Strange truck seen... Can someone tell me why?

[pwrwagn]

The other day I had to stop and wait a few minutes at a delivery because a semi was trying to get himself situated on some new snow in a slanted ramp. What caught my eye, though, was this:

It was a conventional cab peterbuilt, but a VERY long frame. You could have put a big box on the back of this thing (no sleeper), with the tandem axles at the very back, of course, with his hitch properly positioned over them.

The truck was, then, about 1/3 the length of his 48 foot trailer and giving him a dickins of a time trying to get the back end of that trailer moved over to match the door at the dock, because the entire ramp and driveway leading to it was only as wide as the two door dock and with the long wheelbase he couldn't get any angle on the truck to get angle on the trailer to make the back end move over.

Why would someone have such an immensely long frame, to move stuff around in town? bumped at the dock, his cab was out in the street. Any normal length tractor would have been well back from the street, instead of out in it.

I wish I'd taken a pic of it, but was preoccupied with a deadline just minutes away.

Anyone? It's just one of those odd sights I wish I'd had an explanation for.

 

[scottm4211]

He probably has a small weiner.

 

[zorry]

Very likely it had a large sleeper that has been moved to another truck or into retirement.
It's been removed as the old truck is regulated to city duty. It's now lighter and has better visibility.
The driver could be less experienced
than most. Or somedays you just have a bad day.
He could have been tired.

Or the truck was like that for reasons stated above.

 

[pwrwagn]

Very likely it had a large sleeper that has been moved to another truck or into retirement.
It's been removed as the old truck is regulated to city duty. It's now lighter and has better visibility.
The driver could be less experienced
than most. Or somedays you just have a bad day.
He could have been tired.

Or the truck was like that for reasons stated above.

It would have been a VERY large sleeper, then. It just wasn't his day. The street was curved, the docks were at the front of the building, with a sloping ramp up from the street and then down to the docks, fresh snow and limited traction, and he had this incredibly long truck trying to back a trailer. Sight was obstructed in both directions from the docks by landscaping, so it would have been quite the blind back to get the trailer into the dock ramp before you got the truck to the point where visibility from the cab back to the narrow dock area was possible. Then you had this long, long wheelbase and very limited forward / backward distance since the street was a narrow two lane affair.

 

[zorry]

My COE was at 30'.
Designed to do oversized loads.

It looked longer before I added second sleeper. Very large gap.

When I came to FedEx I pulled the fifth wheel and bolted on the box. No stretch needed.

It was a sight when I pulled a 28' or shorter trailer.

The fifth wheel was above the tandem and the tailight bars are in original position.

I had an 84" 5th wheel slide so I could go back to rear x-member for hauling beverage trls,etc that were too short to be hooked to a tandem.
That looked absurd.

I was chased down by a trooper who thought I was a Coca-Cola Show Truck.
He just wanted to see it.

 

[KickStarter6]

I seen a Pete like that in my home town at our hole in the wall truck stop. The truck looked to be about 45ft long. Had a regular sleeper and was painted bright orange can, frame and trailer all matched one another. Rather goofy looking imo

 

[zorry]

There were 20 of them built in 2001 to haul 60' rebar in Az.

 

[Turtle]

What is this truck?

If so, that's the Project 350 by Richie Acosta. Stretched to 350 inches, it's famous. There are a couple of others out there stretched to 300, but I think Richie's is the most stretched stretched.

Richie loves a challenge. He's also crazy. And from New Jersey. Redundant, I know.

 

[zorry]

Maybe didn't get enough attention as a child ?

 

[Turtle]

One thing seems clear, the longer the frame the smoother the ride.

 

[zorry]

One thing seems clear, the longer the frame the smoother the ride.

Sometimes RH turns in the city don't go too smoothly.

 

[zorry]

That gap is a fuel economy killer.

 

[Dynamite 1]

they stretch them long to get the weight off the nose, once you get long the front becomes non existent and you are basically carrying all your payload on 3 axles.

 

[zorry]

That doesn't make sense to me.

When they say they're going to stretch it out to get weight off the steer you are moving the fifth wheel back.
If you left the fifth wheel stationary and lengthened the frame you would not take weight off the steers.
You'd add some of the weight of the stretch to the steers. ( couple hundred lbs of frame and driveshaft.)

 

[KickStarter6]

What is this truck?

If so, that's the Project 350 by Richie Acosta. Stretched to 350 inches, it's famous. There are a couple of others out there stretched to 300, but I think Richie's is the most stretched stretched.

Richie loves a challenge. He's also crazy. And from New Jersey. Redundant, I know.

Imagine that truck but orange and go it to a tee

 

[Dynamite 1]

That doesn't make sense to me.

When they say they're going to stretch it out to get weight off the steer you are moving the fifth wheel back.
If you left the fifth wheel stationary and lengthened the frame you would not take weight off the steers.
You'd add some of the weight of the stretch to the steers. ( couple hundred lbs of frame and driveshaft.)

when you stretch one out that long and position the 5th wheel over the drives it takes almost all of the freight weight on the drive and trailer axles. the cantilever effect of the trailer pushing down on the drives lightens the nose making it pretty hard to overload. therefore they are only concerned with the drives and trailer axles.

 

[zorry]

I never took physics and we do not know anyone that has been able to extend a wb once loaded.

Here was my thought process.
I pictured a perfectly loaded, typical 5 axle TT set up. (14 years pulling tanker, I've seen this often.)

You'd be sitting 34000-34000-12000.
Without moving the 5th wheel add 5 feet of frame.
The trl would remain 34000.
The tractor tandem I would think would remain the same as the same downward pressure would apply.
Soo, the extra weight of the 60" frame stretch would be distributed between the steer axle and the tractor tandem.

Regardless of the tractors wheelbase, sliding the 5th wheel back, commonly referred to as stretching it out, will remove weight from the steer and put it onto tractor tandem.

The ideal situation is to be at rated capacity on the steer so you can work to maximum capacity on other axles.

To make front end lighter do as Volvo has. Position fuel tanks further back.