Loading the 5th wheel for traction

[cranetruck]

Short of using the wrecker attachment, has anyone any suggestions for adding weight to the rear when driving a tractor off-road? The lack of weight when bobtailing will produce a lot of wheel spin and little traction....stressing the drive train with the front end engaged, I might add....

 

[Rattlehead]

Haven't thought about it so much for off-road traction, but have considered it just to smooth the ride out. You probably don't have this issue with 4 axles, but certain roads around here have slabs spaced about the same as the wheelbase, and it can start hopping bad.

I am mostly interested in a quick-detach bed of sorts for hauling stuff. Don't really want to take the 5th wheel on and off each time, so maybe have a pin on the bottom of a shortened deuce bed, then supports/tiedowns to go down to the frame rails in the front, and attachments at the rear that could tie into the rear clevis mounts. Of course I would want a new clevis mount on these rear attachments, so that I could reinstall the clevises to it for trailer safety chains.

A cargo bed would be great for towbar vehicle recoveries, as there is just not enough room in a tractor for all the tools/parts that one wants to bring.

Anyone got a spare deuce bed in this area?

 

[Stan]

Oilcan's M818 did just fine at Haspin. He had a spare tire strapped to the fifth wheel and picked up a lot of mud. I was impressed with how well it did with no extra weight. The temporary cargo bed sounds like a good ideal though.

 

[rizzo]

weld a plate and 5th wheel pin on to the bottom of a duece bed.

 

[wreckerman893]

Find a king pin plate off of a scrapped out road trailer. It is made of heavy steel.
Cut it to about 6 feet X 6 feet so you can put short legs on to to rest on the frame.
Weld quarter plate steel sides to it (about 3 feet high) which will give you a good sized box.
Set it up there and lock it to the kingpin, fill it with concrete or rocks and you have a removable ballast system.
It's up to you to figure out how to mount and dismount it.
Just my suggestion.

 

[Jones]

The shortened deuce bed is a great idea.
King pin on plate for the rear and something like a couple of "h"-shaped pieces out of 3/8" X 3" plate that reach down to and straddle the frame in the front. The "h"-shaped pieces could have bolt holes through the bottoms of the "legs" to clamp them in place.
Biggest problem would be working out how to place and remove the unit when you needed to switch from one configuration to the other.

 

[gimpyrobb]

Nah, Bjorn has room to setup a chainfall. Drive under, pull off bed!

 

[cranetruck]

Oilcan's M818 did just fine at Haspin. He had a spare tire strapped to the fifth wheel and picked up a lot of mud. I was impressed with how well it did with no extra weight. The temporary cargo bed sounds like a good ideal though.

Was looking at that and figured there must have been a fair amount of wheel spin.
Anybody know how much the wrecker attachment weighs?

 

[gimpyrobb]

Bjorn, he had to spin the wheels to get the front axle to kick in. In fact EVERYONE spun tires. There was no less than 3inches of mud for most of the event. Even with the XML tires, I went where the ground sloped to. You get to a point where it doesn't matter what tires you run, you will get stuck or slide.

 

[cranetruck]

I read you, Gimp. Putting cargo in the bed will make a big difference in traction, when driving in the snow and mud here, I always loaded up with several tree logs to get good traction. Doubling the load will double the traction regardless of tire tread and that's what I want to do for the bobtailing tractor.

Did any of you experiment with low air pressure?

 

[nk14zp]

My 5th wheel wrecker is light

 

[area52]

Find a king pin plate off of a scrapped out road trailer. It is made of heavy steel.
Cut it to about 6 feet X 6 feet so you can put short legs on to to rest on the frame.
Weld quarter plate steel sides to it (about 3 feet high) which will give you a good sized box.
Set it up there and lock it to the kingpin, fill it with concrete or rocks and you have a removable ballast system.
It's up to you to figure out how to mount and dismount it.
Just my suggestion.

This is cranetruck who is asking right?

 

[BFR]

you could mount a jumbo concrete block(roughly 2'x2'x5" & 4000lbs) on one of these and then chain bind it down.

5th wheel adapters for semi trailers - $75 ea - Steel Soldiers::Military Vehicles Supersite

 

[Jeeperjoe]

to dismount you could put 4 swing out legs under it so that they would be up out of the way and then when you went to remove it there would be legs that you could swing down to hold it at the right height...

 

[KsM715]

Find a king pin plate off of a scrapped out road trailer. It is made of heavy steel.
Cut it to about 6 feet X 6 feet so you can put short legs on to to rest on the frame.
Weld quarter plate steel sides to it (about 3 feet high) which will give you a good sized box.
Set it up there and lock it to the kingpin, fill it with concrete or rocks and you have a removable ballast system.
It's up to you to figure out how to mount and dismount it.
Just my suggestion.

Doesnt maddawg have some of those kingpin plates (from GL) for sale in the classifieds?

 

[Recovry4x4]

Here's one way!

 

[73m819]

use jacks just like what is used on a pu slide out camper, only make them look military. or fore pockets on each conner that a lag would fit in, with a screw jack in the end

 

[Stan]

Did any of you experiment with low air pressure?[/quote]




I dropped the pressure in my steering tires to 25psi and I think it made a big differance. I was able to crawl right through some spots that other trucks would take a couple tries to make. The data plate says 15 in mud but I didn't want to go that low since the terrian varies so much. I want to check into getting some of those setups that allow you to fill two tires at once for the rear. Otherwise it somes like an awful lot of hassel.

 

[alphadeltaromeo]

Here's one way!

I know that tank!

 

[tm america]

i was amazed how good that 5ton tractor did without any weight on the back.seemed like the only trcuks that went straight out at haspin were the m109s and the 818.it would be cool to have different beds you could switch out when you need the truck for something other than pulling a semi trailer .maybe if you put a fifth wheeel plate under the bed and had some screw jacks to lock it into the frame