using a lift axle?

You only use it loaded. The pressure is something your going to have to play with. For example, If you have brakes on your tag, you may want to put more air air in the bags. That way you don't slide the rubber off. I ALWAYS lift around turns. If it's raining and you don't lift, you may slide straight through the turn. It takes pressure off of your steers. The air pressure I ran was between 30 and 60 lbs. The way I see it, as long as DOT sees your tag axle down, that's good enough.

 

You can't over express the need to raise the drop axle when empty if the drop axle is behind your steer. I did it ONCE!! Getting the right pressure on the drop axle will take a scale. That's the way we did it anyway. But we could load the truck to almost the exact weight we needed. The whole purpose of the drop axle behind the steer is to make the steer legal. Some states (I know NV does) will not allow the switch to be located in the cab. So lifting around a corner was not possible for us. Besides, I don't think I'd want an extra 1000 or 1500 lbs added to my steer going around a turn. But I didn't have to worry about cost. And IIRC the pressure was up around 60psi.

 

That would suck! Do they allow you to adjust the pressure from the cab?

 

Nope. Everything was right next to the battery boxes. But we really didn't care since we were always loaded to the max and we needed the distribution of the weight. We just had to remember to lift the axle when empty. Like I said before, I forgot ONCE!!!

 

I lived in Vegas for 5 years so I know it doesn't rain much

 

How did you make turns with the tag down? Was it a steering tag axle like some quads have?

 

Las Vegas NV does not get much rain and that is a problem. If you've driven a truck there when it just starts to rain then you'll know the streets are like ice with all the oil left on the road. If you leave the drop axle down and you're empty and it just started to rain you will not be able to make the turn. We did not have any control over the drop axle in the cab. Now I don't know if it was because we were hauling gasoline or not but none of the tankers that loaded from Las Vegas had cab control devices. The drop axle right behind the steers did not turn with the steering. They just followed where the truck was turning. If yopu put the truck in reverse the drop axle would raise automatically. If it didn't then it would turn and you'd break some parts.

You can see the trucks I drove at:

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No it just followed where the truck was turned. When you put the truck in reverse the drop axle would automatically raise then when you came out of reverse it would go but down. They had a tie rod that connected both wheels so they tracked the same. I know without the drop axle our steers would be way over. With gasoline we know exactly how much to load since we know the weight of each gallon. And you can bet your bottom dollar that the oil companies get as many gallons as they can and be legal.

dieselhound I don't know how the rain came into the picture but I will say that the rain is a problem in Las Vegas. And it's for the reason you stated, it doesn't rain that much. But when it does the roads are very slick just like ice. And of course nobody slows down. I've seen more accidents on a day where it just started to rain than any other time including snow storms.