excavator on step deck

Don't ya hate that. My best friend and his wife were in charge of shipping at two different companies, and I never pulled a single load for them. All I ever heard was your too expensive.

 

you think a few round pieces of round tubing welded as gussets to a piece of channel is gonna make the difference, eh ? I dunno man, I mean I hauled several excavator's and got away with it before I had this happen. IMO, you're pushing your luck. if there is a flat dock on both ends you may have a fighting chance, if you put some 4x4's across the frame rails and run on top of them that can only help. But you're just pushing your luck especially when the tracks are more hanging off the trailer than on it. And the question is why ? why push your luck when there are RGN's with heavy outer frame rails specifically for this sort of thing ?

 

Of course these are the first guys to say "I wont run in California, you can keep that commie state"... Yeah, they wont run California because they would be in jail. Let 'em run around Iowa for $3 a mile till their trailer breaks in half and they end up doing power only from load boards or leasing to Swift.

 

Agree about the loading dock and IMO, without knee braces I would never do it. With knee braces it's a case by case decision for me......It depends on where the center of the tracks are, how heavy the cross members are and how far apart they are. Like someone said...wheel loaders are worse.

I'm surprised you were able to get away with it before.

 

The difference with a wheel loader or tractor is the weight is always split between two axles. With tracked equipment (and the lack of a flat dock) you are going to reach the back of your trailer either loading or unloading. At that precarious moment you have essentially all the weight of the machine teetering on a few inches of the back of your trailer. When loading wheeled equipment not only is it split between axles but the tires spread it out over a foot or two on each axle.

 

Well you can't tuck the boom anyway, you can tuck the stick up under and lower the boom though.

 

Yeah, that happens when it's being loaded from a ramp. When I said wheel loaders are worse I meant after they are loaded and running down the road. You've got all the weight concentrated on 4 little contact points.

Dundalk loads excavator after excavator onto steps all the time....know your limit and stay within it.

 

There's another difference: The average wheel loader Ive pulled was in the 27k range. The average escavator, depending on attachments, has been 20000lbs heavier. I have pulled the bigger wheel loaders in the 47-50k range too, but they sit nearly 14'5 tall on an rgn. You're not going to put a load like that on a step.

 

Wanna bet? There would be some fool that would put that on their step and think about all the big bucks they are going to make...

 

Until they hit a bridge or drag it thru the trees and have a big claim.