Has anyone ever driven a truck with twin steer axles?

Ya, he couldn’t be swayed away from the crane is better.......

 

Was he from the US or overseas? Maybe he never operated either piece of equipment, I have operated both so I understand the limits of each.

 

Had to have the old pretty big straight truck I used to drive get towed. The tow truck that showed up was one that could pull broke down semis. According to the tow truck guy, they could not drive that particular unit (not a rotator) until there was a call-out because the counter-weight in the front put them over-weight. The call-out turned them into an "emergency vehicle" which exempted the vehicle from weight restrictions.
I would imagine the second steer axle would distribute the weight of the counter-weight up front and they could drive it without needing "emergency vehicle" status.

P.S. Twin steer axle straight trucks are used everywhere in Japan.


Usually the sides are hinged at the top and loading/unloading is done from both sides.

 

Nice wrecker.

 

Back when I was towing, that had everything to do with your reputation. If you were on rotation and worked well with the various departments...if the officers LIKED seeing you roll up on the scene because you knew how to do your job and were quick about it...then your chances of being inspected were next to zero. I was rear ended one night while slowing to pick an abandoned up...2 state cops there to witness the crash...and they almost didn't even get my license info. It was more of an afterthought by the 2nd cop because the 1st one (who had already left with the drunk) hadn't got it for the report. Now the flipside to that is if you weren't on rotation or had a reputation of messing around and not getting the job done, or if the company liked to put the screws to people and the departments had fielded complaints about you in regards to tows you had done for them...then yeah, you may as well have a target painted on the side of the truck.

 

My guess would be that the truck's boom is mounted fairly far forward, and may even be able to rotate. In other words, the tow truck might also be a short-boom crane.

 

I seem to recall a member on here once posted that Peterbilt does not have a factory twin steer option. They just send it out with the second steer axle bolted on behind the cab for shipping and its up to the dealer to retrofit it.

Was that you that posted that @pushbroom?

 

Yes that was from me. KW can get it fully installed from factory, Petes get shipped with it and get assembled by the bodybuilder.