Cascadia Evolution DD15 2016 steering axle 9000 lbs

Looks like they used to pull stepdecks. Probably just have a longer frame for flatbed. Is there a headache rack on the tractor? At any rate, I wouldn’t worry about the low weight on the steers. I would definitely slide the 5th wheel forward, the tandems all the way to the rear and see where you’re at. Probably going to need to have that load reworked.

 

It definitely set up wrong for normal OTR work. Most people would have had the seller move the 5th wheel before buying it.

 

Any half-###ed decent mechanic can have that moved forward in under an hour easy.

 

Any experienced driver would have known it was too far back.

 

It looks like a pole truck, I bought one out of Arizona a while back and it had the same setup, made for long utility poles with the fifth being almost to the back of the frame.

It should be around $400 to get it moved and about three hours at most.

AND you may need to learn a lot more about trucks.

 

Not to be a dbag, but i stopped reading right there. Did you buy the truck without inspecting it? The truck is your business, seems like you'd want to have a clue.

 

I disagree. This is the sort of problem people only know to look for after it bites you in the ### once.

 

I don't think you are letting go the brakes and let her settle into the scales when weighing, you wont believe how much that can throw off at least one of the three platform sections that weigh your steer, drive and trailer tandem.

It is possible the shipper overweighted your tail. If you are 34 on your drives and 35 on trailer (Ignoring the steers for the moment...) there is no place to put that 1000 pounds forward off the trailer tandems onto the drives. UNLESS you make the drives 35000, burn off 1000 pounds of fuel which is about 143 gallons give or take and now you have 34 drives and 34 tandems when you hit a scale house.

I prefer to call the dispatcher and have the shipper hold a dock for you to take off 1000 from your tail end until you are legal on your load on both drives and tandem.

But bottom line, 9K on steers is a little light for any truck. That tells me MAYBE you are not releasing the brakes and letting her really nest into that scales and settle a few moments to really get a good weight without all that moving about or tension between your axle sets under braking.

I want to say you ARE being a GOOD driver by weighing your loads asap after loading. That is usually your one protection against the financial liability of being overloaded by a shipper or perhaps in my time caught with a few dozen pallets in addition to a regular load from time to time. (I paid those... but then learned not to carry pallets and accept the 3.50 per pallet cost as small change or simply not be around a scale. US 15 above sunbury in PA has one that got me that way a few times, I crossed the dam and come up 14 into 180 instead.

I hate to be illegal. I really do. The old wild cat work arounds, outlawing and breaking the laws everywhere long time ago does not do well. Ive gone the other way to make a additional money legally, preferably by hauling very high dollar loads that don't weight very much at all. It's really hard to be overweight on a 20,000 pound 24 pallet medical load.

Now it is my additional opinion that tractors ARE getting heavier at the expense of being able to drop 48000 into the box, close, wind and seal then weight it all perfect at 80000 pounds. If shippers are content to just put in say 44000 into the box these days then I think the rates have certainly gone up because you cannot get trucks sometimes at any price for love or money when the rates offered are just too low.

 

My truck is a 228” wheel base and the trailer gap is 21.” Steer axle empty is 9797lbs with a 13l motor. I’d move it up where you have a 21” - 26” gap between the sleeper fairings and your trailer. Even when I’m loaded heavy I’m only at 12000 - 12100 lbs. If you have a 12500 steer or greater, closer to 21” gap, if it’s a 12k steer, closer to 26.”