Mother Deuce
Senior Member
I thought they did follow us around all day!
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Best classic conventional Pete for tandem dump?
- Thread starter RenoHuskerDu
- Start date
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- Tags
- caterpillar cummins peterbilt
Mother Deuce
Senior Member
There are a number of parts combinations that have a low maintenance profile and fly down the highway and offer a fabulous ride for the driver. If I was hauling in the Canadian bush in the ore transportation business. I would be running on 8 bag air. I have run 8 bag on a big block KW in front of a belly dump train which was fine flying into a project and dumping on the run... when I owned my own I must have been doing that 2% of work in the dirt that requires Chalmers or Hendrickson extend leaf. Because most other combinations don't have enough axle travel or are spending half the day crow hopping around the job.
RenoHuskerDu
Senior Member
I wish there were a way to rename this thread. I'd take out the word "Pete" because now I know more, Peterbilts are not the roomiest cabs.
Have a 359 tractor to dump conversion. Having a lot of frame trouble. Had it gloved and now I see the glove has a hair crack. Also have cracks in bottom rail where the spring hanger sits. Be sure and go over the frame with a fine tooth comb on any dump truck your looking at.
RZucker
Senior Member
Didn't mean that I "liked" your issues, just meant that tractor conversions have their problems. Is yours on air ride?
Yes. I get along OK with that. Had it about 12 years. Just have to remember it has limits. I have never driven anything else so I don't know what I am missing. I know a slight sideways slope and a load loaded to one side can be pretty risky. So far I have stayed upright. It used to sway pretty bad on the road and was kind of squirrely. Front end just 12000 pounds. I put Timbren rubber cylinders on the front and it made a world of difference. I think if you stayed on smooth surface you would not have any frame problems. But you know how that works with a dump truck. Places you see the raised bed sway over and you go----eeeeee, then it goes back the other way and you go ----eeeee again. Trying to spread on rough ground. Your looking for a little even track to keep the outside tires on if you can find it until you can get the weight slid down some out of the air.
RZucker
Senior Member
This is my take on Hendrickson VS air ride... With air ride dumped down to the axle stops you are stuck with solid suspension. With the Hendrickson walking beam you can drop your left rear duals in a big hole and the other 3 wheels will go up to equalize and maybe keep your truck near vertical with the world. Airbags on the stops will put you in a bad lean. Hopefully the mirror bracket gets the worst of the damage.
IMO on a 15' or 16' box it's a pretty moot point as far as dumping. If you're on a bad enough angle that you have a risk at going over with bag suspension, I wouldn't be dumping a truck regardless of what it has for suspension too hard on it. Having driven both quite a bit I never once had a issue with the bags where I thought it was anywhere close to going over and i've dumped on some pretty unlevel ground. Now a 30' end dump, yea it better be pretty level or it's going over, but had bags too and with common sense never any problems.
One massive advantage to bags that I haven't seen listed is loading the truck with smaller equipment like skidsteer, mini ex. You save so much time having the box that bit lower. If I was buying a truck and always loading with small equipment I wouldn't even consider non bags unless the box sides where very low. The extra loading time will add up fast.
One massive advantage to bags that I haven't seen listed is loading the truck with smaller equipment like skidsteer, mini ex. You save so much time having the box that bit lower. If I was buying a truck and always loading with small equipment I wouldn't even consider non bags unless the box sides where very low. The extra loading time will add up fast.
Truck Shop
Senior Member
All this talk about laying a dump on it's side on uneven ground. That's why there is a thing called the {cross gate belly dump}, for spreading you just can't beat it for long distance without speed bumps
in the spread. Grader operators like'em too. The problem with air ride is once it starts to lean depending on where the ride height valve is located {or ride height valves some systems use two} the valve
can cause the bag on the high side to help jack it over. Lets see KW 8 bag air { 8 bags $125.00 bucks apiece, air lines to leak for MR. DOT, air bags that start leaking and hard to find in the recess fold
area, ride height valves that leak and can get out of adjustment, four torque arms that take a beating every time you dump the air, lower torsion bar bushings to replace, center stands that can crack
and last but not least rear shocks to replace. Plus the u-joints don't like the angle when the air is dumped.
