Tri axle dump bed size

Hauled for years with 15.5 and 16ft beds. Tri-axles and hauled hot mix 95% of the time. Never an issue. The truck with the 15.5 bed, I could haul 26 tons of mix on it. Here in Tn we can gross 74,000 lbs on a tri-axle. And that truck had a low empty weight. Rest of the truck were stuck with 22 and 24 tons Even when we stopped using 2 ton batch plants. The rest could not get much over 24 tons. I could get 26 1/3 tons.

 

Shorter bed and set back equals shorter overall length. Rule of thumb is short let wheel base is less overall payload. Just keep that in mind. Idk how knowledgeable your highway patrol guys are about overall lengths and bridge formulas and blah blah blah.

Either or size box will be fine. A 15 foot box with 4 inches over standard is what we have on our transfers. Made by Columbia. T800’s with a drop. Legal payload on just the truck is 17.5

What they can fit is whole different story...

 

Never really seen a tri axle with a 15' bed unless it was converted from a tractor or a Tandem, my preference would be a 16' bed with a set back axle, 210"-215" wheelbase, nothing over 225", but that is not taking into consideration of bridge laws which is not a issue in NJ.............YET!

 

Here, in Alabama, they give 20k per axle(plus tolerance) for construction vehicles. I would leave the Vulcan materials grossing 82,500 with a tare of around 27k. After hurricane Ivan I was coming out the rock yard grossing 93-94k on a '01 RD mack tri axle with a 19.5 yard body.

 

im a new triaxle dump truck company owner. good luck trying to shoe horn a lift axle on a short wheel base tandem axle dump. why would you want to anyway. to get to legal weight, you load will be falling over the sides. Seems like a waste of money with fabrication and effort for a truck that cant do much. just my opinion. Converting a tandem axle dump with short wheelbase to a triaxle is something that is unheard of for good reason

 

Another thing to look at is the frame. Most every tandem on the road here is a single frame while the only tri axles I seen in south Alabama that didn't have a double frame were converted tractors.

 

I think that is adequate sized bed.

Im sorry I don't have hard numbers regarding beds, I'll have to travel to a particular farm near Gettysburg to measure the bed on the back of the Superliner 500 mack I drove for years. (What a truck...) as long you put on enough rock to push the gross weight you usually had enough for a nice 10 ton load of dirt or something. Considering the maneuverability eh... aiming at a paver isnt that big of a deal. She would be a little bit waddling wide back there but nothing too bad if you have a nice set back front end that turns like a witch.