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Okay so i was trying to research this before i made a post on it so here goes. What is the weight of my truck / your truck. All i can find is the rear axle weight and some other stuff that i think i need explained to me.

For example, i have a 95 mack rd 350 mechanical single frame, eaton 9 speed, 442 rears, 2 aluminum wheels and 6 steel wheels. I am trying to find out empty weights and how they differ. All i know is that they vary from 14000 to 17000? So how do i find out what that weight was from mack?

I think the r model tends to be heavier because of the steel doors and cab right? A guy i work with just got a used EAST trailer with liner in it and he is around 27000 empty. We have the exact same spec'd truck. I weigh 28860 with full fuel and everything at max, with barely anything, i am lucky to achieve an empty weight of 28100 to 28200. The trailer i use is a 1980 fruehauf tub that was rebuilt to be more heavy duty. the inside of the box has more bulk on the sides and i also have a 1/8 inch steel floor from the doghouse to the trailer. it's quite a nice setup as far as being durable.

I guess i was just wondering all this because I can see myself driving this truck for quite awhile , and lets say if i put aluminum wheels on my truck and when i was ready to sell my trailer and get a used lightweight with a liner in it, could i be 27000 or less? Or is the R model just TOO heavy because i am an R model guy for life!

I hope all of you can give me some insight on this. I don't know why it's so hard to just find a sheet that shows every make of truck and weight it is.

Here is a picture of my heavy ass truck

post-11750-0-01608600-1366247488_thumb.j

  • Like 1

Slow and Steady Wins the Race!

The Rs seem to be a bit lighter, maybe a couple hundred pounds, than the CHs and CXs. Back when I worked for the Postal Service I had the chance to weight our different Mack models on a certified scale. The lightest tandem was the '99 CH600 with E7, Allison 5 speed automatic, steel wheels, 40k Eaton axles on Hendrickson air ride, and starter, and a single 60 gallon fuel tank- at the end of the shift with maybe 40 gallons in the tank and an overfed driver in the cab it weighted only 16,200 pounds. A more normal 100 gallons of fuel would have pushed that up to around 17,000 pounds, but with aluminum wheels and super singles 16,000 pounds would be possible. Get radical with a 6x2 and a few other options and a 15,000 pound empty weight would be possible...

Yes you can! Your trailer is going to be heavier because the steel floor and spoke wheels. The newer trailers are lighter due to many different things, that being said, the old Axle's, Heil's, and Fruehauf's were lite weight. If you get into a newer aluminum trailer you can realistically get down around 27000. The RD I run weighs in at 17600 full of fuel, wetkit, tool box full of straps and edge protecters, and all aluminum wheels/tanks. Hope I helped you. -Brad

Agreed, trucks vary too much for anyone to tell you what it weighs, just run it to the scale bobtail and get a weight then you can subtract it from your combo weight and see what your trailer actually weighs. I would guess you were close to 1700, my 84 Superliner daycab was a V8 12spd truck with double frame and 44 rears, had all aluminum wheels and tanks but weighed 19100. My 85 sleeper truck has a V8 and an Eaton 9 spd double frame and 44 rears with all aluminum wheels and tanks and weighs 18,900. I had one 97 R model triaxle dump that was all spokes and a steel bed that was 28400 and a 2000 R with the same specs but all aluminum wheels and a thinner bed that was only 24400. Point being they vary a lot any two are never the same even built as twins, they can be close but one will be heavier, run her to the scale real quick and you'll know. As for aluminum wheels from spokes you will get cast hubs for 44 rears and then with all aluminum wheels my math says you'll lose about 360#. Lightweight aluminum alcoas are about 20-30# lighter than a 24.5 steel rim, hub piloted cast hubs are around 30-40# lighter than 44k spoke hubs so that's 120-160# in hubs and 160-200# in wheels for a total of 280-360#. A big bonus to swapping is making brake a seal changes a lot easier, no more dealing with that heavy spoke hub and swapping brake shoes can be done in minutes without removing the hub.

