Tri-axle vs. Tandem Axle

[Coyote_Red]

I am in the market for a gooseneck in the range of 28-32',full 102" wide, and 16-21K rating with the tandem dual axle being something I don't want. Intended uses are to haul two SCSB trucks to various off road parks, haul scrap iron, hay, as well as some "light" and infrequent hauling of farm equipment. With those uses trips will range from 10-600 plus miles round trip and used at least 8 times a year with 2-4 long hauls.

So like the title says, what one would you pull and why?

 

[Drew2010]

personally I would stay away from triple axles, they are very very ******* tires when turning. Why do you say that you dont want tandem duals? If you only run a single wheel double axle your going to be looking at a a 14,000 gvwr trailer, which is not going to be enough for a two place GN. Most tandem duallies are about 26,000 gvwr.

Im sure some people love triples, but I know alot of people that hate them. Weve got have a tandem single deckover, but its just a 20 footer, for larger hauling, we use the 30 foot tandem dually gn...

 

[Drew2010]

I guess I should have asked, is deck height an issue? not sure if you are looking for a low deck with fenders or a deckover...

 

[Coyote_Red]

I am looking for a deck over. The tandem dual is generally too heavy of a trailer for my needs also replacing 8 tires instead of 4 or 6. Like you said 26K for only 10 maybe 11K of trucks. I know most of the tandem axle use 7k axle but I will look for one with an upgraded 8k axle. This will mostly be used as a car hauler so much over 20K is overkill.

 

[Drew2010]

I am looking for a deck over. The tandem dual is generally too heavy of a trailer for my needs also replacing 8 tires instead of 4 or 6. Like you said 26K for only 10 maybe 11K of trucks. I know most of the tandem axle use 7k axle but I will look for one with an upgraded 8k axle. This will mostly be used as a car hauler so much over 20K is overkill.

well with a 14,000 gvwr if you have 11 thousand pounds of trucks on it, thats fine, but that weight is including the weight of the trailer. a trailer 30 to 35 feet long is going to be heavy... atleast 5,000 lbs I would guess, probably more. If you could get a trailer with 8k axles, then you might be okay, but still close to overloaded, depending on the weight of the trucks. I realize a 26k gvwr trailer is a heavy pig, but it a 35 foot trailer rated at 16k gonna be built much lighter?

If sharp turns arent a common occurrence then you could prolly get away with a triple axle, if you do turn sharp, make sure tire pressures are very even...

Ive seen people knifing the truck around trying to maneuver a loaded triple axle in a small lot, looking at the axles flex makes me want to cringe...

 

[Coyote_Red]

I forgot to subtract trailer wight from GVWR. I have pulled a tri so I have seen the scrub that is caused by sharp turns. I was not sure if that draw back could be offset by any benefits.

 

[spg]

With 8K axles, tires for that rating are going to be quite pricey. Not any different than replacing dually tires as needed.

 

[wmoguy]

I like triples, that's just me. I personally put about 145k miles on a 32' triple with 7k axles. I preferred it to the dual tandem w/12k axles.
I never found the scrub or twisting to bother me, and it's been all over the twisty mountain roads.
It depends on your payload capacity needs. If you need more than 25k gvwr than dual tandems are a given.
Btw, a 35' trailer like this better weigh more than 5k unless it's aluminum. Mine weighed in at 6,435#

 

[RLDSL]

a couple of other things to consider, a triple will smooth out the ride over rough roads where a double axle might have you hopping and bucking. You can always get an air lift rigged on your last axle to pull it up when manuvering in tight places, then let it back down for running, althoug scrub turns really arent that bad . Most flatbed semi trailers north of the border have gone to a spread axle arrangement that does essentially the same thing , but mostly to make for easier weight balance and smoother ride and they don't have a major problem with tires. One big drawback with a triple is if you run turnpikes a lot. They will hit you by the axle when you get to the tollbooths.

 

[RoyBoy]

In your application I would recommend 8k or 10k tandem axles with single 17.5" tires.

 

[Coyote_Red]

Thanks for the input guys. I will have to do some more considering, and see if I could hook up to one of each and see how it pulls on the truck.