Big Loads - Post Photos Number 2

If it were flat top and windows on the sleeper, and a slightly longer wheelbase. Put Ruthless' BigRed on that chassis and I would be in love.

 

Not bad for a company truck all the same.
Do you guys run Sisu planetary drive axles in the US? They are a Finnish company owned by Paccar. Also, do you run tri-drive or is the 3rd drive axle usually a lift axle? Tri-drives can be a handful in the wet, so I don't know what it would be like in snow and ice, which we don't get over here except for a tiny part of the country.

 

Don't know about Sisu if it's a name brand, but the planetary gears are usually on the extreme hauler trucks. I'm an owner operator so that would count me out. Tri drives normally pull the 13-19 axle loads (not too many owner operators that have a 19 axle rig). My company does have tri drives, but they keep them under the 19s and the 2 lane trailers.

 

Yeah, Sisu is a Finnish truck manufacturer owned by Paccar but KW Australia imports their planetary axles for extreme use so they must be good. I don't know if Meritor makes them, although most axles/trans are imported from the US. It would be interesting to see what brand of planetary you guys use.
How's work in heavy haul over there? It's dead here, a lot of companies geared up for the mining/oil/gas boom but that came to an abrupt end.

 

dead over here as well . same thing oil/gas pretty much came to a stand still. unless you want to work for nothing! this month was good, but doesn't make up for a slow summer.

 

We used Sisu planets in our bed trucks and liked them because of the increased road speed. Before that we used Clark planets but they were incredibly slow. We also experimented with a shiftable hub reduction system called DT planets which were cool because when running the highway empty you were running in the standard 4.10 rears but then off road and in the #### you got a 3:1 reduction over those although they were a pain in the ### to shift as they had a procedure list that was about 19 steps.

 

I also owned 3 tri drive winch tractors and drove one myself. They took a bit to get used to on slick roads and if you chained up all six you could go farther than anything could come get you unstuck as long as it was a straight line. I got pretty good at pushing past corners and making them in reverse.

 

Unloaded the scraper Wednesday evening in Williston, loaded this 290G up this morning in Grand Forks an dropped it earlier today in Sauk Rapids, MN. Now in Owatonna at Famous Dave's getting my grub on and having a couple adult beverages.

 

Scoot, you sure do run pretty consistent. You're a hard charger. Did you sit in the cute waitress section?

 

I've spent lots of nights there. Works good when I load late and want to get south of the cities so I don't have to fight traffic in the morning.