Spec my truck

You can get a locking diff on a single screw, too....and a single screw with a locker will do better than a typical tandem with just a power divider. If you've got full lockers, it'd be a tough call...depends upon the weights being carried. If the drives are never heavier than 20K, I'd have to still go with the single screw where each tire is carrying 1/4 of the weight rather than 1/8 of the weight with the tandems.

Might do well to find an old utility truck, too....often times they are crew cabs & 4 wheel drive. Remove the bed & bolt on your hitch. Find a coffin sleeper to bolt on behind the cab, and you'd be in business...

 

Like Barrol and Dirthaller, I like a KW T800. You can buy a lot more truck for less money than you can get with a "long hood" KW or Pete.

I pull a triple axle dump trailer. Mostly hauling crushed stone, and a lot of that goes to oilfield sites. My rig is tagged for 88,000 pounds.

My T800 has a 365hp CAT, a 9 speed O/D transmission and 4.11 rears. It's a good combination, most of the time. The only situation where I need a taller gear is running interstate at 70-75 mph. But there's not much interstate around here. And not much more divided 4-lane. So, most of my driving is at 55 mph.

I have 24.5" wheels on truck and trailer. Just a little more ground clearance than the 22.5" but tires cost a little more. I wouldn't even consider the super singles around here. Not a tire shop in my area that stocks them. Plus, you will eventually ruin a tire on an oilfield location. It's bad enough to replace a regular tire. I wouldn't want to buy a super single.

A 62" flat-top sleeper is really nice. Plenty of room, but it's not sticking up above the cab and creating a lot of drag.

A good, clean, used, sleeper cab, single axle truck may be hard to find. Plus, a tandem would give you the option of going with a bigger trailer and heavier loads.

Just my thoughts. Hope that helps.

 

Off topic but how is the smarty and 6.7L combo? I know they are awesome with the old 5.9's. Quit messing with the "toy" truck several weeks before they released tuner for 6.7's. I know the guys that had them waited forever up into '08 a year after the motor came out.

 

I guess I'm out classed with my GMC 4500 auto and my 25 foot trailer.

 

No reason to sell yourself short here. You're hauling light right now, but eventually the time will come to haul something heavy. Good luck doing that with a single axle. Good luck with getting the mpg your truck does, with 45k on a big trucks back. At some point a load is going to cost you some mpg, I don't care what you're driving. That extra axle isn't going to eat up enough fuel from it's weight of being there, so why get rid of it???

Here's what I would do, and this is thinking now, and long term. Buy right, buy once. 379, or w900l kenworth. Why a long hood when you can have a t-800 or a 386??? I'll tell you why. It doesn't matter the shape of those front springs for that "good ride", it will not ever ride as good as a 280" wheelbase truck, and kicking that front axle out farther ahead of you, is going to help that ride. Yes, you lose turning radius, but yes doing oil field, not delivering to new York city grocery warehouses. Oddly enough, a real truck driver can deal with the tight quarters there in a 280" wb Pete with a 53' trailer, what's all this "it makes it easier" junk, are we that lazy??

For the most part his loads aren't that heavy, so he doesn't have the weight on his side to help it ride good, so a linger set of rails will have to do. Anybody who tries to say a columbia freightliner or a t600 kw will ride as good, or better is an idiot. Since you're not running overly heavy, low air leaf suspension will do with the weight you haul, and be soft enough with light weight. Learn to be a man and handle a truck that doesn't flip around on a dime, not a steering wheel holder who needs the truck to u-turn in it's parking spot.

Power: well, you're not hauling heavy, but one day a flat or step will find itself behind the truck, and a heavy load will end up on it's back. Or the next guy who buys it might haul heavy van or reefer loads, etc. E-model 475, or 500 cat. NO, you don't need a 475 cat to haul what you do, you don't need it to pull 80k lbs., but it'll help now and later. It'll help resale when time comes to sell it, and it'll have enough muscle, to not have to "work" when you're pulling a 20-30k lb load. It won't notice a 15k lb load, and will lug right along. The loads you haul, on a flatbed, driving 60-65 mph, a 475 cat, with a 13 speed (again, resale, keep it desirable/versatile, and the split on the gears will help you keep rpm where you want them. Gears/tire size, is just one of those evil issues. A 3.70 with a lo pro 24.5 might be perfect for YOU, but too slow for a guy doing coast to coast work. 3.55 with tall 24.5's is pretty common, easy to find the tires almost anywhere, and you'll run ~1500 rpm at 70, with an overdrive trans.

