Wheelbase of a Trailer

Every truck I've ever been around built in the last 20 years is 102" wide.

More stable, more room to throw chains.

 

More like every trailer built for the las FORTY years....at least the dry vans and reefers.

 

Pretty much all current long-haul road tractors are 102" wide.

 

About 30 years ago, most tractor units were still 96" wide on the drives, because (as previously mentioned) SOME states still had a 96" width on 'back roads', and there were still a lot of 96" wide trailers out there, and putting 102" wide drives under a 96" wide trailer would just be stupid, especially if you ever got stuck in the mud.....

So, yeah, there used to be a lot of mixing of 96" axles with 102" axles.

 

It's still that way. The bodies may be over 96", but drives are still 96" track

 

If you are referring to tractors, they have been 8 ft or 96 inches in width dating back to the 1940s.

 

That may be the case for the trailers but tractors are still 8ft even the full sleepers. Look at an over the road rig pulling a shipping container. Shipping containers have an 8 ft universal width. The tractors are always in perfect symmetry with the containers.

 

I’ve never seen a tractor unit that is over 96 inches in width. They may be wider only when factoring the sleeper bunk overhang width. U.S. road lanes are generally 10 feet wide. 8 ft is the tractor width industry standard. It’s been that way dating back to the 1940s.

 

Then you've never seen a truck built in the last 20 years.

From at least the Centuries on, every freightliner tractor has had a sleeper that is the same width as the trailer. A 96 inch trailer over hangs my drives by a couple inches on both sides and is a trip to drive because everything looks skewed in the mirrors.

 

2013 Freightliner Cascadia 125 Tandem Axle Sleeper Cab Tractor for sale by Arthur Trovei & Sons - used truck dealer