Good place to buy a 4 axle tractor

Truckpaper.com Use the advanced search function looking for triaxle setups, if youre buying "new" call a few dealers with the specs you want and get their quotes. Ratio depends on where you are running, and what weights you expect to be hauling.

 

Check these folks out. Have a few in their inventory.

http://m.decaturtrkandtrailer.com

 

3.73 would be as high as I would go. Might even look into dual range rears. We have two trucks that have 4.10/5.23 rears. It's like having an extra gear and on hard pulls can be enough time keep you out of the low side on the transmission.

For most applications 3.90 seems to be a good all around ratio. I have that in my truck and have grossed 210k and did fine over Homestake Pass. We are also limited to 65 mph here by the state.

 

No such thing as a gently used heavy haul truck. Don't let low miles fool ya.

 

YES have to agree with this!

Some of the trucks I looked at look great on paper but were beat into the ground. I saw a few quad axle trucks that were priced too too much for their condition, needed a lot of work and so on.

One reason why I spent the money on a new truck for HH work. Ordering another at the end of summer and retire my first one because I don't believe there is going to be one that is used that I can have reasonable without dumping money into it to get it up to my standards.

 

You didn't say what your current spec is ie wheelbase axle size and ratios.

If you have a good truck with a 280ish wheelbase, just have a pusher axle installed. If the wheelbase is too short, have it stretched or you could mod the back of the frame for a pin on tag axle. If you need some deeper gears, install a 2 spd or 4 spd auxiliary transmission, the 4spd being a little more flexible.

Again it depends on the condition of your current truck. If it's pretty much used up anyway then major purchase may be the wiser option over major renovation.

Kevin

 

heavy haul truck, kind of a loaded title. most if not all heavyhaul trucks I have bought or looked at are either worn out or beaten up. you have to consider that 1 million miles on a regular freight truck is like 500,000 miles on a heavyhaul truck. I have had good luck converting a regular truck to a four axle. done quite a few of them. would I give up my 46 rears and high torque trans and big engine and go back to a regular one. probably not! if you not going to haul heavy every load then a good regular truck with a pusher axle installed will work just fine then if you want to up grade in a few years then go big! I know where there are about 5 trucks around the states right now that have good specs and wheel base to install the pusher axle.