Jo Dog / Single Axle Jeep

Two thoughts. A single jump jeep with rollers and aluminum wheels shouldn't cost you $25,000.00, that is over market, at least in Canada. Try Richie Bros. for a start. And it shouldn't weigh more than about 3,000 lbs, even with a flip neck extension if you want one. But it is true, your truck is longer than it needs to be for heavy haul, and so it will always be hard to get more weight on the steer. Also, a set-back steer axle is the way to go to get more weight up front, you didn't mention if you had that, but it doesn't sound like it.

 

Thanks for the replies. As 3noses says, my truck has a set forward steer axle. The reason I bought the W900L instead of a T800 was the much higher resale value in my area. I prefer the T800 and still own a couple more in my construction business pulling end dumps, but no doubt I’m giving up $10,000 or more at the end when we sell or trade for newer. ALTHOUGH, to be fair, my KW salesman said that discount wouldn’t happen if I bought a heavy spec T800 with dual breathers, etc. But I didn’t want to wait 6 or 9 months to order one.

In reading back over this thread, it occurred to me that some are saying that a single Jeep setup might get allowed 20k on the Jeep axle as a separate axle, instead of just making the truck tandems a Tridem with 60k permit limit. If so, my setup would then be considered 1+2+1+3, which might be what I need to haul the 80k to 85k equipment. I need to get the Jeep measurements from the manufacturers and check that against the rules in the states where we haul, which is from about Georgia over to Texas and Oklahoma area. Some on here may know already if that will or won’t work.

One more question: if I had a Jeep and then delivered the big excavator to the job and went back to the shop or previous job to get another smaller piece of equipment, can I just drive it empty as a 1+2+1+3 without a length permit? I don’t want to put ramps on my truck frame to jump it, and I’m not sure what it would entail to “chain it up”, as I’ve read. I figure to just get back to the shop, drop the hydraulic gooseneck and hold it up with a loader or something, park the Jeep until next time it’s needed, hook back up to the gooseneck and proceed on as a 6 axle rig.

 

Not sure what I was thinking when I said drop the gooseneck and hold it up with a loader. If it’s already hooked to the trailer, it will hold itself up.

Maybe I had in my mind to drop the gooseneck alone somewhere away from the trailer at the job site after unloading the excavator, back the Jeep on to the trailer, unhook it, and haul it home on the trailer deck. Sounds like a lot of trouble. Maybe I could just set it on there with the excavator I just unloaded.

 

You would just use the track hoe to load the Jeep on the trailer

 

One more think you will need doubles endorsement to pull a Jeep

 

Thanks; I’m overthinking this whole process probably. The OP, Don Muirhead got good information from everyone and ended up with a nice setup. I don’t want to get an expensive education either by wasting money on something that won’t work where I go or having something that’s too much trouble to use.

On the positive side, the drawing on the Nuttall website shows that their Jeep has a 90 inch swing measurement with an 8 inch trailer gap, so my 95 inch RGN shouldn’t have a problem. I assume I’m reading it correctly.

 

As mentioned in a previous post in this thread you are going to be way better off reinforcing the rear of the truck for a removable pin-on axle. It will be cheaper, lighter, shorter length, better weight transfer to steer axle, and more maneuverable forward and backing versus a jo dog jeep. If your trailer actually has 95" swing like you say then it will be long enough to allow a pin-on axle to work properly with about 11,000-12,000#ish on your steer as a guess. Assuming you will have 54" axle spacings on tridem group then your 5th wheel will be setting about 4"-6" in front of your rear drive axle. Your slide more then likely does not slide that far back, so you will need to move or extend it.

But if you must chase after a jo dog then get a weight ticket on your truck full of fuel. Split weigh your steer and drives bobtail. Let me know what your weights are. Also tell me the exact make and model of the trailer. I say that to verify your swing at 95" as I see people often mistakenly measure their swing wrong. Also tell me what tire size you expect to have on the jeep. Also do you plan to run a rear bumper or full fenders over the rear drive axle? What is the axle spacing on the drive axles?

Get me those answers and I can figure how the truck will split the weight for you with the trailer neck length you have. Just to note 95" trailer neck swing will probably not split correctly off the top of my head, but it might be "good enough" to do what you need to do. If you get me answers it may be a week or two to get to it and get it calculated. All said and done you will need someone to build you a jeep to split the weight correctly with the trailer neck swing it has to work with. You mentioned XL trailers...I know they are capable to "fine tune" the details to work properly. As long as you know exactly what you want you won't have to have a dealer get in your way in helping you figure it out. I can tell you a trailer dealer will get in your way in getting the right trailer, so if I were to get this calculated for you then you can have the dealer turn those #s into engineering and have them look it over before the build.

 

95/96” isn’t that uncommon especially in older trailers.

 

Thanks, HHSC! I’ll bobtail up to the Cat scale near our job this week and let you know. I’ll also reply with the other requested info. And I’ll look into the pin-on option; as I’ve never thought of that. If I didn’t need this truck to pull an end dump fairly often I would just permanently mount a pusher axle, but I can’t take the weight penalty with the end dump.

 

This rig is exactly what I need for all my equipment except the 350 class excavator. It will easily, with permits, handle the 210 excavators, the D6N,R, and T dozers, the artic trucks, and will haul the rollers, motor grader, and water truck with the 3rd trailer axle lifted. But it’s my big excavator that’s causing all this headache. And you need a 350 excavator (or more) to pass match the artic trucks when loading them; 210s, 250s, and 300s are too slow. Bigger contractors have dedicated 4 axle haul trucks, but, as stated, I need my haul truck to do double duty pulling an end dump and a stepdeck.