What kind of truck to buy for intermodal hauling

Discussion in 'Intermodal Trucking Forum' started by TDevine729, Oct 4, 2014.

  1. Pool6710

    Pool6710 Medium Load Member

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  3. striker

    striker Road Train Member

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    Well, the weights and items posted are wrong.

    1. 20' container on a 20' slider chassis, anything over 36,000 is illegal for bridge in Wyo., unless you have a 4 axle tractor, then you can run up to 42,000, with a 3 axle tractor and 3 axle chassis, we can run whatever will fit up to 80,000 lbs gross BTDT many times.

    I can put 45,000 in a 40' HC and gross under 80,000 and be bridge legal in Colorado and Kansas, Wyo. and Nebraska, 44,000

    Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska all like to measure for bridge on 3 axle chassis combinations exceeding 77,000 lbs, even though the load is legal for gross and bridge.

    The other thing, if we ran those weights in the "grain states", intermodal for grain export would cease to operate and everything would go by hopper car or 53' van in totes for repack at the coast. These guys want to run even heavier to compete with So. America. We run popcorn out of Imperial, Nebraska. They can get 45,000 in a can, we are marginally road legal, the same popcorn loads coming out of Brazil are 50,000 to 53,000 lbs.
     
    Last edited: Oct 9, 2014
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  4. Pool6710

    Pool6710 Medium Load Member

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    Okay, so then is there a different spreadsheet out there that's more accurate?
     
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  5. striker

    striker Road Train Member

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    I have a bridge axle/weight chart given to me by Wyoming and Colorado that I go off of, it's fairly close to the Motor Carriers atlas info. There's another part of it, last week, I picked up 43,800 (gross of 74,200) in a 20' can on a slider 20' chassis, prepass gave me green lights at the WB Limon scale, which was open.
     
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  6. roadkingfreightlogistics

    roadkingfreightlogistics Bobtail Member

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    As suggest by @ew2108, 455hp is perfect for Intermodal freight transportation. As far as wheelbase is concerned, shorter wheelbase proves really helpful while unloading the container.
     
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  7. TDevine729

    TDevine729 Bobtail Member

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    Would you ever consider a newer cab over with a sleeper for intermodal?
     
  8. bigrtransport

    bigrtransport Bobtail Member

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    Mack Trucks they take a beating but for the money buy a Freightliner with at least 400 HP, Mack are very expensive to fix when they break more so than a freightliner
     
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  9. RunFlat

    RunFlat Light Load Member

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    get yourself a little fld112, short nose, 48in sleeper. You would be able to maneuver that thing anywhere on the rail yard.
     
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  10. Pool6710

    Pool6710 Medium Load Member

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    Any motor without a low nox file will pull much better. Hp isn't everything if the tune is junk
     
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  11. striker

    striker Road Train Member

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    Aside from emissions related items and premature clutch failure, my '09 Mack is only in the shop for PM or tires in the last 6 yrs (delivered Sept. 29th, 2008). My previous Mack was a '00 CH, 978K when we traded it off, it spent it's life doing intermodal, maybe once a year would something break that required it to be down for longer than a couple of hours. It's all about PM's and inspections to catch stuff. Where Mack can get expensive is a lot of things are proprietary to Mack, and you can only get it from Mack. When my truck was new, the upper rad. hose was available only from Mack, mine failed about 3 months in, they had to jerryrig one from another Mack onto mine so I could limp back to Denver, then Mack had to overnight one in from Va..

    We used to have three '04 Columbia's, 445 hp MB engines. Those things would break if you looked at them wrong, fuel lines, turbo's, EGR's, belt tensioners.
     
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