"Any Society that would give up a little LIBERTY to gain a little SECURITY will Deserve Neither and LOSE BOTH" -Benjamin Franklin

"If your gonna be STUPID, you gotta be TOUGH"

"You cant always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you get what you need"

So i was talking to my dad about this too. He has a 96 pete and it says on the glove box the empty weight. That was kinda neat of pete to do that. My old truck that was a 89 R686ST had a double frame and a 300 e6 and a twin stick and it weighed 300 pounds less than my current truck. he said its because the double frames were not as good and the single frame i have is for very heavy duty. I don't suppose the trans are that much different in weight or not? Mine is a 9speed fuller and the other was a twin stick non air shift. Both trucks had springs. What is the difference in 44000 pound springs and 34000? I ask this because when i had my trunions out last year and had my spring packs replaced, i wanted to get it lighter and get a lighter spring and the mechanic either said at the time, they don't make or i couldnt get it or it wasnt a good idea. never the less i ended up with the stock 44000 though, is it about a 300 pound difference too?

Slow and Steady Wins the Race!

Thats all really good info. So a ch is not lighter than an R? I always see ch's having such a light empty weight, and i figured it was because the body is aluminum and mine is steel and some other factors. lets say both trucks have aluminum wheels all around and one is an RD and one is a ch, each has a 350 and a 9 speed in it. the ch has air ride and the R has springs. I heard that springs arent that much heavier or are heavier at all. Is there any proof of this?

Slow and Steady Wins the Race!

It all depends on how they are speced. We have a 05' granite that is 200# lighter than me, and 97' CH that is 800 lighter than me. We had a 95' CH that was an old Carrey Transit truck that weighed in at 16000# with a wet kit, toolbox with gear and full of fuel. It is all in how you spec them. If you swapped out to aluminum unimount hubs with aluminum wheels, center fuse drums, aluminum cased carriers, get down to 2 batteries, and left your lunch box at home we can get your tare weight down. -Brad

It's always fun hooking to a pre-loaded trailer which was loaded by a company driver in a light-weight bare-bones fleet-spec'd company day cab. Most of them can scale 27+ tons. I'm lucky to get 25.5 tons legally. Ain't no scales 'tween here & there, though, and even if there were I can get around 'em so I just run it and make the big bucks on that run.

When approaching a 4-way stop, the vehicle with the biggest tires has the right of way!

On another side note, My older R model was 300 pounds lighter but it had quarter fenders and it didnt have the storage box on the side that you see on the passenger side of mine, How much weight difference do you think those items are? how much does that storage box weigh?

Slow and Steady Wins the Race!

On another side note, My older R model was 300 pounds lighter but it had quarter fenders and it didnt have the storage box on the side that you see on the passenger side of mine, How much weight difference do you think those items are? how much does that storage box weigh?

depends on what all you have in that storage box.. a standard alum. 24" step box don't add more the 80 lb's counting the steel brackets.

  • 4 weeks later...

The ch I drove was at about 28700 with a pitts double bunk trailer that was 10,000 it self, the truck was a single frame with 44 rears and a 2130 trans. I thank your weight is pretty good I know a guy who got a old pilot truck which was a peterbilt that was 16,000 empty put it had little rears and a m11 cummins with aluminum crossmembers and all aluminum wheels. He also had a western star heavy spec tractor with a 36 foot tribrook high side dump and it and the truck was 44,000 lbs. I know it nice to have a light truck so you can haul a little more but sometimes its better to have a few more pound and have the truck for the job, but I have seen some light cabovers,

The factory tagged my door with 19000# before the roll off hoist was installed (no driver, minimal fuel). As I am in Canada, and we use metric, I am 14500 kg no bin, but tarps chains and a half tank (100 litres) of fuel. That's a 2011 gu813. Our 1988 RD is about a half tonne loghter, same conditions. Through this experiment, I was able to figure our tare weights on the bins were optimistic by about 1000kgs.

Edit: GU813 is a triaxle, and the RD688S is a tandem.

Edited by j_martell

Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part....

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