I hear about a bunch of guys that wind up being overweight on the trailer wheels. The people that load you will look at the trailer and mistake it for a 48 ft. If you load a 53 the same way you do a 48, then you will be heavy.

What if you have a 53 ft 2 axle RGN and are picking up an overweight permitted load? No spread. With a permit, you will be allowed 20k per axle and 13.3(or is it 13.5???) on the steer. Find the center of the trailer and the center of the load I like to put the center of the load 1 ft back of the center of the trailer.

I step it off. From kingpin to center of trailer axles, x marks the spot. Good enough for government work.

As far the load goes, no matter what the shape, no matter how off-balanced it is, the crane's hoist will ALWAYS be right above the center of gravity. I like a little weight on my drives, especially in cold weather(thats why I put it at 1 ft), but you dont want to go past 2 feet back of center. You should be legal on your axles.

Aww man i gotta walk it off? I was spoiled, the company i drove for had a mark at center and i'd go one foot forward for the same reason you describe (weight on the drives, even in the summer its a smoother ride and sometimes better fuel mileage)

I guess i was spoiled! >.< Ofcourse i was always pulling a 48.. Pulled a few 53', diddn't really like them.. Watched lots of guys forget about the tail-whip factor.

This is the answer to one of the questions on the test for Class 2.

I loaded a 49.000 pound crate in LA. It was 11 feet long. We had to close up the axles on the stepdeck so we had to re-measure the center. Ended up about 1 foot forward of where it would have been spread open.

I ended up legal on the trailer, and 36,000 on the drives.

Had we loaded it at dead center, I'd have been legal all around. Closing up that spread can goof you up.

Also, I think I and another driver got bad info on the driver tech, as the wieghts on the pieces were switched, but all the other numbers matched.

Naturally, there is no scale near the Port of LA...