best tractor for end dump?

What do you guys thing about a Peterbilt 378 475 Hp 13 speed transmission with 12,000 front and 40,000 rear for an end dump to haul dirt?

 

13 speed wouldn't be bad, 475 is good power .....only issue i see from my limited experience is the front axle is a little on the light side - don't know where your located but in NY i would barely be squeezing by with my 18k front axle -it depends on your tire capacity as well, if you have a 20k front axle and put 24.5 6k tires on you really only have a 12k rating, i run 9400lb 315/22.5 steer tires and let me tell ya, you can buy 4 good virgin drive tires for what them bad boys cost, lol - it just depends on your bridge an outer bridge figures, quad box wagon will help a lot but they are pricey, are you running a pusher on the tractor?

 

My ideally spec'd truck may be different than yours.

In general though I'd want at least a 18 speed, spring or 4 bag air ride, like a pete air trac or something with a good off road / heavy track record. (don't kid yourself, you will run overweight at times), make sure the truck has a dump valve if it's air ride. drop axle on the tractor is also nice and helps out in quite a few places, all the outfits who'se pencils are sharp run em.

 

I am new into trucks this is my first time buying one and that's why I am asking questions so I can get the right truck.

 

You'll be fine with that. There's no way you need an 18k or 20k front axle. That's a bit of overkill. It would be nice to have but you don't need it. You are only going to be hauling 18-20 tons at a time.

 

I just read all this, I did exactly this last year, w900L pulled the body bought a tri axle 34' east. I am up in Rensselaer county. My truck spec is 20, 22,46, I can not get anymore than 11k on my steers, neck on the trailer wont let me move it up to much from the center of the trunion. I just make the bridge for VT, 51 is minimum I ma 52. I will say it is much easier to find work, I run down to poughkeepsie and up to queensbury regularly. I am dealing with the tag axle issue now, I ordered one 6 weeks ago, as of last week it still hasn't shipped - silent drive; it was supposed to be installed a month ago. I dropped permit back to 107, I can pull 34, my tare is 38920. MY trailer has a fixed lift, going to look at tieing into suspension for the main axles and make it a 3 down. WIth running the 117 permit that they gave me initially, I was legal for 39 full of fuel.

 

Something geared high to climb hills (3.90-4.22), built robustly and can put up with abuse (for not being on-road a lot), and relatively lightweight (to maximize payload space).

Most end-dump trucks I see on the road around here in Manitoba are from the 1980's or 1990's, have every last plastic fairing removed (if a Columbia or something) and usually stripped down to the day cab.

Cheap and strong would be my guess. Older Mack's usually make up the bulk of a construction companies fleet.

 

Where are you located and what kind of terrain do you run? That makes a big difference in gearing. But generally you would want at least 3.91's if you are on flat ground. That will still give you enough lift in soft ground on construction sites.
I run 4.10 to 4.30's on 22.5 rubber with an 18 speed double low double over.

I run double frame, 16,000 to 20,000 pound front axle and 46,000 rears with 4 way lock and separate switch for each axle. I used to pull 3, 4 and 5 axle dump trailers.

In today's world brand doesn't really matter. They are all built cheap and have issues.

Power will depend on your terrain as does the gear ratio's.