Lift axles

[Duke]

Yep, that's the worst part. It now effectively becomes a tandem, but I think there's different GVW ratings for tandems. My truck would be on the lighter side.

 

[Dr. C]

Duke, If you go with a steerable lift you will be a lot happier with it. You shouldn't have any driveline clearance problems with a steerable. It will also tuck up a little higher than a straight axle when you lift it. If you do a little shoppin around in truck salvage yards you should be able to get a steerable installed for under 4K. Check to see if you have any local bridge laws that are different than federal. Your bridge (distance between the center of the rear most axled to the center of the steering axle) will determine what your total gross can be. Sounds like you shouldn't have any problem with the gross you're wantin. As far as balancin your load between axles goes. Make sure you put an adjustable regulator in your air supply line to your main suspension bags on your lift axle. Then when you put a load on it for the first time pull your steering axle on the scale and adjust the air pressure on you lift axle until you have exactly what you want on the steer. From that point on you're good to go. Happy haulin' Duke.

 

[Duke]

Great info Dr C.

I have to improve my tranny situation then I'm going to look into it. My body company said a new air lift axle w/20K capacity would be $5,000 installed. It was a Hendrickson axle.

There's another place nearby that doesn new & used ones, too. They said a used one could be done for ~$3,000.

Neither were steerable, though.

 

[Duke]

Here's a used steerable liftaxle on ebay , comes with controls:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4530486292&fromMakeTrack=true

Here's an IH similar to mine with a liftaxle. I think it looks great.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e...&rd=1&item=4532320808&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT