How lite is Liteweight ?

Have had my mind wandering a bit of late, my brain working at it's best

Anyway I have been wondering how lite weight somethings actually were
When Yanky trucks first came to Australia, the likes of Peterbilt Kenworth White etc, not Mack because weight saving never seemed to be on the Mack agenda
Anyway you could get trucks with a high Aluminium content as in cabs, chassis rails axle housings and gear boxes etc

So for a interstate Roadboss or W900 Kenworth, how much lighter did these trucks end up, was it 1 ton or more, say 3 tons
Could the tare weight be around 7 or 8 ton for a truck that would normally run at lets say 11 ton tare

And trailers, I have read Freighter made aluminium flat top trailers as did Alcan and no doubt others, how lite were these trailers, my old Fruehauf flatops were just over 7 ton, McGrath flatops are closer to 9 ton I seem to recall with out look at the rego papers


Just wondering, does the brains trust know these answers


Paul

Paul, A good mate of Mine had one of those Alcan Flat tops.. From memory it was about 4.5 Tonne...

I had a nice little Loadmaster 41' triaxle that weighed 6.25 Tonne..

Think n way back




Too much aluminium may have been the downfall for Peterbilt ... may B tooo adventurious
Kenworth Engineers went for a trip on a truck along the Hume & refered the Hwy as a goat track so Kenworth mainly ran more steel than Pete
L8R KW ventured onto Alloy chassis etc

BIDS2BC

cya

So much for progress Swishy.. Today a T909 in Grain carter, or livestock Spec there's very little if any change out of 11 Tonne..

Thats quite lite isnt it, so with Swishmans KW and Hayseeds 41' tri you could legal carry 30 ton, a bit of mass management 33 ton payload on a single tri axle trailer

Thats quite a bit

If we take into account the far better roads we have now maybe the lighter weight chassis aluminium construction might be fine

Thinking out allowed here

What sez you all

Paul

I went to the Shell Refinery Workshop in Brisbane one day ,dunno when,but there was a big heap of ally truck stuff outside the workshop ...diff housings ,suspension parts,gearbox casings,and GM V 71 engine blocks ,and wheel spiders .......I asked a guy I knew there,and he said they were stripping out all the ally and replacing it with cast iron.(probably Kenworth stuff) ,from the era...........As to the Alcan trailers ,they were magic for a while ,1 ton saving from memory,but any serious damage couldnt be fixed ...........In brick cartage ,the Alcan trays were industry standard,for light weight and strength.

Mrsmack, the Little 6-71 in the S model would be Huffin' & Puffin' at 45 Tonne....:sick:

True but think of the scenery you'll have plenty of time to view

Paul

You'd be too busy Changin' gears to check the scenery out..

Methinks that Kenworth brochure is a bit "optomistic" with the truth..
Just look at that bit where it says "increased driver comfort".
huh??????
Yeah... nah.. although I guess compared to the pommy trucks that were still getting around in that era, the KW would have been the height of luxury!!
"wow, what luxury!!!.... a HEATER!!!!!"