weight limits

[mowerman]

ok so im not feeling good enough to go work outside,,,,which sucks big balls because today is absolutely perfect weather,and like most of us,,,these perfect days will be going away soon,,,,,anyway,,,while back we were discussing weight limits on twin axle trucks and bridge laws and 34000 limit.... i have been wondering for years alot of us,,,including myself are running shorter twin drives,,,,,well just what are you allowed on the drivers,,if its not setup for bridge law,,,anyone know?????

[mechohaulic]

does anyone even go by axle weight any more.?? now that you brought it up, thinking about it most go by GVW .  haven't seen the portable scale trucks much lately. possibly enough money is made with other paper work being wrong .  yrs back CT was making money with the axle weight gimmick.  

[RowdyRebel]

You're allowed 34k on a set of tandems, and 20k on a single axle (including the steers IF the tires/rims/springs/axles/shackles/etc are rated for it). Your weight might be limited by your overall length...the bridge between the steer and drives...but that doesn't affect what the individual axles can carry.

 

For example, the feed truck I drive has a 20k steer & 46k drives on camelbacks. There's a tag axle behind the drives, but it's only far enough back to allow 43k on the drives with it lowered. If there was a little more distance between the front drive and the tag, it'd be 45k. With the allowable axle weights of 20k steer and 43k drives, I can run 63k without getting an overweight axle ticket...but because of the overall bridge between the steer and tag, I'm only allowed 61.5k before I'm over on gross weight.

If you're a T/T, there's a nice little exception that allows 34/34 on the drives & trailer tandems for an 80k gross weight despite being a little short...allowing for 39 & 40 foot trailers to gross 80k. What a lot of folks don't realize is that those same 40' trailers that have a spread axle can only legally gross 78k because they don't have a pair of tandem axles as required for the exception. They have 1 tandem on the truck, and a pair of single axles on the trailer...so while they can legally put 40k on the trailer axles instead of the 34k allowed with a tandem, that means their drives are limited because they only have the distance to haul 66k on those 4 axles (drives & trailer) instead of 68k through the use of the exception.

The feds have a nice little chart, and a pretty thorough explanation:

https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/freight/publications/brdg_frm_wghts/

[RowdyRebel]

6 minutes ago, mechohaulic said:

does anyone even go by axle weight any more.?? now that you brought it up, thinking about it most go by GVW .  haven't seen the portable scale trucks much lately. possibly enough money is made with other paper work being wrong .  yrs back CT was making money with the axle weight gimmick.  

Illinois still uses the portables. Got pulled over & weighed last year on 'em.

[MACKS]

I’m in NY and have a down state grandfathered permit for 79000 on four axle but I still can’t exceed axle or tire/rim ratings or gvw weight ratings..

[MACKS]

I should add that I was informed this certificate is worth 20 large..🤷‍♂️😳

[tjc transport]

yup, nu yawk bridge nazis make their own rules too. 

just because truck manufacturer says it is good for 81,000 dont mean squat. the bridge nazis say you are only  allowed 53,000 because if the pusher axle in not at least 10 foot from steering axle it is not considered as a legal axle. 

[The Rubber Duck 006]

Alot of guys don't realize to is yeah you can legally haul 40,000lbs on a 10ft spread but you better not be over 20,000lbs on each axle. 

[JoeH]

In pa, bridge law applied unless you register for 73,280.  I had a tractor with a short trailer, by bridge law I figured I was legal for about 63k despite axle ratings good for 80k. With 5 axles, steer, drive tandem, trailer tandem, I was not allowed to carry as much weight as a triaxle is allowed with only 4 axles and a shorter wheelbase? Really?  Loaded I was 75k, all the tanker trailer could hold. If I had ever gotten pulled over and called out on it (I was pa only on that rig) I would have taken it to court and asked the judge to get an engineer to explain to me my above math.

[mowerman]

 I’m also starting to wonder if some states are just bypassing the axles and going by overall weight , Utah port of entry Is the only one I know about I passed my meet driver off A trailer while back the front box was overweight  2000 pounds for a single axle, he took it over Bonneville scale and went right through funny part is he really didn’t even give it a thought I told him it was too heavy just to let you know.? Great answer fellas. Thanks for that. Bob

[mowerman]

But they tell me they inspection station is a real pain in the ass these days leaning on us for everything I don’t know what’s up with that

for those of you that don’t know anything about it it’s just a chickenshit little one bay inspection facility

[RowdyRebel]

The last time I crossed a permanent scale, it closed as I entered. They saw my old Mack coming and started licking their chops. Pulled me into the inspection bay. Would've been a clean inspection, if not for the air line that blew 30 seconds after I applied the brakes so they could measure the stroke. Got wrote up for it despite never having been on the road with an audible leak, and the officer told me they usually get several pages of violations from these old Macks, and that he was impressed with how well I kept up with my truck maintenance.

