96 or 108

Sweet!! Ivr gotton spoiled, on a 96 its a pita if u try to feed them thru the rub rail and tuck em up under all nice and pretty

 

The easy solution to that is just don’t run them inside the rail. Problem solved and perfectly legal. On those loads doing that would have just broken the bottom board on the pallet, not that that would have mattered.

 

Without a spread oddball loads that are mix and match would be much harder.

As for width never buy a 96. Some brokers refuse them and generally make your life miserable.

 

I've never seen a broker at a shipper in order to have them refuse. Anything that can be run on a 102 can be put on a 96. Yes, you can overhang the sides and its perfectly legal. You're not OD until you exceed 102". And as for those oddball loads, they can be loaded correctly, whether on a spread or a closed-tandem trailer, so that the axles are balanced. To do otherwise is just plain lazy or incompetent on the part of the loader.

 

Perhaps I am wrong, but I don't see it like you. A spread is 2 separate axles that are at least 10' 2" apart from each. They are not 1 set of axles that are 10' 2". Therefore I don't look at the balance the same as I would a tandem axle.

To each his own.

 

I think you missed his point. Nearly every load can be loaded in a way that makes the axle weight legal even on a tandem axle trailer. Spreads just make it easier to be legal. That scale ticket with 38k on the spread and 28k on the drives in legal. It’s also loaded very poorly and should have never left the customer like that.

 

A broker isn’t going to know if you have a 96 or a 102 unless you tell them. Most places you go aren’t going to care either.

A 96” trailer will generally be a little lighter. Loads will tarp better on a 96” because you don’t have to pull the bottom out as far.

If you buy a Western Elite or a Wilson curtain spec flatbed you won’t have a rubrail so product will stay dry.

 

The farther apart the axles are, the more inclined they are to want to go straight and resist any turning you're trying to do. The more weight you have on them, the more power they have to get their way. The less weight you have on the tractor, the less power you have to overcome that push. It rides like crap, it turns like crap, and it increases the likelihood that you'll end up stuck if you have to leave the pavement to make your delivery (or even just run into some inclement weather). If my drives and trailer axles aren't within 500# of each other, I'd rather the extra weight was on my drives...ESPECIALLY when pulling a spread. If I'm going to be close to gross, I want my drives as close to 34K as possible.

 

I can appreciate that. I haul steel coils and to be honest, I don't like thinking and calculating. I like that I have a fairly forgiving window of getting my weights right. I don't go off road much, so I'm not concerned about losing traction, and by having the extra 6,000 pounds, it allows me to have an addition 1,100-1,500 pounds of payload that I couldn't haul with a sliding tandem.

If at all possible, I'll never pull a tandem trailer again.

 

That's just it...in most states, you DON'T have any "extra" payload capacity...you're still limited to the same 80K whether you're running a spread or closed tandems. Sure, there are exceptions here or there, but in most places you're not getting any extra payload. And if you're pulling shorter trailers (such as end dumps) with only 36 to 38 feet between your front drive & rear trailer axles, there is an exception to the bridge law formula to allow 68K (34 & 34) on a pair of closed tandems, whereas that spread is not subject to the exception and therefore limited to lower weight limits. Sure, you can load them heavy on the rear...but your total payload is reduced.

 

I never want to haul anything but a spread with double dumps. I crab out of stupid stuff all the time.