Black Wolf
Member
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2009
- Messages
- 10
- Location
- Grande Prairie, Alberta Canada
- Occupation
- Former Truck Driver, Now Journeyman Auto Mechanic
Good Evening Gentlemen,
This is a Wonderful Forum that you have here, just joined tonight, and this is my first post.
I will vote for a mechanical detach gooseneck.
Where I live up in Northern Alberta, Canada lots of times we are working in the wintertime in -40°F to -50°F and a conventional gasoline Honda engine running a power pack just does NOT like those conditions.
My equipment is sold off now, but I ran a 2002 Kenworth T800B 72" Aerocab Aerodyne and a 2002 Peerless 50 Ton Double Drop Triaxle on air-ride.
I was the lowbed hauling contractor for the local Weyerhaeuser Canada Mill until things slowed down too much.
Loaded everything over the back - Skidders, Cats, Excavators, etc etc, only really took off the neck to load De-limbers as it was Weyerhaeuser's Policy.
The picture of the lowbed ramps on the first page look really nice, but they are steeper than they need to be. I will try to post pics of mine on here, but I could deflate my AD-246 air-ride, and back under the lowbed with a 125,000lb Kobelco Excavator on it at an idle.
My ramps and 5th wheel were also set up a little different than what you may have seen...
When my wheel was in transport postion, the ramps on my slider were touching my ramps on the tail frame of the tractor. After I set the lowbed down, and removed the tear drop plates, I hooked up the 5th wheel, and ran the slider ahead until the bottom of the gooseneck touched my ramps, then locked the slider, released my air hook and drove away with the neck.
For those of you familiar with manual detaches, I saved myself having to shim the neck up with wooden blocks before removing it from the trailer.
I was interested by the discussion about 2 rail and 4 rail trailers as well.... It is not an option up here, we would tear apart a 2 rail in a very short period of time in this application.
I'll try to post some pics.
This is a Wonderful Forum that you have here, just joined tonight, and this is my first post.
I will vote for a mechanical detach gooseneck.
Where I live up in Northern Alberta, Canada lots of times we are working in the wintertime in -40°F to -50°F and a conventional gasoline Honda engine running a power pack just does NOT like those conditions.
My equipment is sold off now, but I ran a 2002 Kenworth T800B 72" Aerocab Aerodyne and a 2002 Peerless 50 Ton Double Drop Triaxle on air-ride.
I was the lowbed hauling contractor for the local Weyerhaeuser Canada Mill until things slowed down too much.
Loaded everything over the back - Skidders, Cats, Excavators, etc etc, only really took off the neck to load De-limbers as it was Weyerhaeuser's Policy.
The picture of the lowbed ramps on the first page look really nice, but they are steeper than they need to be. I will try to post pics of mine on here, but I could deflate my AD-246 air-ride, and back under the lowbed with a 125,000lb Kobelco Excavator on it at an idle.
My ramps and 5th wheel were also set up a little different than what you may have seen...
When my wheel was in transport postion, the ramps on my slider were touching my ramps on the tail frame of the tractor. After I set the lowbed down, and removed the tear drop plates, I hooked up the 5th wheel, and ran the slider ahead until the bottom of the gooseneck touched my ramps, then locked the slider, released my air hook and drove away with the neck.
For those of you familiar with manual detaches, I saved myself having to shim the neck up with wooden blocks before removing it from the trailer.
I was interested by the discussion about 2 rail and 4 rail trailers as well.... It is not an option up here, we would tear apart a 2 rail in a very short period of time in this application.
I'll try to post some pics.