb w/guarding, full of fuel too) I too haul with a single axle, but a short ass L-8000 w/airbrakes and a TKT-40Trail-King tilt/tag also with air brakes and up here I am barely legal. I think we have a slightly higher axle/tire loading allowability than in most of the states ..... when we hauled state side we were only allowed 80,000 Lbs on 5 axles, up here we can go up to 84,000 Lbs gross on 5 axles. Check your laws, be rather safe than sorry ..... JMHO ...... :beatsme ........ :drinkup
that pc120 is well over 12 ton ,the trailer has to weight 7k or more empty, the brakes on the trailer are not going to stop that thing , the truck is light at 29k gvw,, a backhoe yes a full sized shovel get the rig you need and be done with it , we just did the same thing, sold our s1800 26k gvw and bought a fl80 with a pusher, also have the 12t tag for sale to replace it with a 25t bws/felling air tilt tag :usa
What you guys are saying is what I always thought too. I guess he was either very poorly informed or trying to get me ticketed/killed. Ill put the truck up for sale and get a full size truck to replace it. Now I just have to decide it I want a dump truck and a tag or a rig with a dump trailer and a low boy. You guys have any suggestions? -Craft, thanks for that info. I didnt realize it was in metric tons. Add to that the swamp tracks, thumb, fuel, tools, and who knows how much caked on mud and Im sure its closer 28000 lbs. Thanks for the info
What Craft said is exactly right, the 120 in working weight will be well over. Our 150 which should be 15 metric tons = 33070 lbs. Ready to work on the trailer with bucket it is actually 37000 lbs. Weighed it a number of times with and without the encouragement of police officers.
really depends on the work you will be doing, we do lots of residential work so i like the short wheel base dump and tag but if you have big work with lots of room then maybe the tractor with dump/ lowbed is the way to go:usa
If your on state roads such as highways the permitted load is 84k but interstates are 80k. I dont know why I guess they figure the old highways are stronger but thats how it is in the states and can be found in your CDL training manual for your state.