Four wheel rear axel or 2 on a 3.5 tonner?

[Mick Dempsey]

On my transits I’ve always had four wheels on the rear axle. Seems to me as I’m usually overloaded it has to be a better option than two. 
Yet my nephew is buying a 3.5 tonner and is considering a 2 wheeler. 
Is he wrong, does it really make much difference?

Who is running a two wheeler and do you have any issues?

 

[maybelateron]

I have only ever had twin rear wheels on my trucks, but one of my mates in the arb trade has only had singles, on his Izuzus. Pros and cons both ways I reckon. Twin wheeler less liable to sink through the "crust" of soft ground, but single wheeler better grip on icy/snowy surface. Twin wheeler more prone to wear on tyres as one always "scrubbing" when turning, and checking tyre pressures on inner wheel can be a pain.

A case of Little Britain - yeah but no but

[Will C]

I’ve run both mick. Most of the single wheels tend to be wider tyres than the twin so foot print Isnt half more like 75% and I didn’t get stuck on wet ground any more or less. 

However the twin wheels do feel more stable when there a little fat - I found the 2 wheel axle wallowed like a hippo on roller skates when well loaded 

[monkeybusiness]

Twin (with the exception of 4x4s such as MAN TGE/Merc Sprinter etc). 

[Will C]

Not much room for squish between them!

[monkeybusiness]

2 hours ago, Will C said:

Not much room for squish between them!

Nothing gets trapped!

[Sviatoslav Tulin]

12 hours ago, Mick Dempsey said:

On my transits I’ve always had four wheels on the rear axle. Seems to me as I’m usually overloaded it has to be a better option than two. 
Yet my nephew is buying a 3.5 tonner and is considering a 2 wheeler. 
Is he wrong, does it really make much difference?

Who is running a two wheeler and do you have any issues?

 

He is absolutely wrong!

[PeteB]

10 hours ago, monkeybusiness said:

Nothing gets trapped!

Doesn't the mud/grit chafe the inners? Aren't they putting extra stresses through to fhe rims/centres and lugnuts?

[monkeybusiness]

13 minutes ago, PeteB said:

Doesn't the mud/grit chafe the inners? Aren't they putting extra stresses through to fhe rims/centres and lugnuts?

We’ve been running them like this for 10 years and had no issues - the rims do touch on their own (don’t need dogging together with the nuts). 

[maybelateron]

12 hours ago, monkeybusiness said:

Nothing gets trapped!

Yes, all the better. I had to replace two fairly new rear tyres because a lad ignored the cyclical noise caused by a piece of wood trapped between the two tyres, sidewalls were too badly damaged by time he got back to the yard💩