How come NO ONE talks about the importance of weight scales?

Cat scales, hum what i did was when i did stop at the cat, i pickup there little book , most times its right there at the TA fuel island desk ,and if you have a lap -top, and get on net, you can pretty much find em, most times when i loaded i tell them this the way i wanted it loaded, toward the last , i was hauling paper rolls that stand up, he tryed too get 15 in the trl, whip out my brain on him, my calucter and told him too take the last three rolls off, we went around and around , he called my boss and i won out, sometimes you just have too put your foot down, heres a easy tip i lern myself on scaling your truck out, think of your truck as that old time scale , you see in the doctors off, with those little disk on each side and the swinging arm in the middel, your tractor is on one disk, and your trl is on the other disk, now you have too balance it out, your fuel tank is your ballest, how much fuel you have , plus whatever stuff in truck, all adds weight, so if you have a heavy load , i always went with half tanks or tad under, this not your car no more and just pull in a fill up, nope this a truck and fuel too load , is what i did, now i wont get into sliding the fith wheel, o boy thats alot of fun too, but he better getting used too sliding trl tandems for now.

 

Maybe they should make you test in a close to gross vehicle and show the tester you know how to adjust your weight...If nothing more, they should give you a verbal question "your axles weigh as follows from front to back, 10,700, 34,600, 32,200, which way would you move your tandems to correct this?"

 

Unfortunately, once you get "popped", it's on you.

I use a GPS and the Cat Scale pocket guide you can get for free at truck stops. I use them to help me locate cat scales in unfamiliar territory.

I also ask at a shipper if they don't have a scale where the nearest scale is.

You'd be surprised there are some certified scales that aren't CAT scale that will help prevent you from getting fined.

Good luck out there.

 

It depends on how long the haul is . If you can make it with your tanks half full , fine but why make an extra fuel stop just to load a few hundred more pounds ? That stop eats into your 14 hours .

 

There is no reason to EVER cross the Maryville scale....if you're Southbound, run 270 over to 255 and back down to 55. It adds a whopping 3 miles to your trip, and you never even leave the big road.

 

Very good post, I used to do that all the time, the night before, I always asked, how much weight for tomorrow? Then, not fuel up, and also, I had an electric pallet jack, (darn right, too old for manual jack) so I would leave my pallet jack on the dock. That weighed 500lbs, all these little things lighten the load.

 

yeah sometime you do have to slide your 5th wheel, but if you have it in the right place to begin with, its not very often....

 

This is a good idea however 1 or 2 bulging tires may indicate a tire with low air pressure rather than an overloaded axle. Use a proper truck tire gauge to verify the correct pressure (usually 100 to 110 psi) and inflate the tire as needed. These are cold temps so do not take air out of a tire even if it shows a bit higher.

 

EXACTLY!

Why would you cross the scale/any scale when it's only 3 miles outof route.

 

Maybe because sometimes DOT will be sitting on that route looking for scale dodgers.