Newbie Question: Spread Axles

You can scale 40K back there and #### the scale man who has now nothing to do unless you had the deck loaded too far forward on your drives.

Backing with a Ravens and lift axle make it easy on the forward axle pivoting. A Freuhauf tandem was different. Just like a ordinary trailer.

Another thing with flatbedding is the trailer is much more... tippy on the two frame rails in the center. You are liable to rock it side to side if you are abusive in your manuvering and scrape the drive tires.

Make sure you have that #### thing where you are going to be unloaded BEFORE taking your stuff off the load. Lives depend on this.

 

You got it.

It's funny to hear these guys talk about bridge laws, 10'2 spread, 40000, Working Load Limits, grade70 chains...etc...and the heavyhaulers talk about walking beam suspensions, deck inserts, non divisible loads, and superloads, curfews, permits...


Driving is always the easy part of the day.

 

At least you don't have to sit and wait in a dock for hours on end..... I'm really considering flatbed, but I want to go with a company that also has dry van, in case flats don't agree with me. And I'd prefer percentage pay, with true OTR, to learn the best lanes.

 

There are some companies with both van and flat.

You will want Flat trust me. It is a ... higher calling and a sort of art to trucking with a flat. Anyone can haul a box. But not everyone can haul a flat or heavy haul.

We have a heavy haul several times a week on our road and they always stop about a mile prior to the one bridge crossing to examine weights, route, papers etc. They will absolutely sit and be a 150 ton island until they are good and ready to commit to the bridge.

 

Dump can be on either axle but you are correct it removes the weight from those tires so they don't drag as bad.

Don't think that there is that much less waiting to be loaded/unloaded in flatbed either. Timpertech in Ohio detained me 20 hours. Steel plants around Chicago have some pretty horrendous delays. There's plenty out there. The difference between van and flat is when you're waiting (from my limited experience) you're parked and can take a nap until someone calls or comes to get you. With flatbed you're typically in a line and have to move the truck every 20 minutes so you can't even rest. Then when you're loading you actually have to work in the loading process and securing/tarping the load.

 

Yeah - it is. It really is. I agree with the posts above. There's not a whole lot of work in a box - even with a braced/strapped load, most of them only have to 'swing doors' and run on down the road.

Flat - you're out in the elements, and there's a pile more equipment to carry, and maintain. I put my phone in my pocket sometimes and check the 'health' app at the end of a load/unload. 3 miles of walking and several flights of stairs is not uncommon, and I'll usually need a shower at the end of it.

Then walk around the whole thing 4 times to make sure I didn't leave anything out, unsecured, or loose. Then stop 10 miles down the road and tweak it all up again. Triple 6 was right - the driving is the easy part of the day.

 

Work? WORK?! Come on...

Flatbed is work yes, but it's EASY once you have the ropes.

You want work? Unload 46,000 pounds each evening in hunts point big wood to small wood. Or be committed to physically loading the ####### trailer hours after the next morning. Every. DAY.

That is one reason my back is that of a 70 year old now.

Don't do meat loads, they don't put boxes less than 120 pounds. Or work the ag loads where the barrels are this big and heavy. Sacks of feed is like a obese body and so on.

I'll show you work. We will see what it takes before you drop.