Trucking in North America vs around the world

Ever heard of these trucks…?

 

not familiar with this truck, what it is?

mack drive axles?

 

Is hydrodrive a better and cheaper solution in the long run when it comes to service cost and reliability?

 

No, it is more expensive to buy, maintain.
But is cheaper to operate, fuel efficient, lighter ...
Hydrodrive is not replacement for real drive, just termperally help.
Many people buy it and abuse it, so after some time it cost. Plus important for you is it needs to heat oil before it works

 

Looks like the Ruskie runs on the smell of an Oily Rag...

 

Som russkie axles. Other who made simmilar axle hubs were Scania and, if I remeber right, also Büssing.

 

I know exactly where you took those photos lol.

Reason we run tridrives is because lift axles are not legal on trucks in western Canada. Gotta work within the rules. If you're going to have 3 axles back there they may as well be pushing you along. Plus you get much better floatation with tridrives over tandems. You can barefoot in to places that you'd have to chain up a tandem to get in to.

 

Turning radius increases but its not nearly as bad as you'd think. Once you leave the pavement and get into the rough stuff you pretty much lock in the interaxle and go. Lock in the other diffs as needed.

Trailers are simple and they last. Back in the 80s/90s the pole trailers were just solid mounted walking beams and a square tube for a reach. Front portion on the reach held a compensator, which would slide in/out of the reach on turns. They'd last an easy 10-15 years and besides brakes/tires they really didn't require much in the way of maintenance. They'd start getting cracks after a few years of being pounded down the bush roads but everyone just welds them up and keeps hauling. Newer trailers are now mostly air ride. Only reason they use "quads" now is because the mills don't want full length trees. 2 bundles of shorts on trailer and a bundle of intermediates on the trucks.

The only 4 bag/axle suspension I'm aware of is the KW AG400 and it is not a desirable suspension for off-road work. Neway is the go-to for air ride on everything here these days. Hendrickson Primaax is 2nd. Nobody uses walking beam suspensions on trucks here anymore unless its something extremely heavy duty.

 

Are you allowed to dump the air on individual axles?
In Scandinavia you usually order tag tridem trucks with dump valves on the 3rd and 4th axle to get better traction in the winter.