What do you call it when they customize their truck to have an extra long catwalk?

Years ago, that was one of the styling cues of the west coast trucks. We used to not see them east of Amarillo. The long stretch frame, the big bumpers, the fancy mirror brackets, the low riding suspension...all west coast. Well between west Texas and California. It's a different culture.

In the South, it was chicken lights and straight pipes and chrome and the big radios and the rear windows on the back of the sleepers. The large cars in the South ran mainly at night when traffic thinned. So they wanted the lights so everyone could see them. In the west, they ran all day, so they did the wild paint, less lights, and more styling.

"Do you think the long wheelbase is stupid, Six?"

Only if you can't afford it. Pretty girls want their hair and nails done. Big houses cost more than smaller houses, a nd high end cars cost more to maintain than low end cars.

 

Looks cool
Ride is very smooth
For some flatbedders the front overhang can be useful.
For pulling a reefer one could argue the further back the unit is the less noise you have to hear when you are sleeping.

Not sure why some people hate on them, yes they are (for most of us) impractical, and really there are very few of them on the road and it's just some people who like it, can afford it, and don't mind burning some extra fuel. To each their own. Beautiful thing about the USA. We are more limited wheelbase wise north of the 49th.

Fit the prius on the catwalk.... lol, good one. What do you really drive? @Ridgeline

 

Not having driven one, I cant help but wonder if it helps how they scale. Sliding the 5th wheel would seem moot with the steers that far forward. Your cerainly not helping the aerodynamics as your essentially trying to push two trucks down the road (first one is the cab then the trailer that is not in the slipstream of the cab).

 

I bought my IH Eagle 4300 new in 77,single sleeper,was a 200" wb,kind of standard for single bunk conventionals. Double bunk conventionals were were mostly 235"-250" wb. Back then some guys would stretch there frames and put a "drom box" on,to haul more freight. Some states then,like Missouri would recognize a drom truck as a "truck and trailer" instead of a semi-trailer. You could beat the 55' overall length law back then by doing this,as drom unit was allowed more overall length.
Those long wheelbase trucks might look cool and ride good,but one bad thing is fuel mileage goes to hell with that big air gap behind the sleeper,to the front of the trailer. Also,your nose sticks out in the parking lot at the truckstop,makes for an easy target.

 

We call that Florida Georgia line trucking. You get bedazzled tight jeans and cut off sleeves along with a vape pen and baby powder .

 

Ever try to load 70' long beams on a 220" tractor?

 

When I first saw those guys with the west coast rigs, if they pulled a box, they pulled the stainless steel 48 ft spread reefer. We. We're all about the lights and neons and whatnot and so we didn't do a lot of truck shows. The very first time I went to the J in Amarillo, they were having a truck show in the parkinglot. The first time I went to the Giant truckstop, that same weekend, they were having a trucks show there.

Come to think of it, the big tall shifter is a west coast thing that made it to the east also. I think Big Daddy Roth always drew pics of rods with giant shifters.

Now the biggest wheelbase trucks I've seen, bigger than any of the west coast rigs, are the Benett heavyhaulers. I worked with some of these guys, they had the biggest big house sleepers (I don't like big sleepers on a truck, but I sure as hell am not going to start a thread about something someone else likes that I dislike) and 450 inch wheelbase rigs converted to 4 axles, pulling 2+3+2 trailers. How and why? I don't know...I didn't bother to ask them.

 

It's called a 300 or more inch wheel base.

100% cool, outlaw, cholla lowrider, whatever.

But it's totally meaningless unless there is the accompanying GIANT eyebrow sun visor, and ape hanger shifter.

 

i gotnine feet between my trailer and back of cab.