A dynamite source of information for you would be at the American Truck Historical Society site.
Sean, Being an old timer from the 60's-80's, most flatbeds were regular tandems. There were the "Canadian" spread tandems and yes a few but very few spread axle tandems. I would go with a regular tandem for authenticity.
sean,
A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".
A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".
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I've got a question for you old timers out there..
I'm not a truck driver, but I am planning on rebuilding a early 80's 359 and I want to get an old flatbed trailer to match it. So I'm wondering 2 things, were spread axles popular back then or were most fb trailers tandem? Question 2 what was the standard length?
Thanks guys!!
Tandem:
Tandem Axles
A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".