Tag axle for truck camper rigs

[noteven]

Tag axle article

Code 13 Roll the Weight Police

edit - quoted from the article:

"In 2017, after several people showed interest in purchasing our unit, I decided to design a tag axle to sell. We faced two initial challenges. Number one was to submit a “Request for Interpretation” to DOT/NHTSA. That process took 18 months, moved through NHTSA Chief Crash Avoidance Office to Chief Counsel and resulted in a favorable interpretation of the design. NHTSA, Chief Counsel, determined that the unit would be considered a trailer not a tag axle and would carry its own GVWR. The designation was as a Weight Distribution Truck Camper Trailer (WDTCT) requiring a VIN number, lights and brakes."

[Kayteg1]

n0arp wrote:
I really don't see why this wouldn't work - but I think it would only work if you stick to paved roads. .

Even paved roads do have lot of steep driveways and ditches.
Having front-mounted generator I had to be very careful going to McDonald, who had steep driveway.
With this setup, I can only imagine how it would hold when rear wheels will hang in the air.
"Something has to give" If not tag frame, than truck hitch is not design to hold such loads.
My previous bus tag axle had air bag with pressure valve. Would I drive via deep ditch, the air would be released and the tag would not get overloaded. That was tag with full size wheels, when here we are talking about wheels having 10 or 20% of main axle capacity.

[noteven]

Do you detractors run up to every tag/pusher axle equipped heavy truck you see and help save them from the disaster equipment that’s about to fail them?

Explanations of how more axles with brakes under a load is a hazard are welcome.

[n0arp]

I really don't see why this wouldn't work - but I think it would only work if you stick to paved roads. The tag won't have the clearance, articulation, or tire size to match/complement your drive axle on uneven surfaces. I saw a truck camper a while back that had a tag on it - they're out there. As I think a lot of people with TCs buy them to leave the pavement, I don't see the market. But I'll fully admit that I have tunnel vision here and that's based on my own social bubble.

As said elsewhere in this thread, tire scrub is relied on all the time for tandem trailers and trucks. It looks like it might even run ST tires, which are supposed to be designed to endure more scrub than passenger tires.

[bighatnohorse]

Being quick to condemn something "new" is not unusual.
The "nay-sayers" overlook those who will find the tag axle is an answer to their problems.

Being unable to afford a new truck to handle a heavy camper, or being in the position of owning an over-weight camper might well find the tag axle is a safety solution to their problem.

Roy Pack has been at this a long time.
I first saw his tag axle about five years ago at campground.
It works.

[JIMNLIN]

Around my area in the late '50s and '60s tags were in use with pickup trucks/truck camper combo's.
A work buddy had one with his old 390ci (drop in) '68 ?? 1/2 ton Ford and a 9' 6" Fields truck camper. I don't remember the tags brand but he and his wife traveled all over western USA with the rig. He had pictures of traveling dirt/gravel roads north of Gunnison, CO to Taylor Park Lake and up to Tin Cup.

[mkirsch]

Something else I noticed, he is advertising it for towing.

Does it count as a towing double trailers? If so, not legal in NY.

He calls it a trailer. Does that mean it needs to be licensed and registered in states that require it?

[mkirsch]

stevenal wrote:
Turn right and the tag wheels go left. No way to roll left, so they scrape left. Replace tires after every trip?

Millions of tandem axle trucks on the road every day. Do they replace the tires with every trip?

The only thing I see wrong with the tires is they appear to be snowmobile trailer tires. Too small, turning at about light speed when you're doing 65. If you're going to be doing anything after every trip, it will be repacking wheel bearings.

[noteven]

we3 wrote:
I have built several tag axles for pick up trucks and truck campers. Mine were designed so you could lift them off the ground or inflate the airbags and transfer 1800lbs to the tag axle without affecting the front axle weight, all with two switches on the dash. I patented the idea and presented it for manufacture. I soon learned that any time you modify the suspension of a vehicle the liability goes out of sight.

Yes.

I see nothing wrong with adding a tag axle especially with brakes if the truck is operated properly. For ditch driving and such it depends on how much wheel travel is designed into the suspension.

Last week I met a truck camper rig with a tag under it on the highway near the Alberta Rockies.

It is interesting this company has the equipment certified as a trailer ( or "Tag Trailer") so it is not a modification to the vehicle.

[we3]

I have built several tag axles for pick up trucks and truck campers. Mine were designed so you could lift them off the ground or inflate the airbags and transfer 1800lbs to the tag axle without affecting the front axle weight, all with two switches on the dash. I patented the idea and presented it for manufacture. I soon learned that any time you modify the suspension of a vehicle the liability goes out of sight.

[Kayteg1]

stevenal wrote:
Turn right and the tag wheels go left. No way to roll left, so they scrape left. Replace tires after every trip?

All multiple-axle trailers do it all the time.
Than nobody expect trailer tires to last 100,000 miles.

[stevenal]

Turn right and the tag wheels go left. No way to roll left, so they scrape left. Replace tires after every trip?

[Lwiddis]

“Nicky” used a tag axle mounted just aft of the coupler to carry some of the weight of “Tacy’s” long, long trailer.

[n0arp]

Kayteg1 wrote:

n0arp wrote:


Also, it looks like it would diminish the ability to leave the pavement - a large benefit to having a truck camper in the first place.

Don't you worry.
When crossing the ditch, the axle frame will bend to shape under 12,000 lb load.

I'm just visualizing dropping the rear truck axle off a 10" shelf, which is out of downtravel range on a lot of trucks, and getting hung up on this contraption with the rear truck tires up in air. You'd have all the weight on this and have to use 4x4 or momentum (which means going over a drop like that too fast) to pull it off with the front tires. Fun, and likely to damage something. Maybe I'm unusual in the places I pick to camp, but I think the ability to get further than other campers is a major selling point for TCs.

[Kayteg1]

n0arp wrote:


Also, it looks like it would diminish the ability to leave the pavement - a large benefit to having a truck camper in the first place.

Don't you worry.
When crossing the ditch, the axle frame will bend to shape under 12,000 lb load.

[Kayteg1]

Over the years I have seem TC build with their own tags, I have seen tag wheel mounted on the receiver, yet after a decade or 2 I have never seen them on the road, or campgrounds.
Do you think this is going to be different?
That set sure will screw your turning radius.
Not even talking about crossing the ditches.