Single axle and tandem pup

Heavier trailer needs to be the lead, axles don’t matter

 

Are you wanting a lift gate on both pup trailers?

 

Pintel hooks and Lift Gates have clearance problems
Look at your big LTLs set up most only pull the trailer with the lift gate in the rear position.
Some have no hook or have been taken off.
As far as a tandem axel to pull pups . King pin settings must be far enough forward so the trailer landing gear does not get caught up in the trucks frame.
Many can not run with mud flaps . They get ripped off
Some hit the frame of truck before the fifth wheel even latches

 

Exactly.
My mudflaps, which i had to get out before hooking, to make sure i wouldn’t rip them off, were right there a finger width of dollys.
Had to move fifth wheel and just barely could clear, one notch more and i’d have had to take off the flaps.

 

Like the second post said. You’re limiting yourself by always having to make sure the non tailgate pup is heavier, which probably defeats the purpose of a power gate. Why not just get a 40’ trailer with a gate?

 

I have only dealt with doubles in the foodservice context. I have seen tandem and single axle pups mixed in some foodservice fleets and they didn’t seem to have any exceptional issues.
There are two things that come to mind. First, depending on what you’re hauling the tandem pup with the gate might be more weight than you can afford. Doubles are heavy. Granted they were reefers with ramps, side doors, and freezer stairs, but one of our sets full of fuel with a modern emissions tractor was nearly 51,000 lbs. Generally the only axle weight I had any concern with was the drive axle when we were running single screws. Gross weight on the other hand was a constant battle. I’m sure dry van pups are much lighter but they’re still going to run heavier than a long single trailer. So if weight is at all a concern I’d check what the whole combination scales out to and be sure that works for your application.
Second, while you’re scaling them out, getting individual weights so you can ‘handicap’ the trailer weights each day and not have to guess which one is heavier if the single axle pup has a heavier load one day. You can get away with the kite (back trailer) being 1-2k heavier. How they are loaded will make a difference as well, if the weight is spread evenly along the length of the trailers it will handle better and be more forgiving.

 

Their were multiple trailers with lift gates at almost every YRC terminal.
Check the auctions at Richey Bros.
Their were also convertor gears all going cheap.
Make sure what ever you do that the snubber works ..