Lift-Axle for flatbed

If you buy your's, like I bought mine, you will have to find A DEALER, to do the work, because you will not have a dealer to work with. That is the deal, when buying directly from the factory and no dealer was involved.

 

Its a 2001 48' Transcraft Eagle Superbeam II with an 8' spread axle, and I'm lifting the rear axle.

I think part of my problem was that I was using chain hooks, and not flat strap hooks. The force from the axle bouncing around wasn't spread out, and caused the steel on the trailer to buckle.

With the chain and binders reset to the stake pockets and bumper steel, I was able to get about 5" clearance after maxing out the airbag leveling valve adjustment. No bending, no kiss marks on the lifter axle's tires (did drag it over some bumps and dips off the highway, though), and no more smoking under braking. I've got about 2" clearance with the leveling valve adjustment bottomed out, so I'm going to try someone else's method of driving the tag axle up on blocks without air in the bags first to make sure I'm getting as much lift as possible with the chain.

 

You are allowed to have your axles controlled from in the cab in Canada (Well at least Ontario I know for sure).. Like someone said the only ones your not allowed to control from in the cab are the self steer axles... Reason for that is it would defeat the purpose of the self-steering axles since they are meant to stay down all the time to keep all the weight transfer to all axles during turns.. The steer axles are wired to come up automatically when in Reverse and this is controlled by valves and wiring.. The other time they are up is empty or when you don't need them but they are locked up manually from trailer..

The only thing with the "ridgid" lift axles is that weight's have been dropped by approx 3ton per axle.. Now they have different rules for certain types of trailers and different years of manufacturing . Companies can buy permits so they do not have to have reduced weight limits on non-self steering axles (Ridged axles)... So my cab has "trailer aux" switch, so if I am hooked to my trailer that has self steering axles this switch doesn't work (this is how the trailers are wired from the manufacture), now if I go pick up one of our trailers with ridged lift axles the switch in my cab will control the lift axles up and down..

So I am not sure why they would't let you in.. It just means if you could haul 34 tons in your end-dump that you would be reduce by about 3 tons giving you an allowable "net" of 31 tons.. I guess being in Ontario I am so use to seeing lift axles, we have more multi-axle lift axle trailers in Ontario then we do just tandem trailers... I am surprised the U.S doesn't allow multi-axles as a normal thing... I never gross out any less then 90,000lbs on a daily basis... Heck my truck and trailer alone weighs 50,000lbs.

 

There are some really good ideas in this thread.

the axle with the dump valve(neway) is on the rear axle. Is this better or worse for deadheading to next load.

I'm trying to implement this remote control idea. The wire is right next to the pigtails as are the power wires.

http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/switches/led-product/547/1742/

I will wire a strobe somewhere to let me know when the switch is active.

 

They're no where near $1500. The hendrickson UBL kit is $500 at the most (no valves) and can be bought for as little as $300. Also they only add 60# to you empty weight.

Here's from the invoice where I bought my last two.

 

please do the entire invoice or tell us where you got em at that price. and by the way i had em priced to me by untility at 1500

 

$1500 must have included the platinum box that contains the gold plated valves.

 

Mac trailer, Alliance Ohio. Paid $500 for one about 8 years ago from Double A trailer in Delphos Ohio.

There was one that sold on EBay about 2 months ago for $250. Still pissed I missed it.

 

did that 306 dollar price include everything, the solenoid valves and all?