Pulling 48 foot flatbed with short wheel base truck.

265" Gives a good ride because any Eisenhower Interstate design has 240" joints in the concrete and your truck never recovers from the down and its going up. Ran 190" Cabovers that would throw anything off the dash on some roads. I 10-I 20 across LA MS come to mind. IF you are going to do thsi, 1st your back should be of the greatest concern and air conditioners will cool sleepers big or small. I ran one of the biggest Dallas to LA and smallest OKC to LA.

 

A longer wheelbase allows for larger fuel tanks, an APU, and some side boxes, if not now maybe later.Sorta room to grow. :smt023

 

Hi Patilan, not sure Mr.(or Ms.) salesperson knows what they're talking about (maybe I don't). 1st, I don't think flatbeds have that landing gear closer to the pin. I know RR containers do, and you will indeed tear off mudflaps, however, I don't think a longer wheelbase truck will matter in that regard, as the increased length of the frame is in front of the 5th wheel and a longer wheelbase won't give you any more length from the pin to the back of the truck. I could be wrong. Besides, it's been my experience, flatbeds generally don't go where vans, reefers, or tanks go, so a short wheelbase truck isn't really needed. Also, short wheelbase trucks will rattle your teeth out.

 

Stability is another thing to think about. I have a lot of experience with 1 ton trucks, not so much with big stuff... yet, but I'm getting there.. Anyway.. In a 1 ton (And I have to assume in a larger truck as well) a longer truck wheelbase makes for a much more stable and controllable rig when hauling a big and or heavy trailer.

I always felt this was the case and it got proved to me one day. I was driving for a company that had 2 1 ton trucks. Same year, engine, trans, rear end ratios, same brand of tires in roughly the same condition, everything the same except.. 1 was a crew cab with an 11' flatbed, the other was a standard cab, short bed cab/chassis with the same type but shorter flat bed. Both using a gooseneck hitch mounted slightly in front of the axle.

One day I was in the long truck and loaded a 40' flatbed pretty heavy. On the way to the yard I had a car pull out in front of me and due to traffic stopped directly in front of me. Full emergency stop. It took all the brakes the truck/trailer had to stop. The truck remained straight and felt stable. My only concern was if it would stop going forward before or after we had bumper to driver door contact or not. (It did stop, but barely) It was time for maintenance on the long truck. This is why I was stopping by the yard, to swap out trucks.The short one had just been serviced and was ready to go.

When leaving the shop on the same road at almost the same point it again became necessary to use 100% maximum brakes to avoid something, this time it was a kid on a skateboard who lost control and fell directly into my path. The speed both times was probably withing a few MPH. Both times the road was clean and dry. Same trailer with the exact same load. In the much shorter wheelbase truck it immediately became a full time job to keep the truck straight and in front of the trailer. With the short wheelbase the trailer really tried to (And did) push the truck around and loosing control was very possible and only averted by skill and luck. Probably 50/50% of each.

From reading this one might think that the driver needs to be paying more attention to prevent this sort of thing. For me to have to execute a 100% maximum brake effort is very rare and it is seldom necessary. But we all know when driving, things happen. It just happened twice that day instead of the normal once every few months or so. The point of this post was the direct comparison of almost identical trucks with the same trailer/load in an emergency stop situation.

Ever since that day I have leaned heavily toward longer wheelbase trucks rather than shorter. I'll deal with the issues in a parking lot or intersection any day over the issues of jacking a truck around in an emergency stop.

I can only assume a big truck responds roughly the same way, possibly even to a larger extent. After all, physics is physics and it seems to me it is all pretty much the same thing only with all dimensions and weights scaled up.

Hope this helps...

 

Salesmen way say anything. They are almost as bad as a truck driver.

I would not buy a truck without hooking it to a trailer like I will be pulling. Try it for yourself, don't guess.

 

Can we say road trip for trk. shopping.
Don't rush into it. Big move for you. Good luck

 

For maximum weight capacity make sure you have 20 feet from center of front axle to center of rear axle for tractor bridge

 

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