rich

well then i'll tell those guys here running the mack dump trucks that they are wrong

BHD

I am not an air suspension fan either, I have done lots of off highway work with tandem trucks and the air suspensions can't hold a candle to spring suspension trucks. Yes they ride harsh on the road empty, but springs are a lot less work to maintain and repair. Also beware of really cheap dumps, because some are no more than a tractor with a bed, not a good combo. Also unless you have a Ford Heavy Truck dealer close by forget the blue ovals and Sterlings, parts are a miserable thing to get for the L9000s and it has to be a heavy truck dealer unless you have your truck's build sheet. Ford must have made a gazillion changes to those trucks over the years and at times are a nightmare to repair for lack of parts support. Mack and Freightliner have a good line on replacement parts, but Mack will get them to you in half the time. I had three R model trucks in the fleet and they were tough as nails and good on fuel, the older trucks had 5 speeds and the newer ones had 10 and 18. I agree with the guy that said its a buyers market so shop around before you put one in the shed, good luck.

sqrl$$

Also been thinking about a single axle dump truck. Looked at several FL60's and FL70's, Internationals, etc. Some say under CDL, some are over. What is the difference in what they will actually handle load wise? I don't have my CDL's right now because dad or my buddy have always handled all the big equipment moving. It is not a problem for me to get them because I have always been around this stuff, just thinking if I had something under CDL's then my employees could drive it as well. Not sure what route to go just yet and looking for opinions. I regularly need 5-6 tons of gravel on the job. Will an under CDL truck handle this without problems?

chaikwa

I don't think it will matter much, because when you pull the trailer with the excavator on it, it will be over the CDL lower limit anyway. You might be able to keep it below the CDL limit hauling 5 or 6 tons of material, but it will depend on the tare weight of the truck. My truck for example, will haul just under 7.5 tons before it gets to the weight of CDL class, but if I put a body on it that would actually hold up to 7.5 tons, the amount it would carry would be closer to 4 or 5 tons. (I just have a light duty flat bed on it now).

I don't know how advantageous it would be for you to concentrate on non-CDL trucks considering what you want to do with it.

chaikwa.

sqrl$$

How are these guys getting by with f-450's grossing 30k or more? I would think that an FL or International would haul/handle a load better than a 450/550. I don't understand how they derive at the ratings the manufacturer's rate them at. Just thinking that the under CDL rating might keep my insurance cheaper than having to get them CDL's and insuring them.

chaikwa

Illegally, I'd say.

It will, but it's easy to overload them too, just because it DOES handle the weight better.

I don't know. In my case it was cheaper to insure my International with fire, theft and collision than it was to insure my Dodge W350 with just the bare minimum. And the registration fees were exactly the same because Michigan doesn't have a weight class between 10,000 pounds and 24,000 pounds, so I had to register the Dodge at 24K even tho it couldn't haul that much.

chaikwa.

sqrl$$

Thanks chaikwa for the info and help. I will have to do some research into the insurance side of things.

I talked with a guy today at the gas station with an F450 crew cab 4x4 with a service body on it pulling a 24' gooseneck with dual tandem axles and a 4x4 case backhoe on it. I was asking him how it did and he of course said it handled it great (yeah right). He said he was grossing close to 40k? Looked like entirely too much weight for the truck, but it was a truck from a big outfit around here (Morton buidlings) so I would think that they would have tried to keep things legal since they have their name plastered all over the side of the truck and trailer.

03 ant a hemi

I run trucks in the Oil Field here in Alberta Canada and we run air bags on the rear and have very little failure of them except when tire chains rip them off and the occasional worn out. We run some less then desirable terrain with lots of tires burried to the top with mud using a Cat to pull us out. They hold up pretty good.

Russ Roth

I never said anybody was wrong. What I said was I have been around Macks for years and never seen that. Macks use the same style front end and axles as everyone else so there must be something wrong with the rig for that to happen or something specific to the application they are in to cause the problem, IMHO.

DmaxEter

I have been around Macks for several years myself and have actually encounted and fixed the mysterious "one steer tire wear" issue that Macks as well as others have been known to get from time to time. It affects others just as much as Macks too.

1-5-3-6-2-4

So whats the root cause and fix for the issue of single steer wear?

DmaxEter

The last three I had on the alignment rack had rear suspension bushings worn out or the rears were just not aligned correctly. It struck me as odd that only the one steer tire was wearing but it was. If one axle is out of alignment usually every tire on every axle ahead of it will wear but that wasnt the case in these. Maybe it just hadnt had time to show up yet but they were wearing the drivers side steer tire quick! After rear suspension work and an alignment they never have worn like that since!