Has anyone ever driven a truck with twin steer axles?

Had a tow truck drop a truck off a lil bit ago with twin steer axles. I'm obviously missing something here because I don't see the point. Dump truck I could see it because the weight is on top and it would spread the weight across the steer axles. I could even see it pulling a trailer for the same reason but the tow truck....all the weight is hanging off the back of it on the lift. This got me thinking to ask if anyone had driven one before and can you tell while driving it? Does it still turn the same? The axles were a good six feet apart so I was wondering if they drag one another at all like a spread axle trailer?

Tow truck had twin steers...I didn't word that very well.

 

I would assume they get enough weight up there, would hate to see the tow bill for having one of those come pick you up off the side of the road though.

 

Best part is the truck probably didn't need a tow lol. Owner said it wouldn't move. I got in it to move it and as soon as I let the clutch out there was a loud bang and it jumped a lil, scared the #### out of me. I flipped the interlock and then it took off just fine lol. I'll still look it over but at the moment it just seems like everything was disengaged. Locked or unlocked it yard drives just fine at the moment. The tow bill has to be nasty, that truck looked real expensive.

 

The boom is really heavy especially if it’s a rotator. That’s probably why you see the twin steers on them....

 

The only time ive seen one of those was on a dump truck. They are real weird lookin, make u think wat kind of drugs some the engineers maybe smokin sometimes lol

 

On dump trucks, comcrete pumps, cranes, just to mention a few, twin or even multiple steer axles are used for decades, at least they are in Europe.

 

It was a rotator, that makes sense. The truck was HUGE. I have to drop by their yard today, I'll take a pic if it's there.

 

They are twin steer due to the empty weight. A heavy duty rotator has a tare between 65,000 up to 82,000 pounds. Even the lighter of those at 65,000 may exceed 20k on a single steer axle as we counterweight the front axle to improve what the truck can tow without taking too much weight off the steer axle.

This truck was one drove back to Illinois from the Vegas a tow show in May. It scaled at 74,800 with basic equipment and rigging for display inside. The weights were as follows;
1st steer was 16,500
2nd steer was 15,100
Tandems were 43,200

 

If you had two steers up front 10 feet apart, the engineering problem of alingment and steering has been solved. Then it becomes a weight gain.

For example three axle tractor 12000, 34000 makes for a basic 3 axle tractor for about 46000 gross on it when loaded with a trailer.

With a extra steer axle that is aligned and steerable, you will gain a better ride and ability to pretty much load your tractor trailer any way you want to as long your drive tandem is 34000 and your trailer is whatever it is depending on what axle group is under there.

Personally I don't have a problem with it. I can see the benefits with it And would explore such a situation for Tractors if I am a fleet buyer.