Prebuy checklist?

I would suggest strongly that you ordered disc brakes while you are at it. Worth the up charge.

 

Discs far out perform drums in every way. Only downside to them is initial cost.

I have them on all 3 tractor axles and they look near brand new at 350K miles.

I believe @Rontonio has them all the way back on his trailer as well.

 

I have them on all 11 of my axles. I have over 300k miles on my trailer and am expecting 600-700k before I even do pads .plus they stop substantially better. And I run somewhat heavy about 50% of the time - 78-79k empty and 170-200k loaded

 

I do ! And would never spec any trailer without them. My 8 axle guy has them on his 3+1 trailer as well.


Also, hydraulic flip neck is very nice and not a huge uptick on a hydraulic trailer,

I run tire inflation as well and have nothing bad to say about that either.

so on my TK130 I have modular deck, disc brakes, tire inflation and hydraulic flip neck.
I would do right weigh for air scales - even though I have air weigh.

 

I would love to get all those options if I get the opportunity to order a trailer some day.

I'm looking at a new tractor for next year possibly. Adding a lift axle and the sales guy says adding discs to the lift was like $4800 extra. Might have to stay drums on that for that much of an upcharge.

What are your thoughts on a steerable vs fixed duals?

 

I have no experience with steerable lifts but I am open to technology upgrades so I would be looking at it. The real problem is the extra weight and wheelbase when you pull your big trailer. Since I just spent 5 days at the local power plant - getting around there sucks as 244 3 axle - being near 300” would really be less than fun.

I am looking at doing a pin on axle for my tractor - to allow me to pull the stretch I just bought and to run heavier blades. Think i would be in about $15-20k

on the lift axle with disc brakes it is more expensive - I think the axle I added to my Jeep was about twice. However, I think you really don’t want to mix brake types in the same axle group.

 

A lot of the loads I haul I could do without the Jeep if I had another axle on the truck. Right now I'm 265" on the tractor. By reducing to 54" spacings and 11r22.5s instead of 24.5s I can maintain the wheelbase while still having room for the lift. If possible I want to keep the wheelbase short enough to be legal in Canada. If I give up on Canada I can stretch it out a bit.

A pin on axle is another option but I haven't found anybody willing to do it yet. Do you have a shop that you know of that will build something like that?

 

yes actually there a couple different ones, I am going to have it fabricated for me by a guy near Kingdom city MO but there is a large shop that services the Oilfield trucks down in Louisiana and then there is Jefe’s in Fairfield Texas and Buckner’s In Springville AL. Most of those shops are pretty booked up but all will do the custom work necessary. The shop in Louisiana has some photos up on there website of a truck they did. 4 pins - 2 top and 2 bottom.

I can’t remember do you run and auxiliary with your Allison?