34,000lb rears

[BravoXray]

There’s one kind of rear suspension that was really good for traction. Can’t remember the correct name….was it Chalmers or Tuff Trac? Thought it was Chalmers.

A local fleet runs a bunch of KWs pulling tanks and dump trailers. They have been running Chalmers suspensions on their trucks for as long as I can remember. Easy to ID with that big rubber ball between the tandems. I knew one of the mechanics that worked there for a while and he said they were pretty rugged and trouble free, rode like crap though.

 

[Paystar]

Really? I've ran them on dump trucks with 72 inch spread and 46,000 pound rating and they were almost as good as the air ride. Worst ride I find is the Hendrickson RS rubber block with the three round pucks.
I prefer air ride on the trucks, but I liked having the Chalmers on the pup trailer because you could pick the rear tandems up off the ground with the lift axle and pivot on that lift axle to jack knife around stuff.

 

[Renze]

The other thing you could do if that RT walking beam ends up being too horrible a ride for you (which I don't think it will be) is Link and Hendrickson used to offer a retrofit kit to convert them to air ride where you replaced the leaf spring pack with air bags. This pic is the factory setup you can spec on new trucks, but the kit did the same thing.

Whats the idea behind this ? Ive seen it only in America, to me it seems a lot of extra weight to have a walking beam with a leaf spring above it...

Here in Europe you only see the inverted pack of leaf springs bridging both axles, with control rods controlling traction and brake forces. Or actually, leaf sprung tandems are very entry level for dumptrucks, on long haul trucks you only see air suspension, and dumptrucks are usually hydraulic suspension.

 

[4570Man]

You did say it has an Allison auto? You get it stuck in soft ground, just lock the power divider in (not moving to be safe) The auto will have less chance of shock loading or driver error. That is what breaks things. Not saying you have driver error....just that it does happen.

There is also two trains of thought here too.....some say don't lock up until you get stuck because you won't get in as far before you get stuck.
Me, when I know I'm going in a bad spot, I'm locked up before I go. In 36 years of forestry and dump trucking I've never broke an axle or power divider or driveshaft.

Once you slip a tire things tend to go from bad to much worse in a hurry. Not hitting a bad spot already locked or in 4x4 is foolish IMO.

 

[Hay Dude]

I snapped this pic mostly to remember what tires were on it. To the right you can see part of the suspension

Below is the tag from when it was a military vehicle. The IH and door jamb specs are higher. I think the military derate s trucks as I commonly see on their others.

One more pic of overall truck