Probably a dumb question

Thanks @MACK E-6

 

I dont watch the step freight anymore so cant comment on it specifically but with my cascadia and combo 48 i can haul 47.5k. Only seen a handful of loads on our board over that.

 

If you are thinking of hauling wheeled and tracked machines, do not put nailer strips down the frame sides.
8000 lb or less fork lifts, man lifts and similar sized equipment will sit right on them. You will end up with cracked and broken nailers. If you want nailers, put them out near the rail and maybe one down the center.

 

We were with a company that had either all steel I think fontaines or similar and we were aluminum ravens. The Ravens I had could load 52000 exactly in one particular spot provided it's at least 20 feet long. And the tractor may be a little light on fuel (mid 90's midroof volvo which was pretty light as well) for a while to make it happen.

Some drivers chose to stick with all steel flatbeds or covered wagons which was what they were to avoid the excessive weighty issues of wildly heavy coils.

The rest of the flatbeds Ive run are the fruehaufs, steel and wood. You can put quite a bit on there, but nothing too wild. Especially with a little day cab mack.

Taking that Ravens to load some of the 52000's required a pretrip inspection of all the factory welds to make sure none are flawed, broken or any problems in the frame prior. Its a roll of a dice putting that on. And probably represents the best of engineering available at that time to do things like that.

Regarding anything built with steel and aluminum, I don't know enough. A Royal Navy Officer taught me that the Frigate we were visiting in Baltimore one day was suffering unnecessary leaking around the ship where they tried to economy between steel and aluminum. I believe after it survived the Falkands War having been torps (Dud, and one lured by towed decoy) and strafed) it's in the Pakistani Navy now.