So, looking at starting up. All ready have work lined up, as well as fuel cards, operating centre, maintainence contract and everything else. Key factor now being a truck. I was offered a spanking new Daf xf106 460 but i’m concerned about the longevity of it and jumping in with that much finance hanging over my head so after speaking to a few people I have decided on a 2nd hand Scania 440 highline.
I have also been told to avoid the SCR only engines as these tend to be more expensive to repair and a turbo is substantially more on an SCR than on an ad blue engine. So that takes care of that.
The main question is, Tag or midlift. I’ve only dealt with mid lifts and all I really know is the tags can turn tighter. Apart from that is there any other benefits/pitfalls or is one better than the other. I will be doing general haulage with tauts ands flats with the usual places you visit, Farmyards, factories, rdc’s.
Any help or experience on the matter would be appreciated. thanks in advance
Hi Mate
SCR and Adblue are the same thing. Your 440 Scania will be EGR only i suspect. The turbos on these are expensive and last about 600,000k tops. Make sure its had one before you buy. Scania do a 410 and 450 Adblue only on their later models. Nothing wrong with the 440 but get its history checked.
For general haulahe lift axle seems to be prefered with tags being used on walking floors and places where access is tight. Scania do a 6x2 with 2nd steer and 6x2 pusher which is mid-lift but non steered.
hth
Something you may want to consider is most second hand factory spec scanias with a tag axle will either of been used on landfill or biomass work ( think Jenkinsons etc) and spent a lot of there life up to the eyes in crap , put this against a midlift which has spent all its life running on the motorway between Rdc,s and i know which i would spend my money on
That said i do prefer a tag axle and if i was speccing a new truck i would have it but on a second hand one i would want to know what it had been doing
Egr thats the one. Looking to avoid that and get an adblue one so widen the search abit.
The choice is out of a jenkinsons tag or a stobart midlift so maybe head for the stobart truck. Thanks for the info and advice
Tag axles eat tyres for fun normally as most if not all of them do not steer. Midlift steering axles offer far better tyre performance. Try not to get a fixed lift axle.
I would not even consider a steering lift axle, to many moving wearing parts, I have run a mid lift 4.1 w/b Volvo fh for 10 years and a 3.8 w/b fm before that and the tyre wear is not high overall, also I find it far quicker to change or turn a few tyres to keep up with any uneven wear than keep changing ball joints and silly long drag links or drop arm bushes as fitted to a scania mid lift and steer, once your fitters messed about with it the tracking is almost sure to be out unless it’s tracked up every time which also has a cost which overall will cancel out any savings in tyre wear!
The points chaversdad makes above are good ones, the 440 scania scr only perform well on juice and they pull just as well as the later 450’s, I would also avoid the egr ones as the egr cooler’s will at some point leak,
Non steered mid lifts you can cut down a lot on tyre wear be getting into the habit of dumping the mid lift air when off road and especially when manoeuvering, the less strain all round from less drag won’t do any harm over time either.
Moose:
I would not even consider a steering lift axle, to many moving wearing parts, I have run a mid lift 4.1 w/b Volvo fh for 10 years and a 3.8 w/b fm before that and the tyre wear is not high overall, also I find it far quicker to change or turn a few tyres to keep up with any uneven wear than keep changing ball joints and silly long drag links or drop arm bushes as fitted to a scania mid lift and steer, once your fitters messed about with it the tracking is almost sure to be out unless it’s tracked up every time which also has a cost which overall will cancel out any savings in tyre wear!
The points chaversdad makes above are good ones, the 440 scania scr only perform well on juice and they pull just as well as the later 450’s, I would also avoid the egr ones as the egr cooler’s will at some point leak,
None of this is untrue but a steered midlift is a much more pleasant drive with less need to dump the air. Probably looking at ball joints lasting 300-400k with genuine parts and a laser track is worth it anyway from time to time so I don’t really view it as a huge extra ballache.
I’ve not had a tag axle tractor unit since the days when I used to drive Volvo F10’s and Scania 113’s with steel suspension, but I remember they used to be less stable than a midlift particularly when changing lanes on a motorway and catching the tramlines moving back into lane one. I put this down to the fact that the load on the fifth wheel is imposed outside of the wheelbase of the vehicle, making it less stable. The midlifts I bought after this were a lot more stable and I haven’t gone back to a tag since.
I seem to remember the tag axles didn’t suffer the same amount of scrub on the outside shoulder like you get on a current none steered midlift, but I seem to remember tyres didn’t last as long on a tag.
You also had to be careful where the trailer legs were on a trailer with a tag axle unit as they would foul on a short necked trailer.