Truck rear suspension question

[BobS71]

As I mentioned in a prior post I am planning on making a reasonable version of a boom truck that my father

used in his sign shop. He had a few different brands,none of which are available in kit form so I decided to use

a Diamond Reo.

I was watching a video on building one and noticed that the rear end assemblies have Hendrickson suspension

with walking beams connecting the two assemblies. To the best of my knowledge the trucks that my father had were

all single rear axles.

My question is this, can the walking beams and one axle assembly be removed and still have an assembly that looks

like it has workable suspension or should I just leave it as duel rears which would make it somewhat newer that i would

want.

Any suggestions are welcome.

Bob

[DRIPTROIT 71]

You could make it work, but single axles usually had a spring with less leaves and then an overload spring on top of that. You could use the suspension out of the AMT Ford LN 8000 or the AMT SD Freightliner (this one doen't appear to have overloads), which would probably be your easiest choices.

Edited August 25, 2018 by DRIPTROIT 71

[DRIPTROIT 71]

Here's a picture of the SD Freightliner suspension that I used on my 7400 White:

[dshue76]

The AMT Louisville LN8000 Delivery truck has a 19' 9" bed length. It would be a viable kit for this and that's exactly what I'm using for the same type build, Although I'm using an F-350 cab with the LN8000 hood I needed a longer frame so I think I used the optional long frame from the AMT Mack DM 800.

Edited August 26, 2018 by dshue76