Ever since then, I just go around them. I seldom crossed them before...only if I was crunched for time...but if I've got a target on my back, it takes less time to go around than it does to deal with their BS. I don't care if I'm in a brand new truck and haven't put 10 miles on it since it had its annual inspection, I'm going around the damn scale. If they want me, they can come find me...at least then they had to work for it. I just don't see the point in rolling up to where I know they are, bending over & grabbing my ankles, and hoping they go easy on me. Nope. If you want me, you gotta come find me.

 

[tjc transport]

here in jersey the scale on 287 north in piscataway is usually open during the day.  A LOT of trucks go around it. 

especially the ones that should not be on the road. so the troopers took over a closed down business along the road the trucks were using to avoid the scale when the sign said scale open. 

and besides getting a full white glove inspection, they also got tickets for avoiding the scale. 

i got off the exit before the scale once around 10-11 years ago with sign lit up and turned left instead right like most did. 

a trooper saw me and flipped around and came after me. just as he caught up to me i pulled into a company. he followed me and demanded i go to the scale and said i was getting a ticket for bypassing the scale. 

i told him to go inside the company and tell the owner i would not be getting loaded as he was forcing me to leave and go to the scale. that did not make him happy, but he realized i had him.

15 minutes later i was pulling over the scale loaded. he say me and came out apologizing, and also to tell me i was 0nly 71,000 lbs when i was registered for80. 

i than explained to him i was paid by the hour and not by the ton or load, and i kept my truck clean and maintained and NEVER went around scales or inspection stations. 

i have full maintenance records in the trucks, and also the inspection records from the few times i was inspected by troopers where nothing was found wrong.  

most of the troopers know our trucks and company, and just wave up past now. 

 

 

 

[RowdyRebel]

See, that's where they get you. They used to sit at the exit before and the exit after and be on the radio with each other. If a truck got off at one & on again at the next too quickly, they'd be harrassed for going around the scale. There was also a fuel stop in between that the smart drivers would pull into, and either grab a bite to eat or top off their fuel...SOMETHING to have receipts showing they stopped for a legitimate reason. The smarter drivers were already off the interstate and stayed off another exit or two. I prefer to run the 2-lanes over the interstate, and so I just don't have to worry about many scales. If I do have to make a longer trip, I plan my route to keep away from any scales. They can't get you for dodging something that just isn't along your route.

[GA_Dave]

All I know is that whenever I take the wife with me, I have to display the "WIDE LOAD" banners front and rear...........

[mowerman]

Ha ha well I don’t quite know how to answer that one but yes, some of the scales could be a real pain in the ass. What surprises  me were pulling triple trailers through their scale I don’t know why they wanna deal with all that.6 pieces we have a check station just out of Reno that is open a lot, but they don’t like to mess with us on kind of the same reason there’s too many pieces easier to do a long box

[Brocky]

11 hours ago, GA_Dave said:

All I know is that whenever I take the wife with me, I have to display the "WIDE LOAD" banners front and rear...........

I have to do the same!!!!!!

[RowdyRebel]

I'm so used to going around scales, I was driving down the interstate in the Suburban with the family on board and hit the exit ramp. My wife says "where are you going?"

 

Yeah, there was a scale ahead. Old habits die hard.🤦‍♂️

[MACKS]

21 hours ago, RowdyRebel said:

See, that's where they get you. They used to sit at the exit before and the exit after and be on the radio with each other. If a truck got off at one & on again at the next too quickly, they'd be harrassed for going around the scale. There was also a fuel stop in between that the smart drivers would pull into, and either grab a bite to eat or top off their fuel...SOMETHING to have receipts showing they stopped for a legitimate reason. The smarter drivers were already off the interstate and stayed off another exit or two. I prefer to run the 2-lanes over the interstate, and so I just don't have to worry about many scales. If I do have to make a longer trip, I plan my route to keep away from any scales. They can't get you for dodging something that just isn't along your route.

As long as your not driving on no trucking roads I don’t see how they can harass you,it’s still mostly a free country to drive where u want..🤷‍♂️😡

 

[tjc transport]

the new driver got spot checked at the southern inspection station this morning.

the only thing the found was a slight flat spot on 2 of the 4 trailer lift axle tires, and his medical card expired last week. 

when he pulled onto the job with the written report and no tickets, i called and ordered 4 tires to be delivered to the job and installed. 

