Per Axle Weighing
Topic 12233 | Page 1
Start by putting only your steers on the scale, let's say they weigh 12,000 for this example. Then bring your drives onto the scale let's say the total of the two is 46,000. Subtract the weight of the steers from that total weight 12,000 minus 46,000= 34,000 (drive axle weight). Then bring both your trailer tandems onto the scale. Let's say your total weight is 80,000 subtract the 46,000 ( steers and drives). That will give you the weight of your trailer axles. Hope this makes sense. Also if your overweight on either the drive axle of the trailer tandems move your trailer tandems toward the problem.
Tandems:
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".
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".
Drive axle Or the trailer tandems*****
Tandems:
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".
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".
Drive axle Or the trailer tandems*****
What are you asking about, Joseph?
Tandems:
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".
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".
Drive axle Or the trailer tandems*****
What are you asking about, Joseph?
He was just correcting his post above from of to or
Tandems:
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".
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".
Also if your overweight on either the drive axle of the trailer tandems move your trailer tandems toward the problem.
thank you for that piece of advice joseph, that set a light bulb off in my head.
Tandems:
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".
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".
I don't know if this apply to all scales, but for example the cat scales you see at a lot of truck stops will weight the whole vehicle at once and give you a break down because they have 3 separate scales you drive onto. the first weighs the steers, 2nd weighs the drives and 3rd weighs the tandems. and the ticket you get shows your total weight and each axle weight... no math needed.
The website for cat scales even shows this in a diagram on their how to weigh section.
This may not be true for other scales though.
Tandems:
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".
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".
CAT Scale:
A network of over 1,500 certified truck scales across the U.S. and Canada found primarily at truck stops. CAT scales are by far the most trustworthy scales out there.
In fact, CAT Scale offers an unconditional Guarantee:
“If you get an overweight fine from the state after our scale showed your legal, we will immediately check our scale. If our scale is wrong, we will reimburse you for the fine. If our scale is correct, a representative of CAT Scale Company will appear in court with the driver as a witness”
Cat Scales:
A network of over 1,500 certified truck scales across the U.S. and Canada found primarily at truck stops. CAT scales are by far the most trustworthy scales out there.
In fact, CAT Scale offers an unconditional Guarantee:
“If you get an overweight fine from the state after our scale showed your legal, we will immediately check our scale. If our scale is wrong, we will reimburse you for the fine. If our scale is correct, a representative of CAT Scale Company will appear in court with the driver as a witness”
My trainers told me to try to balance out the weight between the drives and tandems. For example.. if you have 35,000 on one, but 30,000 on the other, you need to slide the tandems. It's better to have it at 32,500 each (or close to it than the 35/30). Imagine the trailer is like a seesaw. If you slide the tandems far to the back, more weight is going to be pushed to the drives on the front. if you slide the tandems forward, the seesaw will be more balanced and more weight will be put on the back. However, we did a california run where the tandems needed to be on the 6th hole by law--- which meant that we had to have the shipper re-work the load to even out the weight. Does that make sense?
Shipper:
The customer who is shipping the freight. This is where the driver will pick up a load and then deliver it to the receiver or consignee.
Tandems:
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".
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".
How do you make sure you have the right weight when weighing each axel seperately. ex. Steer 9,340, Drive 40,360, Total 72,603, Trailer 31,300. Weight may not match up, but just throwing a figure out there.
All of the replies are really good information. However not trying to be picky, but your total in the above example is actually 81,000 pounds. All the extraneous tandem sliding and fifth wheel moving isn't going to change the total weight. If this was real-world I'd head back to the shipper and request that they lighten the load otherwise you run the risk of getting a hefty fine if pulled onto a DOT scale.
Also one additional point, if at all possible I always like to see at least 11,000 pounds on my steers. With only 9,340 (using your example) pounds on your steers, the truck may handle light and sloppy on the front end. Better balance is required. You would need to play around with the fifth wheel setting, depending on where it is currently set, moving it several notches towards the front axle of the truck frame pushing more weight on the steers and moving it off the drives. Re-weigh until the "sweet spot" is found. It's unlikely that you will ever need to move it again. When I am heavy (75,000-79,999) my front axle load hovers around +/- 11,500 pounds. This is part science and part trial and error, but it won't take much time to get it right.
Of the three tractors I typically slip-seat in, I only moved the fifth wheel twice; once when the tractors were brand new because the fifth wheel was all the way back from the factory, and again once loaded after "first-weight" to adjust for ideal balance.
Shipper:
The customer who is shipping the freight. This is where the driver will pick up a load and then deliver it to the receiver or consignee.
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".
DOT:
Department Of Transportation
A department of the federal executive branch responsible for the national highways and for railroad and airline safety. It also manages Amtrak, the national railroad system, and the Coast Guard.
State and Federal DOT Officers are responsible for commercial vehicle enforcement. "The truck police" you could call them.
TWIC:
Transportation Worker Identification Credential
Truck drivers who regularly pick up from or deliver to the shipping ports will often be required to carry a TWIC card.
Your TWIC is a tamper-resistant biometric card which acts as both your identification in secure areas, as well as an indicator of you having passed the necessary security clearance. TWIC cards are valid for five years. The issuance of TWIC cards is overseen by the Transportation Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security.
OWI:
Operating While Intoxicated
I use an app that I learned about from this site. It's truckers axle weight. It was free and it works .
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How do you make sure you have the right weight when weighing each axel seperately. ex. Steer 9,340, Drive 40,360, Total 72,603, Trailer 31,300. Weight may not match up, but just throwing a figure out there.
OWI:
Operating While Intoxicated