Balance Weight In Trailer

Well it's been almost 2 years since I became an OTR driver, everyday I still try to learn something that will make me more productive and safe, so question for all of you old timers, how important is it to have a well balance trailer, for the miles per gallon, to wear and tear on tires, to also include the effects of braking during winter, thanks please even if your new to the industry and know facts or experience share so we may learn or informed ourselves, I have been thinking about this subject as I see tandems placement on trailers as I roll down the roads, thanks.

I always felt it was very important for all of those reasons, but mostly because of safe braking. You really want a pretty even amount of weight on all axles so that no one set of axles is so light that it wants to lock up the wheels under braking.

If you can get your drive tandem and trailer tandem within about 2,000 pounds of each other you'll be fine. If one is going to be a little heavier than the other, I would prefer the drive tandem to be a little heavier than the trailer tandem for two reasons:

1) You want to make sure you're heavy enough on the drive tandem to get good traction under acceleration

2) If one of those tandem sets does break loose under braking, you'd want it to be your trailer tandem. A trailer jackknife, caused by your trailer tandem locking up, is relatively easy to notice and correct and it happens rather slowly. A tractor jackknife, where the tractor spins around because your drive tandem locked up, happens almost instantaneously and there's almost no chance of coming out of it once it starts. You're also in total control of the vehicle during a trailer jackknife, but you'll have no control of the vehicle after a tractor jackknife.

So locking up your drive tandem under braking is infinitely more dangerous than locking up your trailer tandem.

The tire wear and fuel mileage thing will come into play a little, also. So it's helpful to have good balance for those reasons too. But for me, safety under braking and traction under acceleration were the big reasons to have a good balance.

Also, you absolutely want to make sure you have as close to 12,000 on the steers as possible once you're above roughly 72,000 pounds. Most trucks are set up this way already. Losing traction on your steer axle during steering or braking can also be catastrophic, of course. So you want to make sure that your 5th wheel is as far forward as you can have it and still remain at about 12,000 pounds when loaded real heavy.

Thanks Brett, like always your money bro.

I always felt it was very important for all of those reasons, but mostly because of safe braking. You really want a pretty even amount of weight on all axles so that no one set of axles is so light that it wants to lock up the wheels under braking.

If you can get your drive tandem and trailer tandem within about 2,000 pounds of each other you'll be fine. If one is going to be a little heavier than the other, I would prefer the drive tandem to be a little heavier than the trailer tandem for two reasons:

1) You want to make sure you're heavy enough on the drive tandem to get good traction under acceleration

2) If one of those tandem sets does break loose under braking, you'd want it to be your trailer tandem. A trailer jackknife, caused by your trailer tandem locking up, is relatively easy to notice and correct and it happens rather slowly. A tractor jackknife, where the tractor spins around because your drive tandem locked up, happens almost instantaneously and there's almost no chance of coming out of it once it starts. You're also in total control of the vehicle during a trailer jackknife, but you'll have no control of the vehicle after a tractor jackknife.

So locking up your drive tandem under braking is infinitely more dangerous than locking up your trailer tandem.

The tire wear and fuel mileage thing will come into play a little, also. So it's helpful to have good balance for those reasons too. But for me, safety under braking and traction under acceleration were the big reasons to have a good balance.

Also, you absolutely want to make sure you have as close to 12,000 on the steers as possible once you're above roughly 72,000 pounds. Most trucks are set up this way already. Losing traction on your steer axle during steering or braking can also be catastrophic, of course. So you want to make sure that your 5th wheel is as far forward as you can have it and still remain at about 12,000 pounds when loaded real heavy.