Sun Country 5 car

Very nice Stan. Both ends. I ran a sister unit to that except I had the front deck AND the tandem. Crank down legs (only one gear - low !) and hydr solid one piece load ramp. I was able to run 14' up and run a 4 ' rear hang thoo. Very slick unit.

WATCH out for incomplete welds leading to cracks around the box iron and the cross members around the rear axle on the tandems and ESPECIALLY the singles. From experience. Also watch out that on long trips the hydrolics 'creep' out on the skid load ramp. I went 5 hours over some rough road last summer and when I stopped, the back ramp had come out 2.5 ' !!!! Until it was fixed, I kept a ratchet strap around the deck underneath on long moves. FYI. Nice pics.

 

That's called stalking ! LOL ! ...... well, ya couldn't a' picked a better parking lot to stalk !

 

Haha well 2 of them were spotted rolling down the highway in IN and IL and the other was pulling out of adesa Indianapolis as I was rolling in

 

THX FOR THE HEADS UP,

There were couple of things we changed up, usually they run an 18"KP setup, we spec'd 30"trying to move more weight up front to balance, with only 3 axles I need to maximize the capacity best I can, as you know rear of trailer gets heavier faster.

Also spec'd the heavier deck and heavy duty rear ramps because of the buses. They also normally run a 14' center lift table, I had them stretch it to 16' so the long cab/chassis would fit.

Our first load came out to 10,800 on steers (never changes much) and I was 18,900 0n drives and 19,100 on rear, so I think I hit it pretty close. I hated to give up the spread axle, but our loads just aren't that heavy any more, so I reg,d these at 54,000 and I can get to almost 51,000 gross, truck and trailer weigh in at 27,000

IF I can move about 95% of the loads I used to with one less axle, better fuel mileage, less tire cost, less tolls etc. AND no 2290's OR FET, it all adds up esp. times 8.

IF it all works, next year I will start replacing our 60" cascadias with 48" sleepers, those trucks (aluminum frame) will come in at 2000 lighter, and I will get 13,500 front axle and slide 5th forward, so I will be able to gross 53,500 on a 54,000 reg, close enough for me.

Puts truck and trailer at 25,000 so I can load 28,5000 on three axles.

We'll see?

 

Good on you. A VERY well thought out plan.

One more 'cosmetic' thing about Sun's storage boxes ( the ones behind the dolly legs ) ......... if they didn't do it, install a 'screen door' shock or 'wind spring'. A number of my units saw drivers open the boxes only to have the doors caught by big wind. The big wind warped the sheet metal door and warped the piano hinges beyond repair. Warranty did some, but others were done until we re-did them heavier in our own shop. Keep the locks lubed, or better yet, just install hasps for pad locks. Saves some grief.


'Luck, Bro

Let me/us know how it goes. Love pictures.

Me

 

Jeeeeesh Stan - here's one BIG one I forgot - Sorry - Over the 5th wheel, are the sides open ? You'll know what I mean when you look. It's like an open area about 8" wide from the side rail to the plate. Spaced with 1" tube ? For Heaven's SAKEs !! Have Sun, or your shop guy/gal rivet rubber ( old mud flap ) over the gap from the bottom !! Sun claims the gap is for tractor to trailer flex over the 5th wheel, BUT the crap that comes up from the drives, even with FULL fenders, WILL do damages do the sides of the unit on the 5th wheel !!! The rubber will allow flex and protect the unit. Been there and done it. One trip in bad weather will show ya.

Me

 

I'll see if this picture(s) works:

 

Thanks for all of the suggestions Speedy, really do appreciate it, I will have to check on the "open deck" over the drives, now that you mention it, I'm not sure?

I'm going to get these 8 done and then have them build a prototype unit for my truck that will allow the 5th car, BUT without the weight penalty. I know the heavy decked 5 cars with tandem are almost 17,000 the single are around 15,000, losing the front deck took off another 1700 and running the .188 instead of the .250 dropped another 1500 and then deleting the landing gear and some other stuff got us all the way down to just over 11,400.


I guess I just got turned off by that 8 car, it just seems that we are getting to a point that with all of the lowering main decks (like a CX-5308) your at 23000+ on the trailer, add in a big sleeper tandem with emissions and APU and that is 19,000 so till you fuel, add driver, tools etc. you are knocking on the 43,000 door.

Then since you have to run the 5th wheel all the way back for front deck ext. you can only get about 28,000 on your drives, and that's if you max your trailer tandem at 34,000, on that Prostar we leased to run that 8 car, we only had 9,000 of front axle weight!

What I am getting at is that when you put a pencil to it you can only "really" gross about 72,000 on that combo since you can't max your drives or steers, which means you can only carry about 30,000 of cargo, no problem since a mix of 7 cars are usually around 28,000#.

But to me, it just seems like you are carrying a LOT of dead weight around to get that extra 2 cars on there, but I guess if you over 54,000 it doesn't matter because you are still into 2290 territory.

But it's even worst for us because three large high top service vans may come in at 24,000 and that is ALL you will ever get on that trailer. I was just surprised when I put a pencil to what we saved three years ago going from a 5 axle 75" aerocab KW to these S/A Cascadias, and I'm not talking just fuel mileage, tire costs, tolls etc, it just really adds to the bottom line.

So I just figured IF I could see that difference with 4 axles, what will 3 get us, as long as I don't have to start splitting loads I think we will be fine, but I guess my warning to others is, make #### sure you are WELL versed in what your load configuration is, it is going to be a REAL fine line on some of these loads until we can get into the lighter trucks and pickup that extra 2500#. and that is with us being pretty well balanced.


Next, I am wondering If I could make this setup work with super singles, sure would cut down on the rolling resistance, and weight, would raise my deck height 3" though!

Or, maybe I just think too much? LOL


Stan

 

Funny my wife tells me I think too much as well. But I disagree. Imo most people think way too little

All of this big stuff you're hauling is it from CD or your own accounts?

 

I get some stuff off CD along with some other boards, but usually to fill out a load, we have been here over 20 years, most of our big stuff is personal accounts. We used to do a bunch of military, that and fire trucks were the reason I had the spread axle low boys built, but military became a CF, and a lot of companies drive the fire trucks now to "shake" them out before del.

Before that we used to run about a 100 trailers to Alaska every winter, and we also were tied into FEMA and did a lot of disaster relief moves. But that was back in the early 90's.