Axle Weights And Tandem Limits

Well, yeah, I am paranoid, but it's not like what I'm suggesting is unheard of. And I post it here but I don't say anything about it to anyone else. I do think I was being strung along about it possibly being reworked again so that they wouldn't have to just tell me I'm sitting for a day and a half.

To answer some of the above, I'm pretty sure it's not air ride. It is bottled water and they already reworked it once and I went directly back to the scale. The total is 79660 but the tandems are over by 580. If I had it to do over I would probably slide the tandems back a few more holes,, it would scale legal and probably no one's going to notice, I did it before when I didn't realize that I shouldn't go beyond hole 14.

Anyway, thanks for the responses. Maybe I've just been spoiled because this is the first time anything like this has happened.

Oh, also forgot to mention, I was told yesterday they refused to rework it again so I should drop the load at the shipper. So I did, turned in the paperwork and left, so I don't consider it a load I'm stuck with at this point.

I also picked up a pre-loaded trailer of pipe one time that had three stops on it. Due to the order of the stops the load couldn't be re-worked to make it any better. It ended up being over on the trailer tandems by about 280 pounds. I rolled that load over eight scale houses, each of them decided it was insignificant enough to not bother me about it. Does that mean that you will get a pass like I did? Absolutely not, but I took the chance knowing that it was a very small amount of overage. The load had a lot of miles on it, and I made the decision to roll with it - I was willing to accept the consequences so that I could keep moving. Decisions always involve consequences or compromises of some sort. You will get better at knowing how to handle situations like this as you gain experience, but there is always the chance that what you decide is going to backfire on you. Being stuck somewhere like you are without getting compensated really sucks, getting a ticket for being overweight sucks too. You will get better as you gain experience at knowing how to handle a situation like this.

How do the fines for being overweight work? I guess they vary State-to-State... but, in general, are we talking a lot of money in fines for being a couple of hundred pounds overweight on your tandems... while not exceeding weight overall?

There are extreme variations in how they are calculated. What may cost fifty bucks in Louisiana could possibly run 750 dollars in Virginia. Usually the overweight ticket is issued to the company, not the driver. You sure don't want to be the guy that's getting the company a bunch of violations.

There are extreme variations in how they are calculated. What may cost fifty bucks in Louisiana could possibly run 750 dollars in Virginia. Usually the overweight ticket is issued to the company, not the driver. You sure don't want to be the guy that's getting the company a bunch of violations.

Yep... duly noted.

CHP scale Facilities as policy will give you 200 lbs off your weight, due to possible scale error. But, they are certified every year just so you know. Most Officers don't write citations for weights under 500 lbs. But, I said "Most". Goodluck out there.

How many pallets of water is on your trailer? I haul water constantly and have never been heavy on the tandems in the 11 hole let alone 14. With 22 pallets of water in the 6 hole my drives are usually around 33,600-33,800, tandems 33,300-33,500. 22 pallets is at the 44' mark for the trailer.

How many pallets of water is on your trailer? I haul water constantly and have never been heavy on the tandems in the 11 hole let alone 14. With 22 pallets of water in the 6 hole my drives are usually around 33,600-33,800, tandems 33,300-33,500. 22 pallets is at the 44' mark for the trailer.

Unfortunately I don't know how many pallets or how far back it was loaded. I normally do 2 of these loads a week, pick them up pre-loaded, and before I seal the doors I look inside to make sure there are no stowaways or trapped cats, and also to see which product it is and how far back it's loaded. This time I remember noticing that it was 1 gallon jugs (at the back at least) but they were loaded farther back than 1 gals jugs usually are. After the first rework the shipper insisted that it couldn't be illegal because nothing was farther back than 45 feet. I have no idea if that was true or not, Maybe there was something wrong with the trailer or the scale (it was a cat scale at the nearby truck stop).

Anyway, I'm officially done with that load now, but half my week is gone. Call me paranoid if you like but I still think it's likely they made me sit on purpose, so I'd think twice about it next time. Like Old School said, maybe they consider it a rookie mistake, and of course they can't tell me to go ahead and drive illegal, nor could they tell me if they were punishing me for not doing it.