Newer driver, had a real experience at an AZ scale house recently which needless to say I have no desire to repeat. Was wondering if someone could tell me some good rules to follow concerning tandem & 5th wheel weight adjustment? Every driver I've asked at my company seems to have a different idea as to how much each hole and notch will move and in what direction. Are there any good web sites/booklets with instructions and/or formulas on this perchance -- something I could carry with me on the road?

Thanks for your time.....

The easiest rule for me, is that is you want to take weight off an axle, move it further away from the load. For example, if you are heavy on your tandems (trlr), typically just slide them back (assuming you can, of course). If you were fine on tandems, but heavy on drives, slide your tandems up (be careful, you can slide them too far and end up heavy on them). And if you are heavy on drives and steers, run your 5th wheel back. I found that on most trailers, a tandem hole was worth somewhere
between 350-500 lbs.

When I was driving a FL columbia, I ran it with the 5th wheel as far forward as it would go, except when pulling a reefer, then I ran it one or two notches back (because the extra weight of the reefer unit was already sitting on top of the drives). When I was in a volvo VNL670, I ran the 5th wheel so it was almost centered over the front drive axle, with this configuration I was almost always over on my steers (around 11800 MT, 12200 loaded with ANYTHING) but I never ran into trouble at the chicken houses, and I can't remember ever having to move the 5th wheel once I set it.

I hope all this helps, if all else fails, on the next load ( that you can spare a little time) it might be worth it to experiment a little at the CAT scale. Notice I said a little, because too much can get pricey!
Good luck and keep it dirty side down.

Thanks Wallbanger.... I do run a reefer unit and it seemed like finding the right combination of tandem/5th wheel adjustment that day was harder than Chinese arithmetic. Finally made it through on my 6th try, but had to top off the tanks about three hours down the road again to make it to the next fuel stop (Dallas, over 1000 miles out). After I fueled, I used the CAT twice to make adjustments again, running at 33960 on the tandems, 34320 on the drives and 11880 on the steers -- but figuring I could burn off enough weight in the middle to make it through the next one. It worked for the rest of my cross country run, but playing guessing games with a bent hand crank landing gear and a stubborn tandem release pin in the Arizona desert on a hot afternoon is not my idea of entertainment.

Much obliged for your experienced words....

by my calculations it would appear that the load you were questioning was too heavy. Based on the numbers you gave for the axle weights, your total gross wt is 80,160. Now, I would've done the same thing you did, but that load was a bit too heavy. Either that, or you've got way too much stuff in ur truck.

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Keep that diesel burnin' and those tires turnin', but get there safe to keep on earnin'!!

Load was extremely heavy, 24 pallets of tomatillo peppers -- numbers given were with a topped off tank. Travel relatively light from what I've seen -- no fridge, microwave, tv, etc., but seriously considered asking my 340 lb. teammate to hop out so I could pick him up on the other side.

There is a real good PC Program, called TRUCKLOADBALANCE that helps resolve all these questions, and when configured properly, it will show axle weights (from the steer to the last trailer axle) with-in 15 to 20 lbs (IF you have a lap top or PC you carry with you in the truck). It will also tell you exact placement of the 5th Wheel and each "hole" on the trailer and even how much fuel you can "put on" and still be legal weight.

I have used it in the past and found it extremely accurate. I don't carry any heavy loads anymore so I havent used it for awhile.
The program was made by the Creator of 'DriversDailyLog' and is FREE.

[LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This Truck Forum Link.

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Oh thank you thank you thank you Roadkill. Very cool..... Just knew someone had this down to a science.

Your welcome.
A little about Nick "Fritz" Bjorkland, the creator of TruckLoadBalance and DriversDailyLog.
He is a software engineer with a whole sheep-skin of College Degrees and experience in Design, and worked for a major Software Company for years. He decided to retire to get away from the "Rat-Race" in Software Design and try truck driving.
He went to school, and went to work for a Company in Pennsylvania. Several weeks later, he shattered his heel getting out of the truck and while he was recouping, he designed DriversDailyLog and published it as a FREE Program.
He constantly updated his program and added new features. I found that program online about 1995 shortly after the release of DDL v0.4
I was basically one of the first, and I am possibly the longest continuous user of DriversDailyLog.
I would like to think that it was because of my urging, that Nick finally began charging for this program. I mean, the guy had built this program and offered updates and fixes for FREE for several years. While similar programs were selling for about $100, even though their programs were difficult to use, "looked" ugly and didn't have 1/3 the features that DDL had.

Because of that, and the relationship I have developed with Nick over the years, I have a Life-Time License for DDL.

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Should be more tools like this available for the trucking industry. My company offers no orientation, only a couple weeks of training with a "veteran" driver (note I did not say "qualified" or "certified"), and then you can rarely get a "hello" from anyone there much less an answer to a straight question. Maybe there's just so much turnover there they no longer care or something.... But anyway, after my 1st four weeks I ran into a guy from my CD Mill who only had 2 weeks, told dispatch I had a partner and needed a truck & a load, and at that point became a "Lead Driver" -- and we've been learning together ever since. So far so good, been gathering accolades from our produce brokers and beating veteran crews in regularly, but there's still questions only experience can answer.

Please tell Nick I think he's a Saint and to keep up the good work, he's made a believer out of me.

Sure Trailboss, glad I could help. I was thinking the same thing as Scarecrow, by your axle weights you were over gross. Best you can do with a load like that, is either get it reworked, or, if your co. and/or the broker is unwilling, get 'em to tell you so on the qualcomm. If that still fails, run on a half tank (or less) at all times. And I know how much wrenching (or beating) on a trailer can be, The last load of trash I pulled out of Joisey was in a box wiht stuck pins, I had to fix the release lever (new nuts and bolts) and then use some PB Blaster (invaluable, IMHO) and a BF hammer.Which did the trick, although it was around 90-95 out that day. (and of course that heat makes the MSW-trash- sweat and stink, woo hoo!)
I had a load of carpet (in a reefer) from Tunnel hill GA to Sacra-tucky CA, with tanks half full we were still 250 over gross! That made life really interesting, thankfully no one got ticketed or hurt!

And roadkill, thanks for the website info, I will have to check it out.