Heavy Haul Pusher Axles

I'm actually working for a local construction company as a company driver pulling a 50 ton hydraulic RGN. Home every night. I'm currently at $24/hr with time and a half OT and benefits averaging 50 to 55 hours a week sometimes 60 which comes to around I think $1500 before taxes. But there is plenty more money out there. Considering I started this job at $18.50hr and was hauling smaller equipment on a 25ton bringing home $40k/yr prior to my current job, where I'm at now in 4 years isn't bad.

And yes, OW/OD loads are daylight hours only here in North Carolina. But not all lowboy loads are OD/OW. Just the other day I left the house with two mini excavators at about 6am before first light. And just yesterday I did the same thing again with a dump truck on my trailer.

Just like anything else, lowboy work is a skilled trade that does not come easy, nor do you get paid big time up front. You have to stick around and prove yourself, and prove you can handle the responsibility and continue to learn and grow over the years. A LOT can go wrong if you don't know what you are doing and even more can go wrong if you don't know how to take in to account everything and plan ahead. And if you do it local like me, you are pushing 4 to 6 moves a day which is a lot of back breaking work and requires a lot of throwing chains and binders around. And a lot of climbing as well because I have to load and unload all of my equipment I haul on my own. Even if you went OTR and had more driving time than loading unloading time, you still carry a major responsibility on your shoulders.

To answer your question, it really depends on your perspective of what is a lot of money and what your minimum requirements are. This is a job that you have to enjoy and be willing to stick with for the long term. For me, I make enough to feed my family and put a roof over their heads, and I like what I am doing and have gotten pretty decent at it. So this works for me. But it is a hard manual labor job.

 

I'm really sorry to hear that you seemed to loose interest in lowbedding. I know there some people I have talked that did it for a long time and to them it's just another job. But then I have talked with folks that seem to continue to enjoy it for years to come. I kind of go between sometimes. I think any job is that way. I do enjoy what I am doing, but that doesn't mean I don't have days where it just sucks and I don't want to be there. I wish there was some way I could help everyone who does this job actually be able to really enjoy it, but the world doesn't work that way. Thank you for your post abyliks.

 

So an update my question about the pusher axle pressure for the W900 I used to drive. I did eventually find a manufacturer tag on the lift axle that specified make and model. I was able to look it up online and find all the specs. I did find out that it was rated for 20K and I even found a load pressure chart to go with it. However, the pressure gauge still to this day has not been fixed. The shop has not gotten around to it I guess. Not a big deal, but I sure would like to know how I am balancing out my truck axles relative to my trailer.

On a side note, I thought I would post a video of one of my heavy hauls. This was taken on a brand new T880. I'm sorry for the one camera angle and lack of sound quality, but I'm experimenting with trucking videos and I am new to the scene of creating YouTube videos. Thought I would put this out there just because I like to share what I am passionate about. I hope you enjoy.



I know this wasn't all that big or impressive, but it did have to be permitted to 120K on 6 axles in the state of North Carolina. So I guess that's still technically heavy haul right?

 

I've been thinking about splitting the axles evenly. I suppose that would then also mean balancing the load on the trailer in a way that it puts weight where I need it (duh). when I haul 7 axles, I can run up to 60K on a tri axle group. So 3 on the trailer and 3 at the drives, Perhaps I could center the load in the middle of my trailer and be within those parameters. But if I could ever get my hands on truck that has working gauges for the drop and the drives, I might be able to get somewhere. The new T880 I mentioned in the video I posted has a working pusher gauge, but no suspension gauge was installed. The truck was custom ordered from the Kenworth factory and boss man forgot to include a suspension gauge in the gauge cluster. Go figure. But that's ok, I get by for the time being.

Thank you guys so much for all the info and tips by the way. Your comments have been helpful and much appreciated.

 

I agree that seems a little light. It would seem to me that if you feel you need that axle, you are running on a overweight permit and that 2 or 3 thousand pounds ought to be legal on the drives. At least here in North Carolina any way. I can go to 50k on a tandem. Even if you were only 36K and you had the drop, you would probably want to balance out your axle pressures it seems like to me. but I don't know, if you are that light I feel like that would take too much weight off the drives. Not good in poor conditions. But there again, here in North Carolina, if you put that axle down, now you have a triaxle which can go to 60K. So by that point you might as well go ahead and load that pusher up and get you some traction for the brakes. Drop axles just don't seem much use if you are on the lighter side of being overweight.