check it out - new equipment

Congrats rollin on the new trailer. I may have missed it or don't remember, did you sell the old one?
As far as lifts go, my neighbor put a Hendrickson UBL on and loves it. It's not hard or complicated to do. Depending on your suspension, it could even be a bolt on application. My next trailer will definitely have an axle lift. I estimate it would be up 75% of the time. The savings will be easy to see. In fact, I think I could roll with 3 axles on the ground about 50% of the time.
One idea to save the interior of the trailer from errant forklifts is to put lights in it. Phillips makes an awesome LED trailer interior light that is very bright. I actually replaced my sleeper light with one and it's like daylight!

 

I had the opposite experience in a lot of ways. Calc 3 was torture -- wasting 45 minutes and 3 pages to solve a series transformation all while knowing I could have the answer in 2 minutes using my graphing calculator. It was hazing for nerds...

Then when touring various employers I saw how the brightest guys in the room were stuck behind windowless cubicles focusing myopically on some tiny fraction of one larger problem. The managers often didn't fully understand what the engineers were doing, but they were the ones guiding the progress which struck me as the inmates running the asylum. The resulting products inevitably wound up clunky and disjointed like early MP3 players vs the more unified ipod design.

About that time I read The Fountainhead and decided I wasn't going to play by those rules. I eventually wound up inside a card room, making more at a Friday night 2/5 nl hold'em table than my classmates made in a week at the office -- at least until the real estate bubble burst.



Back on subject, I suspect you would see a better improvement in mpg by using wide single tires on the back axle, single 295/60/22.5 tires on the front axle, and regulating the front axle's suspension air pressure to ~70% of the back axle. Doing so would remove weight from the system (lowering rolling resistance) and lower rotational inertia. The effects would be present both loaded & unloaded and the only additional cost/complexity would be the pressure regulator.

 

Find out what Hendrickson suspension you have, go here:http://www.hendrickson-intl.com/PartsAndService/Trailer/Under-Beam-Lift-Kits and look it up for the kit#. My neighbor's was weld on, and it was fairly easy. Weld/bolt on the airbag brackets, run a couple air lines to the valve box and your done. I thinkhis kit was like $500 and $150 for the deluxe stainless valve box.

 

On their site under contact us they have a number for the lift axle specialist. They'll be able to tell you what you need.

 

Hendrickson is who you need to talk to. They make and warranty the suspension.

 

More work to do the rear with the sureloc. Have to use a valve to shut it off. And i think you just have the 2S ABS.