RTE 44, 46, 48,000 lb suspension, only has six main beam bushings that cost around $475.00 bucks. 2 fore and aft torque arms, four if it was spec-ed with lateral arms to keep the beams from moving
side to side. And two springs with bushings in the front hanger. Beams can be re-bushed in four hours, torque arms 35 minutes each. Universal Services in north of Seattle use to change out and rebuild
a complete set of beam bushings and torque arms in two hrs on appointment {while you wait} for $1,500 and you were good for a bunch of miles and years of operation. No air leaks, no shocks,
no air bags----no excess garbage. In my not so humble opinion. And with the addition of both rear drives with lockers you will go just about anywhere you want.
in the spread. Grader operators like'em too. The problem with air ride is once it starts to lean depending on where the ride height valve is located {or ride height valves some systems use two} the valve
can cause the bag on the high side to help jack it over. Lets see KW 8 bag air { 8 bags $125.00 bucks apiece, air lines to leak for MR. DOT, air bags that start leaking and hard to find in the recess fold
area, ride height valves that leak and can get out of adjustment, four torque arms that take a beating every time you dump the air, lower torsion bar bushings to replace, center stands that can crack
and last but not least rear shocks to replace. Plus the u-joints don't like the angle when the air is dumped.
RTE 44, 46, 48,000 lb suspension, only has six main beam bushings that cost around $475.00 bucks. 2 fore and aft torque arms, four if it was spec-ed with lateral arms to keep the beams from moving
side to side. And two springs with bushings in the front hanger. Beams can be re-bushed in four hours, torque arms 35 minutes each. Universal Services in north of Seattle use to change out and rebuild
a complete set of beam bushings and torque arms in two hrs on appointment {while you wait} for $1,500 and you were good for a bunch of miles and years of operation. No air leaks, no shocks,
no air bags----no excess garbage. In my not so humble opinion. And with the addition of both rear drives with lockers you will go just about anywhere you want.
Mother Deuce
Senior Member
Unfortunately on most public funded projects, that had soils engineers working full time to justify their existence. Most (not all) cross gates went the way of the white rhino in the mid 80's in favor of winrows. The reason given to me was aggregate separation in the fill. I suppose the thought was that having a machine massage it on the grade redistributed the fines and rocks into a better material profile. Have seen a few cross gates in the woods and in transfer gigs since but were pretty rare on job sites. In New England since I have been here I have seen exactly... none. It seems that belly dumps are virtually nonexistent. I saw a side dump the other day and almost took a picture of it. I have seen maybe 3 side dumps here.
There's still some of them here, but not a whole lot. The problem is they are so limited in what they can haul. Most material here is hauled with truck and wagon or tractor with end dump so they can haul so many different things.
DMiller
Senior Member
Followed a asphalt bucket home from Washington MO, two lane old State Hwy. Saw more of his left bed side in straight pulls uphill than wanted where the drives were running the white shoulder line and L Steer was bumping the centerline. By appearance was Hendrickson, either had full out bushings failed or side shift torque rods just junk dog tracking in pulls so hard, down hill on brakes would straighten back up so he was enjoying the ride. Of course Tandem, twin steerable air pushers, believe a Western Star cab, entire fleet doing the pavement haul was scratch and patch messes, ratchet straps holding hoods, 100 mph tape retaining all manner of lighting, various states of decay as the fella I followed home and Not a damn DOT in sight.
RZucker
Senior Member
About 10 years back a customer brought me a truck to install a grain bed with hoist. The truck had been stretched to his specs by the used truck dealer, it was bent... The shop that did the stretch put an extra inch of frame rail on the RH side. Guess who had to fix it?