mercer transportation

Ugh. No. Any weight in front of the front axle will not be shifted to the drive axles.
By dumping the rear axle, you are not in essence sliding the tandems up. dumping the rear axle removes the axle from the equation entirely(unless you are loaded heavy behind the front axle). You are making your trailer a single axle trailer.

Edit for example: picture a 2x6 board with 5 blocks of 4x4 under it positioned like the axles of a tractor and spread axle trailer. If you stand between blocks 3 and 4 I can move block 5 out from under it and nothing happens. However if you stand between 4 and 5 and I pull out block 5 your weight will lift the board up off the first 3.

 

I never said you put weight on the drives, dumping the rear axle moves weight from the drives back to the trailer axle as you've essentially shifted the center of the suspension forward it doesn't matter where the freight is placed unless it's dead center over the fifth wheel. I run calculations all the time with overweight loads and any time you shift the center of the suspension either forward or back you get weight transfer. This is the reason that old hands could make a load look legal on a scale with a quick dump. Your scenario is useless until you put the blocks on a scale and figure out the percentage of weight transfer onto the axles when you pull block number five.

 

Then either you have failed to effectively failed to communicate what you are thinking, or I have failed at my reading comprehension. Maybe I just got hung up on the tandem comparison, cause for weight distribution, dumping the rear axle doesn't make a tandem, it makes a single axle. either way, I honestly don't care enough to spend the twenty minutes on a cat scale to test it. . It would only help if I ran illegally over weight and wanted to fool the scale master, and considering almost every scale house have full platform scales now, all it would do is get a huge over axle weight ticket when all that weight on the spread for shifted to the front axle

 

I'm pretty sure that where you got lost in my comparison is that I was talking about shifting the center of the suspension forward not making a spread into a tandem. You're right tho that you can't fool a full platform so that trick doesn't work anymore. I'm done with the subject but you really should try it on a scale once and you will see what I'm talking about pick a free self weigh tho no need to pay for it.

 

Yeah, that's what I said.... either 4 16x24s or 3 16x24s and 2 smoke tarps to cover a full 48x8x8 load.

 

Is there lemon laws for trucks lol.
Took turbo tubes off yesterday to check for leaks and play. No leaks and basically no play. That's when I found out my coolant was not under pressure...

 

What? More troubles for Pete? It's about time we set up a fund for Pete. I'm just not sure if it should be "Get Pete a better truck" or "Let's shoot Pete and put him out of misery" maybe just "pete's dynamite fund" so insurance can replace it.

I hate to see it but that truck is killing you. It's great that your handy but still. I hope this is something cheap and simple. Othwise, take a load to NYC and "accidentally" leave to doors unlocked while you catch a show. Jk jk jk. I do hate to see all the problems tho.

 

To be honest I'm about to give the truck back. 0 pressure In cooling system which I think is something In the head.. I might just run it into it blows up at this point then call arrow and tell em have it back lol.I'm have my liners checked if that's the case I'm done.

 

So I'm here to try and inject on the old 4 digit vrs zip code argument. (If you don't know what that is just read back 10-1275 pages. It is well explained). Anyway I had dinner and a long conversation with a 4 digit midget last night. And I am 99.9% (I was only 95%) sure that those 4 digit guys get no "special" treatment. (My only doubt is treatment that may be received by ones coordinator when it comes to a 4 digit truck vrs a zip code. I can still see how a coordinator might offer a load to his buddy that he has worked with for 10 yrs before calling the new hire. Not that it's what Mercer wants just that I know if I was in his shoes and I needed an important load covered I would think about going to the guy I trust). Anyway I'm not saying that is happening and I've gotten way off subject.

So in talking he told me how hard it was for him to feed the family these last few months. This caught my attention of course. We went back and started breaking things down by month. Since May or so he has experienced a pretty steady decline in freight. Now I listened to this as I've been having the opposite experience yet I read on here some of you have had the same experience as this gentlemen. After talking a bit he broke down his last four months. I tried to bow out as I only pulled a couple of loads in November and I'm on my 3rd and final for Dec. I've spent more time at home and on the new truck then anything. But he wanted to prove how bad freight was and I was a bit curious (just call me George).
His best month (Sept) 14k, my best month (Oct) 21k. His worst month Dec (8k avil everyday on his last load for the month). My worst month Dec (11k on my 3rd n last run for the month)

Dec is the only month we were close on rev. November was the next closest with about 3k difference. But that's all moot. The point is after all the talk 2 things stood out about how he operates vrs myself.

1 he won't go west of i35. I know a lot of people don't/won't and I know many do better then me by staying east. So I'm not sure that's a factor except during a time like sept, October.

2 (and this might be a biggie) he was letting his coordinator find all his loads. TBH I was shocked. But I thought back and realized a lot of 4 digit midgets rely on their coordinators. Also he got a new coordinator about a year ago and that was when things went downhill.

Anyway all this did for me was reconfirmed that I need to run my truck (which I have been from month one) and use the west coast to my advantage while the freight is still great out there.

On a side note, I was in Louisville this week for the first time since orientation. I need to get by there more often. I got 3 hats a sweater and shirt, some pins and pens and calendars, notebooks and heck idk a box of crap for free (plus lots of food). Of course the food and cookies were the best part. ;p

 

That really sucks man. You have any other options?


Wow I wrote another dang book. I best hit the road. Lol