spread axle rgn

They eat up precious space in the well, the only thing that I can see they might be a benefit for is if you typically load something that is going to be heavy on the trailer, but light enough to be under gross, you would not need to permit for the weight, as a spread can carry 40,000lbs on it. Not even sure if you are under gross if you could permit an axle group for over weight.

Most of the guys I see using them are pulling ag machinery, doesn't make sense to me.

 

Have more room on the back deck for the tires, Just a thought.

 

When I have been over to JD, the majority of the guys with the spreads put the tires in the well in front of the tractor. I have always done that also, try to keep as much out of the wind as possible.

 

We are not a true "machinery hauler," meaning we haul steel and other flatbed type commodities on RGNs. If you operate this way, I could see a spread being useful. Basically the same reason you want a spread on a flat. We don't do this because of the difficulty in getting around. You would need to go to a 53' trailer with the wheels all the way to the back to keep a normal length well. In my opinion there are very few times when the spread would be useful. It would be very specific applications.

 

I agree 100%, but I have seen these guys loading tractors, deliver them to the same port as me, and load machinery out of there. I just don't see the reason for it doing things like that, maybe its what I haven't seen that might make sense.

 

Aside from my OTR time, the RGNs I ran were typically tridem... makes more sense to me than running a spread on an RGN, although I do see cpape's point.

 

I've seen a few. They don't look like they have a 10 ft spread, maybe 8 ft. I was thinking about how difficult it would be to tote around a 53 ft Rgn, 29 ft well, and a spread. With the typical Rgn kingpin setting, and the wheels all the way to the rear on a 53 footer, you would run into a lot of legal issues with bridge laws in too many states.

 

Didn't Maverick and Schneider use spread axle drop side trailers to move the glass a few years back? There is an example of how the spread axle config might work. Multiple loads of something tall and heavy but not too long where you don't want to permit the trailer axles for weight all the time.

We have two 53's with 60" spreads. One has a 28' well and the other is 25' IIRC. KP distance (i.e. wheelbase) is illegal on the one with the 28' well. The one with the 25' well has the axles set farther ahead to make it legal but yeah, like everyone else says, sooner or later the well gets so short you begin to defeat the purpose of having a double drop.

We also have a traditional 48' with the 29' well. That makes more sense in most applications. If the rear axles are over 34,000 just permit them up to the sidewall capacity. If you need more then pin on a third.