Transporter 4 truck unit.....

[mwilson]

For those of you that were curious as to how this is done.....

 

[mwilson]

And a picture of the saddles used... ... .

 

[GCroyle]

OK Driver, BACK 'er in right here, no a bit more to the left, make that right, no your other left. Now straighten it up, try again.



Mike, somebody had to say it.

 

[mwilson]

I know that I would be a little fussy about what parking lots I pulled into with that mess behind me.



A Dead End would just plain suck, for lack of a better word... ...



Mike.

 

[jgillott]

That's got to be a pain to load and unload that stack.

 

[S.Morris]

Best truck is always the one that got broke in towing the lot! Not too heavy but heavy enough.

 

[mwilson]

That's all well and good unless they put a 63mph truck on the bottom.



I have had transporters call me from Texas begging for a PO number so that they could stop at a Freightliner Dealer and get the ECM restriction for 60mph lifted so that might be able to keep up with traffic... ... ... and to get to Maine before they grew anymore grey hair.....



Mike.

 

[HBarlow]

Mike one of the last winter trips I made west across I-80 pulling trailers before I "retired" from transporting was one very cold day early in 2007. Westbound across WY a brisk wind was blowing out of the west, just a little south of west, blowing powder snow across the highway and it was freezing creating black ice patches.

Trucks would get up to speed for five or ten miles then hit another patch of black ice. They were down in the median or the side of the road in snow banks for miles and miles. Lots of jacknifed truck-trailers along the way.

I saw a stack of new tractors like the ones in your photo all laid on their sides, resting in the snow and ice down in the median! They were all still connected together but all of them, as a unit, were laid over on their sides. A very expensive skid!

I was towing a long box trailer and managed to keep it in the road and survived, white knuckle all the way. A fellow transporter skidded and jacknifed his truck and the trailer he was pulling heavily damaging both and ending up in a snowbank.

 

[mwilson]

How would you like to call that one in to dispatch.....



"Um Gary, I just laid my truck over..... and the three other tractors hooked to it... . "



"Don't even stop by to pick up my check?????... ... "





Mike.

 

[NIsaacs]

I wonder if that train is considered triples? It looks to me like it is quite a project getting everything in order. Block the tow truck fifthwheel, hook up air/lights, chain up the front drive axle of the towed rigs and even the axles are tied down to the truck frames. All seems kind of scarry, yet it must pass DOT. It also seems like the saddle for the front axle connection is kind of close together, seems like a lot of weight for that small area.



Cool pictures, thanks Mike!



Nick

 

[mwilson]

I'll get pictures of the High Rise Condo three truck hitch the next time one shows up. They have an under truck sling that they use now to keep the height down, pretty clever.



Mike.

 

[HBarlow]

Speaking of the "don't bother to come in for your check" comment a friend of mine in Lubbock who sells Chevy pickups told me that 20 or 30 years ago he drove a truck for several years.

He said he was in the Houston, TX area one day to make a delivery and up ahead of him a car transporter with 7 or 9 new cars on the transport including the top row was not paying attention and tried to drive under a low railroad overhead crossing. The impact scraped the top row of new cars off the transporter onto the roadway shutting down the road.

My friend said he had to stop and was out of his cab talking with the driver who created the disaster. He said the driver told him, "I'm fired. " "I no longer have a job and will never get another one as a car transport driver. " He said the guy looked pale and shaken like he'd just seen his life flash before his eyes.

A very bad situation to have to call your dispatcher and report what you've done.

 

[Wingate]

There once was a guy that sent in his lowly worn out backhoe for some service... When delivering it back to the customer, the haul driver tried to take a short cut and removed the back hoe from the trailer by using a railroad underpass!!!. .

Guy ended up with a brand new 416E..... The driver ended up years later being over the transport/haul department!!!!!

 

[Bill Stockard]

That's got to be a pain to load and unload that stack.

It doesn't take long to undeck that load with an electric chain hoist and air tools and an experienced driver. We kept one drive through service bay set up just for undecking new trucks.



Mike,



Do the driveaway drivers still undeck the loads? Kenosha Auto Transport delivered our new trucks and the drivers undecked the trucks, replaced the axle shafts, removed the temporary flaps and lights, and stacked the saddles in the designated area. About every three months KAT would send a truck by and pick all the saddles and take them to Denton, TX to their decking facility at the Peterbilt assembly plant.



I imagine they did a four way since all the trucks in that load are comparatively short wheelbase.



Bill

 

[mrtrombley]

I had a friend that use to haul steel out of Pittsburgh years ago. He had an old Kenworth cabover that had a pretty tall exhaust stack. Pittsburgh was notorious for low railroad underpasses/bridges.

One day he came upon an underpass that his stack wouldn't fit under. He backed away from it, pulled over to the side of the road, and got out with a hacksaw! About 1/2 hr later a cop comes along, pulls up beside him, and says "hey buddy, what are you doing?"

My friend just looked at him and said "What does it look like, I'm raising the bridge!" and went back hacksawing the top of the stack off.

 

[mwilson]

It doesn't take long to undeck that load with an electric chain hoist and air tools and an experienced driver. We kept one drive through service bay set up just for undecking new trucks.



Mike,



Do the driveaway drivers still undeck the loads? Kenosha Auto Transport delivered our new trucks and the drivers undecked the trucks, replaced the axle shafts, removed the temporary flaps and lights, and stacked the saddles in the designated area. About every three months KAT would send a truck by and pick all the saddles and take them to Denton, TX to their decking facility at the Peterbilt assembly plant.



I imagine they did a four way since all the trucks in that load are comparatively short wheelbase.



Bill

Bill,

Yes, the transporter drivers still are responsible for getting the trucks undecked and all back together. Carry small air wrenches and use the air from the truck on the bottom for the supply.

We don't have an overhead hoist as some dealers do but have a trusted wrecker company that will come on short notice to undeck them for us.



New Brunswick has changed the law (again) and currently will not allow decked trucks into Canada. We are the last dealer before Canada so all the Canadian bound trucks are being left here, undecked and then driven to the dealers up there one truck at a time.

Had a 100 truck order that had to go through here bound for New Brunswick, there were booms, saddles, bags of u-bolts and under slung hitches all over the place.

Took 3 tractor trailers to haul it all off... ...



That is all above and beyond the saddles and such piled up as a result of our own units coming in.



I agree that the only way they got away with a 4 truck hitch was the fact that they are all short wheelbase units.



Mike.

 

[rbattelle]

I'm a bit confused.

First, the saddles are rigid, correct? That is, the towed trucks don't pivot on the 5th wheel plate when you go around a corner, do they?

Second, why are there what appears to be a pair of axles wrapped in plastic tied to the frame in the last photo in the first post? I'm unclear where those came from. (They don't have enough lug holes)

Sorry for my ignorance.

-Ryan

 

[rscurtis]

I would think there has to be some degree of pivot in the fifth wheel, for no other reason that the towed tractors can follow the horse. The axles are removed from the wheels on the ground so the drivelines won't be turning. Notice the cardboard covers on the wheel hubs to keep the dirt out (and oil in).

 

[mwilson]

Yes, the saddle has a pivot point just below the clamps that grab the front axle.



Fifth wheels are blocked so that there are no issues with it tipping while accelerating, braking or making a 90 degree turn as the saddle lacks the stability hooked to that fifth wheel that a trailer with a full contact surface would have.



Also, any wheel touching the tar must have braking, that is why you see the transporter air lines strung along the frame rails.



Mike.