[RowdyRebel]

1 hour ago, MACKS said:

As long as your not driving on no trucking roads I don’t see how they can harass you,it’s still mostly a free country to drive where u want..🤷‍♂️😡

 

Years ago, I had my truck leased to an outfit that pulled pneumatic tanks. We'd sometimes load at a cement plant on a US highway just north of the last exit before the scale over on the interstate that runs parallel to the US highway. Our terminal was 2 exits south of the scale. The state allows 22k on a single axle and 36k on a tandem, as long as you're within the 80k gross...and as long as you're NOT on the interstate. The cement plant loads on a platform scale, so you know you're OK on gross weight, but your axles might be a little off. We'd usually run down to the yard where we could pull across the scale to check axle weights if wed had to go any distance. Anyway, I was talking to a company driver one day and he'd been pulled over on the US highway on his way back to the yard to park the truck & go home. DOT asked for his swindle sheets and like a dumbass, he handed them over. (I always tell them I don't have one, that I'm a local driver and not required to have one). His just happened to show him being over hours, thanks to a delay in getting loaded. So here it is Friday evening and he's told to turn around, head back north, get on the interstate, and proceed to the scale to be weighed and shut down for the night. Of course his axles weren't right for the interstate, where he wouldn't have been if not explicitely directed that way by the 1st officer. All because he failed to claim he was a local driver operating under the exemption that allows local drivers to not have to keep a log book.

I don't care if my log book is 2 days behind and in my door pocket, if I'm within the mileage range of my house or a terminal, I've always claimed the exemption. Only when I'm outside of the allowed radius do I ever produce a log book. They can't cite you for not having something you're not required to have...but if you hand it over, they can go through it with a fine tooth comb and cite you for any infractions they think they find on however many days logs you hand them. It's why I always did loose leaf logs. IF I had to hand over my log book, they got today & the 7 previous days. If they wanted to see any farther back than that, they'd have to go get them from the company. I miss those days...all this ELD crap just takes the fun out of it. At least what I'm doing these days I'm exempt...both as a local driver and hauling perishable ag products to farms. Company has ELDs in all of the trucks, but 90% of the time we don't even bother signing into the stupid things. They operate OTR trucks, too, as well as some retail stores making local deliveries...different divisions, but all operating under the same usdot#...so they just make blanket policies that are tailored to the OTR fleet, but ridiculous and unworkable for the retail & ag divisions. Is what it is. Just because they put that crap in the trucks doesn't mean we have to use it.😂

 

[mechohaulic]

another advantage of the senior yrs (i guess) and retired. never had the brain power to run two logs(paper days), using a day cab and having the NJ run; would run 12=14 hrs straight through with the goal of getting through NY before traffic. had to show a motel layer over since I didn't want long wheel base sleeper. never stayed in a motel once except on paper. got the unit home on a friday 1=2 am ; spend Saturday redoing the book. had to take another book open staples to add more charts once. oh the fun times.

[mechohaulic]

12 hours ago, Brocky said:

I have to do the same!!!!!!

now you boys be nice;; got me laughing so much I'm coughing ; wife wants to know what's wrong. I said nothing BMT is writing about you. !!!🤣

[RowdyRebel]

5 hours ago, mechohaulic said:

another advantage of the senior yrs (i guess) and retired. never had the brain power to run two logs(paper days), using a day cab and having the NJ run; would run 12=14 hrs straight through with the goal of getting through NY before traffic. had to show a motel layer over since I didn't want long wheel base sleeper. never stayed in a motel once except on paper. got the unit home on a friday 1=2 am ; spend Saturday redoing the book. had to take another book open staples to add more charts once. oh the fun times.

One of my favorites, I stopped off at the Houston yard to drop a load & grab an empty before booking it on down to Laredo. Got back to Houston where my truck took a break while I scrapped the trip to Laredo & continued on my way home. The truck caught back up to me the next day, and I made sure the logs matched what the company needed to see before sending them in. I only ever kept 1 book, and made sure whenever I was driving, it showed me legal. Slipped up one time, and wouldn't you know, that's the time I got busted. Hotel where I'd usually stay was booked up, so I slept under a tree in a field. Woke up, played with ol' Dozer for a bit, and was getting bored waiting for that ridiculously long 10 hour break to expire. I left after 8, which was all that was required when I started driving, and was only 5 hours from home. Turns out, I was 15 hours from home. Cop caught me about 30 minutes into the trip. So, I got a motel room and watched TV for 10 hours getting good & tired before rolling home in the evening when I'd be fighting heavy eyes the whole way home because obviously that was a lot safer than just letting me continue on my way home in the morning when I was fresh and alert after having slept all I was going to sleep that day.

[tjc transport]

i never go more than 100 miles from home base so do not need to run a log. 

the new truck came with an elog built into it. i told them to disable it as i do not need it. dealer refused. so i deleted it from the computer when i got it home.