how about tankers? nobody has said much about them. isn't there good money to be had hauling bulk stuff, especially the haz-mat?

i have a simplistic question concerning O/O startup, i'm thinking about buying a truck (been doing this 5 years now) what's the difference between various ratios in the rears? is one that much better than another as per expected load weight, pulling mountains, speed, interactions with the other hardware in the truck...?

 

each engine has its own sweet spot (best RPM range) and when they build a spec, salespeople at the dealership use a couple of simple formulas/software to determine the axle ratio. The higher the number - the easier the truck will climb on hills and accelerate from the start (good for heavy loads in mountain terrain) but it'll also make the engine spin fast at highway speeds, and if you want to drive fast than the high numeric axle ratio (3.90 or 4.11) will kill your fuel mileage. On the other hand if you have a truck with 3.33 or 3.50 axle ratio - it'll fly on the highway but might not be too suitable for hilly terrain with heavy loads. The formula to check out is this: RPM (engine speed) at 60 mph = Top Gear Ratio x Axle Ratio x Tires Revs per Mile.

Example: my truck has a 13-speed tranny with 0.73 top gear ratio; my rear axle ratio is 3.70, and my tires spin 510 times per mile. Which means that if I do 60 mph on the highway, my engine RPM should be - in theory - 1377. In real life my engine does less but that because I had it tuned at a CAT dealer. But this will give you an idea - you want your engine to spin within the best RPM recommended by the engine maker (1300 rpm to 1400 rpm in my case - CAT C15) all ratios (axles, tranny) are designed to provide for that.

 

Yes we've done wide loads up to 12' but it's not the majority of our work. I'd say maybe 25 - 30% or so.

Lots of stuff is designed to be a legal move. Take construction and farm equipment for example....many of them are designed 102" wide so it's legal but it will not work on many roll tites (many are less than 102" inside). Other stuff that we've done that is 102" or 51" wide are water tanks, coolers, containment boxes etc.

Even if it would theoretically fit on a roll tite, it may need to be centered perfectly and the shipper is likely to say "no roll tites" because it's too time consuming for them.

So yeah, a roll tite limits your options for legal loads IMO.