super singles good or bad?

I'm thinking this subject has been beaten to death

 

An old employer ran them on most of his road equipment, tractors and trailers. Everything he did either made him money, or saved him money. He's still running them.

 

us xpress ordered all their 2008 and newer trucks with stuped singles to save money......

all their 2011 and newer trucks have duels... why because their didn't save money in the long run

 

So stop reading it...

 

I ran them on a spread covered wagon back in the early 90's, hated them..

In bad weather when running empty they were everywhere you had to watch them....I did have one blow out fully loaded with lumber the rim dropped right to the ground and I went nowhere until the service truck showed up...

overall not a fan of SS's..

 

I ran them for 7 years on a 4 axle trailer in the city. For tankers in the city they're great. But OTR I wouldn't want them. You'll see a lot of gasoline companies using them for a couple of good reasons. The weight savings allows for more fuel to be hauled. Also on a tanker the SS bring the CG down and they will not flip over as fast as duels. As far as OTR trucks the only problem I can see is if you have a flat or bad tire. Some places may not even carry the SS and you'll be stuck there longer than you want. No more singling out the duels and running to the tire shop. If you're loaded you'll stop where the tire goes flat. Your savings in fuel may go out the window when you have to wait a long time for a tire. We would run them on the power unit but for some reason NV would not allow this. Other states do and maybe now NV does too. So we had duels on our drive axles and SS on the trailer only. I have seen gasoline tankers in other states with SS a;; around except for the steer. The drivers all liked them, but again we are only in the city.

 

I ran a freightliner columbia with super singles on it hauling logs for about 2 months. They seemed to work just fine on the highway but the second I got into the dirt they were worthless. Any moisture at all and they would spin and yield no traction at all even with chains on. The worst one was getting unloaded in a dirt lot during a rainstorm. After being unloaded all I could get the truck to do was spin. A log skidder was used to push me 40 yards across the level ground before I reached pavement and caught traction. This was the final time I got stuck before convincing my boss to have duals put on the truck. I'd even gotten stuck in loose powdery dirt before. Now that the duals are on I have noticed a significant improvment in traction. I have not noticed any difference in fuel econemy, and the truck seems to ride smoother. The singles that were taken off the truck were put onto a trailer that is pulled by another driver. I talked to this driver and he said they work fine on the trailer. In summary I would say that super singles are a bad idea if you plan to pull off the pavement ever on the truck. I would not say that they will not work on a trailer but I still prefer duals to singles all the way around.

 

Hated them in WA state. Squirelly in the rain and didn't match the worn in grooves on the road.

 

I've had a lot a problems in dirt like others have mentioned. Otherwise, the only other complaint I've had is they way they knock around the truck in the grooves when light or bobtail. Even halfway heavy, it's not an issue. I personally haven't had any problems with ice or rain traction wise.

When I was running a certain dedicated run that always grossed at 78,500-79,500 both ways, the truck with super singles averaged around .3 mpg better. It did have a new aero package on it as well so I can't say how much the singles were part of that. So far, they have worn as evenly as can be as well.

My company switched back to duals on all of our newer trailers and I'm guessing they will on the tractors next year too. Honestly, I think it has less to do with the singles themselves being a problem but rather drivers that are too lazy to even check half the amount of tires. When 50% of the time you pick up a trailer out of a drop yard with a flat, or at least low tire, it's probably safe to assume they don't bother checking their tractor either. I'm sure there were a lot of expensive road service calls for those type of drivers.

 

I had a RHS fwd drive SS blow out at 65mph w/ approx 38k in the box... total cap failure on a relatively "new" recap resulting in rim bead being ground off, bye bye to fender and gator left the truck in one giant piece taking out 3 4wheelers who were riding in the "no zone". DOT said they could've written me up for littering...