Belly Dumps

[arch_stanton]

Your description of super 10 and super tag is correct the strong arm type of truck is usually referred to as a booster. For California the amount you can haul works out this way based on wheel base. If you start with a 225in wheel base 10 wheel truck with a 15 foot box, it will actually have a
front Axel to last Axel measurement of 252in and you can legal 51,500lb thats 34,000 on drive and 17,500 on your steer Axel. The problem is you can't get the 17,500 on the front Axel and keep the drives at 34,000, but if you add a drop Axel in front of the drives you are now allowed 56,000 for the same wheel base and now you can have 42,500 on the drives tridum for a 8,500lb increase in GVW and it helps get the extra weight on the front Axel,in this example you are only allowed 13,500 on the front Axel but in practice I end up with about 41,000 on the rears and 15,000 on the front. For every 1 foot of increase in wheel base you get a 500lb increase in GVW but every 3rd foot you get an extra 1000lb, in this example you have to add 2 feet to get to 57,500 GVW or you could put your drop Axel behind the drive Axel to get the 2 extra feet but have the same turning radius when the Axel is raised. I think the super tags run about a 312in wheel base to get a 59,500 GVW so my truck can legal 16 ton and a super tag can do about 19 ton, most super tags are built as light as posable to haul tonnage small motor, thin box, etc mine are built heavy to haul anything and reduce breakage over time and pull a pup trailer at 80,000 GVW in a hilly area. The booster adds about 12 feet and a 17 foot box puts you at 420in wheel base with a GVW of 65,500 the payload is now about 23 tons but because of the difficulty of getting it loaded right I'm told the CHP has reduced the max payload to about 21 tons, A mixer uses about the same wheel base but because wet concrete in a drum puts the weight in the same spot every time they can control the weight on the axels much better.