Hello have a question about lowboy tractor specing. We have a 50 ton 3 axel detach that we haul our 336 excavator and sometimes we rent a 740 haul truck. Currently we haul with a t800 tandem axel with 204wb and the king pin is about 7" fwd of center of the 2 axles. I scale about 122'000 lb and 48,000 on drives and 10'000 on steer. Do most guys hauling this weight want a drop axel on the tractor? I have found a few heavy spec tandem axel trucks as we are looking to upgrade. Thinking if I can get some more weight on the steer there is no need for a drop axel. Thanks for any advice. Jason
you need to know how much you can legally get on your steer axle. N.C. used to be screwed up on standard load (non permit) on the steer you could get #20,000 pds on a permit load only get #14,000 pds some friends of mine had 2 T800 wide hood's with sleeper's and lift axle that was over #14,000pds empty when they loaded them they had to take weight off the steer axle
keep in mind if your going to a tractor with a lift. Is the neck on your trailer long enough to get the weight far enough forward to justify having? Our float tractor is 282" wb it has 20k front 23k lift 52k rears. we run with 5th wheel 6" forward of front drive axle. I see a lot of triaxle float tractors running around with 5th wheels slightly ahead of rear drive. There trailer necks are too short, when they drop lift the steer axle becomes too light.
Thanks for the reply 450. Ours is about 6" fwd and I wish the neck was a bit longer. Cat is bringing us a truck to try out with a shorter wb so I will see how it scales. It's just a tandem axel.