I'm a little confused on axle weights. I currently driving a 2012 Freightliner Cascadia, 4 axle tractor. I'm in Washington State. I have 295/75 22.5 wheels. My steers can be 13,200 pounds. How much can be on my drives with my drop down as a group?
PDF weight table. https://wsdot.wa.gov/travel/commercial-vehicles/commercial-vehicle-permits/legal-vehicle-weight
No. The drives are weighed separate from the lift axle. You can only carry 34k on the drives. It takes a lot of messing around to get everything perfect. You have to find the balance of trying to get weight on the steer axle without being under your trailer so far that it cuts down your inner bridge. They need to measure their truck so they know the spread between the lift axle and the rear drive axle and that will give them the maximum for the group, but if they back pressure off the lift axle to try and max out their steer they will probably be over 34k on their drives. They also need to measure from their lift axle on the truck to the rear trailer axle so that they get their 7 axle inner bridge (with a 4 axle trailer), 6 axle bridge (with a triple), or 5 axle bridge if they have a regular tandem. You will max out your inner bridge and then add on whatever you can carry on the steer axle and that will give you your gross. For example, when I worked for the flatbed company we were licensed for 105,500 gross but most of the trucks bridged out at 104,500 and some were 105,000. If the OP goes to Oregon then they also need to know Oregon’s bridge chart because it’s different than every place else. My 105k gross truck was only good for 102k in Oregon.
I run Wa. with drop down axles and can be max 43500 the drop has to be at 10000 so drives are still at 34000 the thing you have to be careful about is the bridge law
43,500 unless the drop is spaced further up from the drives. Or back. As mentioned from bridge law. Total weight is about 56ish. If you had 2 drops it's about 60. My axles are close together. So I haul 43,500. As does the above poster. Above is a link to federal bridge law which is what's used for most of the west. Good idea to save it or print it. Some of the east has their own heavy haul rules. They haul more then federal allowed.
