Anyone ever convert a 6x4 tractor to 6x2?

No, we have a T800 w/C13 doing the same job as this W900/C12/dead axle and there is no measurable fuel savings (both pull hoppers hauling grain), the only thing that is obvious is tire wear. If I was going to do it again the dead axle would be liftable but it's all but impossible with the KW 8 bag.

The dead axle has valves for trailer lift axles that kills the brakes when dumped.

 

Yes I mostly haul around 40k in my box running NW. I get light loads only once in a while so if I decide to do anything it's got to be 23k diff.

 

The reason you have to use the 23K Lb axle versus the 20K Lb axle has nothing to do with the weight the axle will carry. It has to do with the fact that the 23 Lb axle has a much larger diameter ring gear. The larger diameter gear will handle more torque without prematurely wearing out. If you use an Eaton DS404 rear axle with 3.55 or 3.36 gear ratio, expect to be replacing ring and pinion gears often if you have a 550 CAT or any other engine that will produce high torque. The slower(4.11) the gear the wider the teeth are in the ring gear to handle the torque, the faster the ratio(3.23) the less width in the ring gear teeth to handle the torque. Eaton wouldn't give a warranty on the DS404 rears with 3.36 ratio with a 550 CAT in front of it with a complete set of tandems, with this being said I know a single rear won't handle it. I also know of someone that rebuilt a 5EK to 550 specs with a set of 3.36 DS404 rears that wore the ring gear teeth down to a sharp enough edge to shave with it, fortunately he caught it before it exploded

 

Thanks for the explanation and the technical reasoning behind it. That is why I posted this here. BTW, no yellow motor for me, I like mine blue thank you very much. 430/470 putting 390 to the ground. Do you do anything with DDEC IV or are you just a Cat guy?

 

I have converted a tandem to a single axle tractor to pull what's called a Florida dump trailer with a legal payload of 24.5 tons, what the shop did was, remove the front diff and move the rear to the front, It didn't last a week, I went and got a 23K lbs and still running after 12 years.

here in So Florida I know a few guys that are turning their tandem diff tractor to a single drive and a liftable pusher axle, and it has worked to the point that more and more are doing it, they have seen difference on lighter weight better tire wear and fuel economy, but keep in mind that there's never snow or ice in Florida and also is 100% legal, another thing if you lose a bit of traction,just release some air from the drop axle and lock up the differential.

one question I have, why do some states would not allowed the push or tag axle controls in the cab? as the driver I would like to be in command of all the controls in the cab.

It's like having the lights switch out of the cab, my point is if a driver wants to drive with the lights off at night, there would be a cop to wright'em a ticket and for those that will run the drop axle light on pressure to save on tire wear, they'll be fooling themselves because the other axle will carry the weigh that the drop axle will not and hence wear much quicker.

 

This is my issue, you did it to save weight which it will do and any money it cost you you'll make back in added payload. He's trying to save fuel, that's what I'm not sure about. Not that he won't see an increase, he might. But it's sort of like the argument of selling an SUV for a Prius to save money in gas, but leaving out the fact it may take you 20yrs to make up the difference of any lost money in the trade. If all he has to do is swap diff's and plate off the rear he's not going to be out much if it doesn't work. But when you start talking about swapping a drive axle for a tag/pusher your taking a bigger risk for a gain you might not see.

This is why the W900 we have was bought used. It was owned by a guy that pulled a gasoline tanker and was almost spotless. We wanted to try a truck with a dead axle for the light weight but didn't want to risk buying a new one for a trial. We got the extra take out dead axle rear suspension from a local used truck dealer who though a truck on his lot would be easier to sell with 2 drive axles.

Ohio used to make all lift axle controls be outside the cab they've since dropped this stupid rule.

 

In the past had taken two century's and dropped front diff and moved rear diff up. No tag or pusher, we don't haul much weight and we are small motored ISM 410/1450

Ran both trucks over 500,000 like that with no problems, gained appox. 1 mile per gallon and saved a lot of money on tires.

Biggest issue for us was losing the interlock, my T2 factory single has 23K with air locker and anti spin control, that truck will go anywhere.

If you are only hauling 15,000's why not go single axle?

 

I've been thinking about going to a single drive on my truck. My loads are light, around 10K, however the company I'm leased to requires the truck to be legal at 80K.

I had a conversation with a Boyd driver in Medford OR a few months ago. He was driving a Columbia day cab with a MBE motor, one drive and one dead axle, hauling chips between Weed CA and Dillion OR, so he was doing the same strech of road that I normally do and wasn't having a traction problem.

I was looking at the way the axles were set up on my Century and it seemed to me that the easiest way to go would be to pull out the first differential, remove the axle shafts, put dummy covers on the hubs, and lock the interaxle differential (or replace it with a straight shaft). I would still have my rear axle lock available for traction and have the possibility of converting the interaxle lock air line to a bag dump on the front axle.

Going the other way, swapping the front and rear axles, looked labor and modification heavy.

Any thought?

 

I had changed my 6X4 over to a 6X2 with my drive axle now being a 23,000 lbs locker ran this setup for 2 years. This was the worst mistake I ever made in my life of trucking. Traction was bad even when I put all the weight on drive axle you would still spin all the way to the top of a hill. MPG increase there was none but worst thing about the whole setup I was now wearing out a set of Michelin super single tires on the drive axle ever 45,000 to 50,000 miles so other words I was now spending 6,500.00 dollars a year for drive tires. The good thing about this setup was I lost 508 lbs in weight since this big mistake I went back to a twin screw and much happier now. I even still have the 23,000 locker in storage. I should add this would be a fine setup for someone running no more than say 50,000 to 60,000 lbs gross. I was always up to 79,000 lbs plus and pulling in the Northwest most of the time did no favors for this setup

 

one question I have, why do some states would not allowed the push or tag axle controls in the cab? as the driver I would like to be in command of all the controls in the cab.

It's like having the lights switch out of the cab, my point is if a driver wants to drive with the lights off at night, there would be a cop to wright'em a ticket and for those that will run the drop axle light on pressure to save on tire wear, they'll be fooling themselves because the other axle will carry the weigh that the drop axle will not and hence wear much quicker.[/QUOTE]. The reason why they don't like switches in the cab is some guys were muffling dump valve airlines and dumping air as the crossed scales to transfer weight back when most scales were single axle group now with platform scales everywhere that trick no longer works