Fuel Tanker Weight

We run heavy spec trucks, and they still don't weigh 25,000 lbs.
And many of us don't run around with the trailers full.
Gravel trucks, end dumps, belly dumps, tankers, logging trucks, and many more, if you look, they could easily carry more product by volume, but don't because they are at full gross weight.
Also remember that the 80,000 lb max you speak of isn't everywhere.
Take where I live for example, a 5 axle rig is rarely ever seen, we almost all have more axle, and much higher gross weights. The trucks here are regularly 142,200 lbs gross.
I pull fuel a bunch, and the only way to fill to the lids is by running overweight. So it simply isn't filled to the top. I also pull logs and belly dump, neither of which are full by volume. I have stakes above the logs, and the belly dump only looks 2/3 full. We also don't own even one trailer with just 2 axles, and we are always well over 100,000 lbs, but still can't fill them.
When hauling fuel, we also are not allowed by law to be full to the lids, so the trailer has to be bigger in physical size, than the fuel we put in it.
In the same way that you wouldn't want to fill a gravel truck box, because then it would spill all over the road.
My logging truck probably has room for 25% more wood, depending upon the species, and how wet it is, but on average lets say, it is only about 3/4 full, and yet by weight, I am fully loaded.
In much the same way as you can't fill the box of your pickup with many items, and not be over loaded.
Look at those guys running a deck trailer, with 1 or 2 little coils. Looking at it, they look odd. Why 2, when you have room 9?
Because that is all the weight they can pack.
In much the same way a tanker is not full, and while i cannot speak to laws in other places, I'll guess that they are not allowed to be right full, even if their weight was okay.
Road side inspection years ago, this guy wanted so badly to nail me for something. I have never had a single item fail on an inspection. Well i was pulling diesel that day. He actually climbed up on the truck to see if it was full. He actually cursed when it wasn't to the lids. Then he went so far as to call the refinery number on my paperwork, and ask if they thought the volume of diesel on my truck would make it overweight. The guy told him no, that sounds perfectly legal, he cursed again. I drove off, yet again nothing but a clean inspection.
If i had it filled right up, it would have been a very nasty day for me.

 

Depend on the state. For gas, we run 12500 gallons on six axles and 13300 on seven. That is all five compartments right to 90%. Diesel is less since it’s heavier.

 

Is 90% your fill volume there by law?

We are allowed by law to fill to 92% here.
I doubt that DOT could look at it and tell the difference between 92% or 93%, but technically 93% is illegal.

 

In the PNW we can run 8 axles up to 105k.

 

I run a Cascadia day cab with pump, and Heil 5 hole trailer.
I'm legal running 8800 gas, 7700 diesel, with a full 100 gallon fuel tank.
I scaled 79990 according to gdot in Dalton ga, 15 miles from the yard.
That was loaded with 8600 gas and 1000 diesel.
Our rule is 1100 gas equals 1000 diesel.
If we're routed past scales, we decrease 100 gas for safety, in case we load the diesel forward, in compartment 2, beside the big can of gas.
My compartments are 3100,1200,1100,1000,2800
My favorite load is 3000,1000,1000,1000,2800 for stability and least sloppy down the road.
Plus, it's easier to find a home for 1k that doesn't fit than a larger volume...
Always drop bigs first!

 

Best I could find in writing for up here..
https://www.house.mi.gov/hfa/PDF/Transportation/DOT_Subcmte_Testimony_TruckWeights_MI_10-3-17.pdf

since your gonna be new up here also start looking into the frost laws now..

 

I've never scaled empty, so I honestly have no idea where I'm at. They have the systems that scale in the road... no idea how it works... but, I always get tapped when loaded, and I'm usually heavy on my drives.
34.5 to 35k, generally because the stores I deliver to beyond the scale need the diesel forward to drop easy.
3k in the front tank with 1k diesel next to it makes me a bit heavy forward, but it drives easier than heavy in the back end.
Pulls Monteagle better too.
If anyone has insight why, I'd love to hear the why behind that.
I try to learn at every opportunity, and this seems like a great opportunity...
In all the times I've scaled, I've never been over 80k, but have been heavy on my drives by as much as 1500... they've never pulled me for it or ripped me either.
Boss says they generally leave us alone, even being a little heavy on one set of axles.

 

I drive a Mack daycab and with a hydraulic PTO pump and a full tank, 100 gallons it weighs in at 16680 pounds.
I haul 8000-8500 gallons of JetA in single compartment trailers and 8000-8500 gallons of AvGas in a four compartment trailer and have never been over 78K gross.