How to make a truck lighter

By stating the obvious making it lighter build the whole thing out of plastic or aluminum.

 

Aren't we already 7/8 of the way there? We'll have plastic engine blocks as soon as we can figure out how to keep them from melting lol.

 

Plastic engine blocks are 1970s news.

Plastic automotive engine - Wikipedia

 

there are light weight break drums and aluminum rims, running with less fuel. and carry less junk with you. w9's are a heavy truck there just is not much getting around that.

 

I thought my daycab was bad at 17,500

 

Get lightweight trailer

 

If you're worried about weight, go with a prostar, cascadia, or Volvo, midsize models. You're talking about a KW, Pete, and Coronado, you seem to value appearance. Petes and KWs are historically heavier trucks. If you're hauling that skateboard, you may have to sacrifice internal space, kind of like those freightliners BTC uses, or that other flatbed company in Indiana.....I can't think of their name

 

Lmao!!!! I took my wife once, that added like 350 to the steers

 

Less than 20,000 lbs, hmm.

Well, start off by dumping the studio sleeper for a smaller sleeper. That's where a lot of your excess weight is coming in, especially with all the junk you probably have stuffed in all the storage cabinets.

Next, drop any auxiliary equipment you don't need (i.e. APU, fancy chrome full fenders, bull bar, fairings, chicken lights, etc).

Outside of those things, a smaller motor and lighter-weight rear-ends are the only things that will save on more weight. If you desperately need to drop weight, it might be easier to just get a new truck than waste money modifying something not spec'd correctly for the job you need to do.

The truck I drive (in signature) comes in at around 31,000 lbs with a steel frame tridem with a rack of 8 chains and binders. And I have a PTO and pneumatic blower. A C-13 under a short hood makes a big difference.

 

Back in the 60's,70's Esso Exon Tankers specced out their tractors as light as I've seen. Started with IHC DC 400,or later 4200 day cab conventionals,fiberglass hoods. Aluminum frame,all aluminum wheels,one fuel tank. Single drive with tag axle,fixed fifth wheel,V-6 Detroit,9 speed. No passenger seat,no radio,no ashtray or lighter. Weighed in around 12k iirc. Load the same amount of gas,every trip,stay right under 73,280. I was surprised they did use an electric starter. Most big fleets,like Roadway,CF,still used an air starter,and one battery. Saved a lot of weight,not carrying multiple batteries,heavy starter,parallel switch,and cables.