Silly question about a 48 foot flatdeck and a 16 foot pup trailer?

You are allowed up to 27.5m overall wheelbase on a Super-B permit. Your method of pulling the second trailer would be an A-train. I'm not sure about permits for those.

And Super-B's are incredibly flexible. You get 60 feet of deck space as opposed to 53 feet, and can get equipment mounted to carry 60 foot material with no over-length permits (they are racks that go on either trailer that have swivels in them). Plus, you can overhang the bridge as much as you want.

The only reason people think they "only pull lumber" is because they don't creatively book loads. You can get two American loads on a single set of trains, and if you have somewhere/someone to transfer them, you have a lot more potential loads.

I think it would be really hard to get that setup to work and legal. If you want to start pulling more weight, you might have to look at a set of trains.

 

So you have 64 feet of deck and max length of 65 feet. That only leaves you 1 foot of space between the 2 trailers. Right?

 

Erm, clkose.

B trains here run like freaking two truckloads on one rig.

You will NOT do B train on a tiny ### 10 speed neither. You are looking at 15 or even 18 gears...

What I really want is a Aussie 10 trailer road train. Pay me 5.00 a mile cross the USA.

 

Link to dimension and weight limits for Alberta (regulation summary): https://www.transportation.alberta.ca/4777.htm

There is a weight calculator where you can input your trailer dimensions, including axle wheelbase and spacing for the various configurations.

Note: as posted by @Zeviander, the maximum LOA for a B-train is 27.5 m not 26 m as shown (hey, it has only been two years, they'll get around to updating their website... eventually).

Heavy Truck Weight and Dimension Limits for Interprovincial Operations in Canada (December 2014): http://www.comt.ca/english/programs/trucking/MOU 2014.pdf

 

@rbrauns No problem.

I'd say so long as you run legal, it would be a decent strategy. I don't think, honestly though, it's wise to go with an uncommon setup. Shippers/customers want particular loads. Could you load and scale a Super-B load on that setup if you went with it? Is the loss of 6 feet on the lead worth it (a lot of steel products are 40-48 foot material, or 20-24 feet)?

Freight right now is really slow, I would personally wait for it to pick up again before changing your equipment. You won't be sure what section of the industry is going to pick up faster again, and may want those trains to run lumber because that's what picks up.

 

A typical B-train flatdeck in Canada is a 32' lead and 28' pup with 3' between. The LOA is still only 60-61' because the pin setback on the pup is typically 24-36". There are variations, but that is most common.

The difference between a B-Train and a Super-B is that a B-train has four axles on the trailers and a Super-B has five (three on the lead).

 

BTW, I hauled B-trains for four years and hauled lumber exactly once.

 

I think lumber is so common on trains in Canada because most company drivers don't do load planning, so the company just takes the easiest route to making them pay. There are a few drivers I see around that do LTL loads (usually 3-4 different things) and probably make a buttload of money doing it.