Front axle weight

Even if you have a 20000lb lift axle 12000lb front and 40000lb rears you come up to 72000lb gvw. Single frame 12000lb front with 425 floats on the steer would make me nervous if they use a triaxle out there like they use triaxles up here I would pass on it or get very friendly with a good front end shop. Just my 2 cents

 

With 12000lb front and 38000lb rears this truck was probably a road tractor that the frame was stretched,body and tag axle added and floater tires to wear the heck out of that light front end

 

Minimum weight for a front axle in a tri axle dump truck for me would be at least 16 thousand pounds.

When you run a fully loaded triaxle with an 18 or 20 thousand pound front axle, you would never ever think about running a converted tractor. You need those heavy axles for stability.

I think Mack nowadays does make a single frame that's heavy duty that replaces the double frame but it has to be a factory dump truck.

Especially in Pennsylvania make certain that you have a truck that has a heavy enough GVW. I understand that in Pennsylvania it is very difficult to put heavier axles in and legally up your weight.

Buy the right thing from the beginning as a complete triaxle with heavy axles and you will be glad that you did.

 

Those thin pins tell me that truck used to be a road tractor and not specifically BUILT to play Mr Dump.

I don't even want to use that tractor as a dump. Not with a 12000 pound front end.

 

i agree with it used to be a road tractor that was converted.

for a dump truck you want heavy steers. very easy to overload even the heavy front axles in a dump truck. and the conditions there operated in is hard on them as well. for dump trailers a 12k is fine but not for a dump truck.

you could probably convert it if you really wanted to but i think i would keep looking.

 

With the weights you quoted. That puts you at 50,ooo pounds.

You want to haul 22 tons. That's 44,000 pounds. Leaving you only 6,000 pounds for the truck.

At one time i drove a FL dump truck. Skinny singles. 1 drop axle for a total of 4. It was registered for 80,000 pounds. But could only haul 56,000 pounds. 15 tons of load. Steer weight didn't matter as all the weight went on teh drives. Actually making the steers lighter a couple hundred pounds. Fuel was the only thing that changed the steer weight.

I don't know what the axle ratings were. It wasn't a concern of mine of that time. But the truck did pull a 3 axle pup trailer occasionally. The trailer was good for another 12 tons of load. 27 tons total. I wanna say it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 90,000 pounds + fully loaded.

That company also had a pete dump truck with a 3 axle pup trailer. The pete had wide singles. Both trucks hauled 15 + 12 tons. Same amount of axles only wider steers.