Single vs. Tandem Rear Axles?

oceans said:
Yes, but not anything huge. A long 30 with a jib and a couple manuals would be plenty for me.

THe other thought kicking around is still to set up a wallboard style truck as a do-all beast.
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Both my cat 3126 in the single axle Freightliner and the Cummins m11 in autocar are decent on fuel considering ,but the new truck seems to use more ,,but the tank on other truck was enormous ,,,so I can’t speak on what gets better fuel econom from my experience. The tandem I run is stationary tag. Air locking rear. I like how it rides, feels good and stable compared to the single axle plus that truck was crane behind cab , so a lot of weight on steering axle vs. autocar the cranes in back over the dual axle, besides soft ground you need locked tag for backing up a steep apron on driveways to keep from spinning the forward drive axle if going slow, backing up and it’s steep when rear axle takes the weight , and if
front axle isn’t loaded For traction , it’ll spin. I’ve never had driveway issues with either crane truck , both being light weight , respectively , the tandem will scrub marks on pristine fresh concrete if turning hard on it , which is rare for me. As far as causing driveway damage, hasn’t happened yet. My auto car cab over , tandem is 27 feet long bumper to bumper and weighs 44k. The scrub tires in back have held up well and that thing turns very well for a tandem , in my experience , which is limited on tandems. The old single axle freightliner crane truck with dump bed was 29k , turned really good bumper to bumper 26 feet long. Definitely better than the tandem , even with a cab forward design. I pull 16 foot dump trailer behind that crane now with miniloader And stumper daily and dont really notice it’s there. im sure there’s more. Just spit balling here or keyboard banging lol
 
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FJR said:
Great post Carl. There is a lot of good information in there. I would love to hear your thoughts on how you would spec and build out your future grapple truck.

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk
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Nothing crazy, but good fit and finish and clean build are important to me.

Probably:
  • Freightliner M2112 or SD114, possibly an extended cab, but probably standard.
  • Detroit 13L
  • Allison Transmission, maybe the DT12V, but probably Allison.
  • At least 100 useable gallons of fuel capacity for the truck
  • 20k/46k/16-20k axles
  • High lift tag axle
  • Palfinger M13A98
  • Smooth side body (Edgewood vs a Brandon style)
  • Decent sized aux tank for fueling equipment with a hose reel to make life easier.
  • Air on a hose reel
  • 24"x24" Underbody tool boxes.
  • A gutter under the edge of the box to keep water from leaking/dripping down the faces of the toolboxes (issue on current truck).
  • Put the air and fuel reels in a box along with the grease guns and perhaps the saw gas and oil.
  • Underbody lights to illuminate the area surrounding the truck and trailer... think picking up or working around the truck or navigating tight areas at night... indirect light is more comfortable to the eyes and has less shadows.
  • Work lights tucked out of the way to make life easier at night... tucked under the attic, at the back corners of the bed, and on the loader pedestal.
  • Strobe lights that are switchable by side so I don't have to look at them when working.
  • Have enough room between the pedestal and back of the debris box so the loader can rotate without fear of hitting debris in the truck. Fill that room with a backpack toolbox, which will have the room for the auxiliary fuel tank and perhaps the hose reels.
  • Cameras
  • Build with the idea of storing a pack (15-18) of 4x8 mats in the attic. Doesn't require much planning, just run the axle weight numbers with an extra ~2klb up there.
  • Maybe an inverter mainly to charge batteries... I don't have one now, don't have issues, but maybe. Heat generation in a box while charging the batteries is a potential issue to integrated charging.
oceans said:
Thanks for such a thorough post!

I understand your point about the tag transferring weight to the steer axle, and being an advantage to lift it and reduce turning radius. I had thought the same thing but a friend of mine swears by a pusher because he had a tag that kept him from backing up to a dump location within a landscape…the drive axle kept losing traction even with the tag lifted. The pusher doesn’t have this issue for him. His situation doesn’t sound like something I would ever encounter, but it is all food for thought And I originally leaned on the tag location.

With all that said, it may be that I just settle on a tandem rear and be done with it. I still don’t know. Being mostly a one man band can be a bit of a thing, can’t it? :)
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The lift axles can definitely get in the way of traction/weight on the drives. A high lift tag axle is the only way to go IMO. It looks funny having small tires, but it being out of the way almost always is really ideal.

1742790218059.jpeg

This stupid tag axle is actually up in this picture. It does get the truck hung up. Differential locks and inter axle lock gets it around on hard surfaces, but a high lift tag would be substantially better. Also the 17.5" tires are cheaper than what's on this axle.
1742790320478.jpeg


Here's the freight liner nearly 4 years ago, moving the drive axle 61" forward before adding the tag and cutting off 12' of frame.
1742787223294.jpeg
 
I purchased a tandem axle rolloff last year it's been very helpful. Setup for crane jobs is great, 12 tons capacity is really helpful as well as the longer boxes with 4 or 5' sides makes loading easy. Turning is not great but we find ways to weasel in and out. I can put a full size skid and a mini in a bin. You'd have to get a long tongue trailer with the jack low profile to haul a trailer but i wouldn'twant to haul on steeper driveways. The fix for that would be a hook or extendable rail rolloff with shorter boxes. Having the capacity and stability when heavy is great, loaded the box will slightly shift on hard turns but you figure it out. I wouldn't consider going lighter for my application and I'm good not having a trailer along, it turns into 1 more thing to do that gets in the way of the trucks job. It's been a big time saver and super versatile, I don't really mind the sacrifice of maneuvering.
 
SBTC said:
I purchased a tandem axle rolloff last year it's been very helpful. Setup for crane jobs is great, 12 tons capacity is really helpful as well as the longer boxes with 4 or 5' sides makes loading easy. Turning is not great but we find ways to weasel in and out. I can put a full size skid and a mini in a bin. You'd have to get a long tongue trailer with the jack low profile to haul a trailer but i wouldn'twant to haul on steeper driveways. The fix for that would be a hook or extendable rail rolloff with shorter boxes. Having the capacity and stability when heavy is great, loaded the box will slightly shift on hard turns but you figure it out. I wouldn't consider going lighter for my application and I'm good not having a trailer along, it turns into 1 more thing to do that gets in the way of the trucks job. It's been a big time saver and super versatile, I don't really mind the sacrifice of maneuvering.
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Not having a trailer is definitely awesome. I have been thinking how the boom could unload/load equipment from the truck body and as long as the material didn’t take up too much space you could save two trips. Thanks for the post!
 
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