Heaviest Weight You've Hauled?
Topic 22813 | Page 3
79990. Tandems near the way back. 3/8 tractor fuel, 1/2 reefer tank.
Meat load, unsurprisingly.
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".
Reefer:
A refrigerated trailer.
Robert, I've been waiting on you to pop in here. That's a nice coil load there. I always enjoyed hauling coils before I got into this dedicated flat bed work.
Those are pretty much our normal loads, tipping the scales right around 120k but it's not the heaviest load I've hauled. Those happened while I was still in the military hauling equipment. If I could go back to hauling nothing but equipment, I probably would and have a good friend who can get me on where he works but for now, I'm pretty happy.
HOS:
Hours Of Service
HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.
I had a beer load that was over 80 when I scaled so returned to have a pallet removed and then I scaled at 79,820 if I remember correctly. That was in a reefer , likely a dry van could have scaled the original load legally.
My last load was water....and grossed 78,000 in a dry van.
I've frequently had loads in the 77-78,000 range.
My favorite, if I could choose the weight, is to gross 65-70. Easier to drive, better fuel economy, yet heavy enough for wind or other bad weather.
This is probably more of a topic for us noob's, but you trucking veterans are free to chime in when you get done chuckling (or scratching your head.)
So, my current load is the heaviest I've done (or probably will do for awhile.)
Coming in at 76,680 with about 200 gallons of fuel on board...
Dry Van:
A trailer or truck that that requires no special attention, such as refrigeration, that hauls regular palletted, boxed, or floor-loaded freight. The most common type of trailer in trucking.Reefer:
A refrigerated trailer.
OOS:
When a violation by either a driver or company is confirmed, an out-of-service order removes either the driver or the vehicle from the roadway until the violation is corrected.
...yet heavy enough for wind or other bad weather.
Now there's something I hadn't considered before. Rolling across Kansas on 54 with maybe 20,000 pounds was an interesting day! Probably would have been a bit different in the weight range of 70-80k.
Yep, light trailers in high winds are no fun at all
if you do have to travel when windy with a light trailer, slide your tandems back as far as you can. if it still won't be reasonably stable, you might have to stop and wait for the winds to calm. of course in Wyoming, etc. they may take forever or longer to calm....
...yet heavy enough for wind or other bad weather.
Now there's something I hadn't considered before. Rolling across Kansas on 54 with maybe 20,000 pounds was an interesting day! Probably would have been a bit different in the weight range of 70-80k.
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".
if you do have to travel when windy with a light trailer, slide your tandems back as far as you can....
Something else I never heard before!
I'm telling ya, you veteran truckers are a freakin gold mine of info! 😀
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 should have also said AND SLOW DOWN!
Many times, the wind is such that a light travel might flip over at 65mph with the tandems forward, yet can safely cross at 45mph with the tandems way back. I just switched my driving area to the midwest, mid-atlantic, and southeast for the most part. But I formerly was a coast to coast reefer driver and dealt with that awful Wyoming etc. wind many times. Usually, I had plenty of weight to help the situation. But there were times I was empty or nearly so and I put the tandems all the way back, put my flashers on, and went through the wind at 45mph. Sometimes it's either that or stop and weight a few months for the wind to die down...
if you do have to travel when windy with a light trailer, slide your tandems back as far as you can....
Something else I never heard before!
I'm telling ya, you veteran truckers are a freakin gold mine of info! 😀
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".
Reefer:
A refrigerated trailer.
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I grossed 90k a few times (sometimes a little over ) for my one season pulling beans during harvest. In Iowa you can run 10k over on 5 axles during the fall months but the DOT watches you like a hawk.
Trailer bag blowouts are a cost of doing business.
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.