Don't buy a plastic truck, don't buy a newer crap motor, DON'T buy a fleet truck. Drive several, pick what you're most comfortable with, what gives you best working space, price, specs, something with history. I'd want all history on the truck/work done, etc. If you want fuel mileage, use your head, smooth starts and stops, don't come flying up to lights, keep rpm low accelerating, and cruising. Don't use cruise control, it can't forsee the bill coming up, will start to slow down then pour the power on to get speed back. Use your foot in hilly area, get your boost up before you hit the hill, be in power, not all the way in the pedal, but be on top of your power, don't force the truck up the bill, let it do it's thing. If it drops 4 mph who cares?? Don't go jamming for a lower gear trying to race it up. That's fuel mileage out the window... A century freightliner with a direct 10 speed, 430 Detroit and super singles, isn't gauranteed to get you good fuel mileage. I've drove lots of trucks spec'd like I just listed above, and driven right, those kitty cats did just fine on fuel. You'll basically be dragging a empty flatbed around as far as the truck is concerned. OH! full locking diffs...you will thank yourself in the long run. Want a single axle? Single it out, keep back axle as a "tag" axle. Not eating up power, but will be there for weight purposes.

 

I guess you're right. I'm used to running heavy on cheap tires, and rarely get 120,000 miles out of them. I actually leave tire tracks everywhere I go on these Bandag recaps, so it isn't too hard to imagine how they wear down so fast. Such is life in a company truck.

 

Talk about overkill! He said that his "loads range from 1,000 lbs to 18,000 lbs." An 18,000 pound load could legally be hauled on the back of a single screw straight truck, so why on God's green earth would he want a long nose big horsepower stretched out tandem axle tractor? He also stated that he drives on "rough, muddy and sometimes tight to navigate lease/ranch roads at low speeds to gain access to the rigs"...which is the LAST place you want to go in a stretched out low riding highway cruiser.

Seriously, your "suggestion" has got to be one of the worst I've seen around here in quite some time. A truck has to be spec'd to handle the job you're going to ask it to do. Too much truck is wasting money...both in a higher purchase price as well as a higher operating cost. Not enough truck limits your ability to do the job without tearing up the truck....leading to higher repair bills. Look at what the truck is going to be asked to do, and spec the thing accordingly. If all you're going to do is run the interstates from coast to coast and you are never going to venture off the beaten path, then yeah, a stretched out long nose low riding chromed out truck that rides real nice down the road might be a pretty slick thing to have. However, if you're going to go slogging through the mud on rutted up roads, you need GROUND CLEARANCE so that you aren't tearing off bumpers, fuel tanks, side boxes, and whatever else happens to be hanging down just a little too low. If you're going in and out of tight places, you need to be able to SEE what is around you....and that long hood comes with HUGE blind spots. Big horsepower isn't necessary if you've got proper gearing, and it can even work against you in certain situations...namely in soft, uneven terrain with unpredictable traction. Big horsepower geared to run fast is a great way to snap driveline components when you are off the paved road. And if he goes with a single screw w/ lift, you want that lift axle in front of the drive axle, not behind it. Locating the lift behind the drive axle is going to lighten the nose of the truck anytime the lift axle is not on the ground. In order for the load to add weight to the steer axle instead of removing weight from the steer axle when the lift is not on the ground, the hitch would have to be so far forward you'd run into clearance issues with landing gears, etc...not to mention severely limiting your ability to crest a hill before your truck frame contacts the trailer frame. Keep the back axle as the drive axle, and lift the front axle if the plan is to have a single screw with a lift axle.