53 Foot Trailers

Well I do. Because I used em. Starting with the Univac 1101 in ‘59 thence to the 1107 early 60’s finally the IBM 360 in late 60’s. That was way faster. Still used it seems as I just Googled it.

Now I had a 61 Pete 3-axle with a Paige and Paige suspension and a belly dump and tried to figure where to place the 5th wheel to optimize the payload but limit wear on the steering tires and wound up (as I recall - lotta years ago) with 3 equations and 4 unknowns. Maybe the other way around. A friend suggested the problem was statically indeterminate. Finally got it by trial and error but I think a computer program could have solved it with an iterative technique.

Considering the above I drove truck to go to school then spent 11 years as an engineer and then to hell with that. Problem is once you get diesel smoke up your butt it never comes out. First day I clumb back inna truck was the best day in one long time. I stuck with it till retirement. No regrets. Lot of adventures. My question was answered and I’ve wrote way more than I should have so I’ll back on out. Bye.