Rookies, What Would You Do?

I hadn't had a chance to say anything as I've been rolling hard this past few days. I would have rolled with it at 13th hole. As stated no one would bat an eye at 3" unlesa they decide to pull you in for a full inspection..

I do a lot of mid west running. IA, IL, IN, WI, MO, MI... Most of the time my loads (like now) are 43k lbs. Generally I run 3/4 to 1/2 of fuel as my tanks sit more on my steers, I have my fifth slid as far back as I can to accommodate the extra bit of fuel. And that seams to be the perfect spot for heavy loads. I also run my trlr around the 5/6 hole.

Here's something to remember though, and I believe its in the weights chapter, every trailer is different. Some will be 200lbs per hole, others 233 or 250. All GTI trailers seam to be 240ish where as Heartland Express is 233 per hole.

Just something to keep in mind.

GJ Daniel with this teaser. Was a good read.

I had to roll one time 140lbs over on the trailer. There was no adjusting this load. One scale to pass and that had not been open in 2 years and the next scale I could see one block ahead as I turned off the highway and drove 15 miles down a dirt road to drop the load.

I don't wanna steal Daniels thread, bit since its here, I want to share with you all this load...

As you can see I'm at 11580, 35280 32720.... I'm 1280 over on Drives, now if I could shift that to my trlr, I'd be exactly at 34000 there, but the possibility of doing that, is slim as each hole on my trailer moves 233lbs give or take 5-10 lbs.. This is one of those instances where I'll probably head to shipper in the AM and have them remove about 1500lbs.

Just wanted to show you guys the other side of Daniels scaling...

I don't wanna steal Daniels thread, bit since its here, I want to share with you all this load...

As you can see I'm at 11580, 35280 32720.... I'm 1280 over on Drives, now if I could shift that to my trlr, I'd be exactly at 34000 there, but the possibility of doing that, is slim as each hole on my trailer moves 233lbs give or take 5-10 lbs.. This is one of those instances where I'll probably head to shipper in the AM and have them remove about 1500lbs.

Just wanted to show you guys the other side of Daniels scaling...

David, it is possible to get legal just by sliding your tandems forward five holes. It could set both your drives and tandems below 34,000 while Adding weight to your steers.

I know that the common knowledge is that moving your tandems does not affect your steers, but try to picture this. By moving the center of gravity(tandems) closer to the middle of the trailer, you will be lifting up the center(making it lighter) while lowering(making it heavier) both ends of the truck. Meaning that your steers will get heavier while slightly making the drives get lighter.

Of course the change is only slight but it might just be enough to make you legal with some leeway between your drives and tandems.

And for all those of you that are sticking up for DOT , resist the temptation to fall in to the trap of Stockholm Syndrome!

Update.

Will post another one in a few days. This next one should fool most of you and is truly a brain twister. No illegal/legal game with my next puzzler.

Update.

Will post another one in a few days. This next one should fool most of you and is truly a brain twister. No illegal/legal game with my next puzzler.

I'm still mind blown that my, totally intended to be over the top, solution was somewhat viable.

Update.

Will post another one in a few days. This next one should fool most of you and is truly a brain twister. No illegal/legal game with my next puzzler.

I'm still mind blown that my, totally intended to be over the top, solution was somewhat viable.

No, you were thinking like a real trucker. Brilliant man.

Looking for a trainer? ;)

I don't wanna steal Daniels thread, bit since its here, I want to share with you all this load...

As you can see I'm at 11580, 35280 32720.... I'm 1280 over on Drives, now if I could shift that to my trlr, I'd be exactly at 34000 there, but the possibility of doing that, is slim as each hole on my trailer moves 233lbs give or take 5-10 lbs.. This is one of those instances where I'll probably head to shipper in the AM and have them remove about 1500lbs.

Just wanted to show you guys the other side of Daniels scaling...

David, it is possible to get legal just by sliding your tandems forward five holes. It could set both your drives and tandems below 34,000 while Adding weight to your steers.

I know that the common knowledge is that moving your tandems does not affect your steers, but try to picture this. By moving the center of gravity(tandems) closer to the middle of the trailer, you will be lifting up the center(making it lighter) while lowering(making it heavier) both ends of the truck. Meaning that your steers will get heavier while slightly making the drives get lighter.

Of course the change is only slight but it might just be enough to make you legal with some leeway between your drives and tandems.

And for all those of you that are sticking up for DOT , resist the temptation to fall in to the trap of Stockholm Syndrome!

Well I needed up adjusting the best I could and was stuck with 80lbs over either way I went.. So I went back to shipper to have some weight removed as I needed to add fuel.

Now here's something I just found out, I have an APU which adds 450lbs, I have a "waiver" if you will that grants me a total gross of 80450 or 34450 on drives because of the apu, had I known this yesterday/ this morning , I could have rolled it if I moved most of the weight to.my tandems. And I still would have had room for fuel.

Learn something new each day. So for anyone with an APU, check with your company and see if you have the same "waiver" I have. Will save you time...

And Daniel explained this next teaser, looking forward to the responses that come from it.

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".

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.

HOS:

Hours Of Service

HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

I will chime and and will agree with Bret and a few others. Side it back one hole and roll with it. Remember the weight is on the tandems. There is no fuel back there to burn.

I posted a few days ago and said that Daniel had given the answer in his opening statement and its still the correct answer. Sometime you will have to bend the rules. There is to much grey area in the regs not to have to bend the rules every once in a while.

Some will say But your supposed to help new drivers out and not tell them to run illegal......To this I say no. Your school and trainer show you how to run safe and legal and how to do you job. We give our advice freely after many many years of experience. We will not tell someone to go out there and kill someone or its ok to speed. In this topic we are simply telling you the truth of how it really is out here in the real world. Sometimes it a case like this that its super close and don't have much choice in the matter. Well that's trucking.

Trucking is not the hand holding type of job most people came from. You actually have to grow up and make some adult decisions. Sometimes those choices put you in a no win situation but its your butt on the line and you have to pick the better of two bad choices.

Hummm, I had an epu on my truck at my last company. They told us we had a 400 lb waiver for the drives, not the gross. Maybe thats a good one to research. Are there different wsivers? Are different companies implementing them differently??? Interesting