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Bridge Laws

Discussion in 'LTL and Local Delivery Trucking Forum' started by Mike2633, Jul 17, 2016.

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Mike2633 Road Train Member

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What is the rule for bridge laws the longer a trailer the more weight you can have on it? I always heard with 28' trailers or triples those can do more weight then 53' which is why LTL's use them for line haul, but I'm confused at any rate interesting video can someone explain the bridge laws to me?

What is the max weight (I know it varies by state) for a 28' vs a 51+'

Mike2633, Jul 17, 2016

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driverdriver Road Train Member

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You'll find all that info in the front pages of your atlas.

driverdriver, Jul 18, 2016

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MACK E-6 Moderator Staff Member

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That's called the "Federal Bridge Formula".

MACK E-6, Jul 18, 2016

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justa_driver Road Train Member

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In most states the bridge law is 41' (meaning you cant have over 41' when measuring from the center of your front tandem on your tractor to the center of your rear tandem on your trailer). That's all the bridge law consists of. It does not apply to doubles because obviously you have more than 41' when you are hooked to doubles (more like 58'). You also have an extra axle on doubles. They started enforcing that when they came out with 53' trailers. In other words, if you run with your tandems all the way back on a 53', in most states you will be overbridged(cant have over 68,000-34,000 tractor and 34,000 trailer- on your 41' bridge). Georgia used to be bad about getting you on the bridge law but now they are like Mississippi, you can run them wherever you want to as long as you are not overweight on your trailer tandems or your tractor tandems (34,000 on trailer and 34,000 on tractor tandems). Like Driver said, get a motor carrier road atlas and youll find the bridge laws in each state. (They call it Bridge Formula in the road atlas)

Last edited: Jul 20, 2016

justa_driver, Jul 20, 2016

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purpleprime Medium Load Member

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justa_driver said: ↑

In most states the bridge law is 41' (meaning you cant have over 41' when measuring from the center of your front tandem on your tractor to the center of your rear tandem on your trailer). That's all the bridge law consists of. It does not apply to doubles because obviously you have more than 41' when you are hooked to doubles (more like 58'). You also have an extra axle on doubles. They started enforcing that when they came out with 53' trailers. In other words, if you run with your tandems all the way back on a 53', in most states you will be overbridged(cant have over 68,000-34,000 tractor and 34,000 trailer- on your 41' bridge). Georgia used to be bad about getting you on the bridge law but now they are like Mississippi, you can run them wherever you want to as long as you are not overweight on your trailer tandems or your tractor tandems (34,000 on trailer and 34,000 on tractor tandems). Like Driver said, get a motor carrier road atlas and youll find the bridge laws in each state. (They call it Bridge Formula in the road atlas)
Click to expand...

Deleted misread the post

purpleprime, Jul 20, 2016

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truck_guy Medium Load Member

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I asked one of our Michigan State Police motor carrier officers how much attention they pay to bridge formulas. He said a lot. He told me that if I got an overweight ticket from anyone (local cops around here weigh trucks too), and the officer didn't get a measuring tape out, to take it court and get it thrown out. If the measurements aren't on the citation, it isn't valid.

truck_guy, Jul 20, 2016

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MACK E-6 Moderator Staff Member

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justa_driver said: ↑

In most states the bridge law is 41' (meaning you cant have over 41' when measuring from the center of your front tandem on your tractor to the center of your rear tandem on your trailer). That's all the bridge law consists of. It does not apply to doubles because obviously you have more than 41' when you are hooked to doubles (more like 58'). You also have an extra axle on doubles. They started enforcing that when they came out with 53' trailers. In other words, if you run with your tandems all the way back on a 53', in most states you will be overbridged(cant have over 68,000-34,000 tractor and 34,000 trailer- on your 41' bridge). Georgia used to be bad about getting you on the bridge law but now they are like Mississippi, you can run them wherever you want to as long as you are not overweight on your trailer tandems or your tractor tandems (34,000 on trailer and 34,000 on tractor tandems). Like Driver said, get a motor carrier road atlas and youll find the bridge laws in each state. (They call it Bridge Formula in the road atlas)
Click to expand...

Bridge laws consist of a lot more than that. For example, if you're pulling a 30' dump trailer with your average garden variety day cab, you can't gross 80k

IIRC, you need 51' from your steer to your rear trailer axle to be allowed 80k. That's called "outside bridge".

"Inside bridge" is the measurement from your front drive axle to your rear trailer axle, and must be 36' or more to have 68k for the total of both tandems.

Unfortunately I learned this the hard way back when I pulled dumps.

MACK E-6, Jul 20, 2016

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truck_guy Medium Load Member

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And in Michigan, if your elected gross weight is over 80k, you fall into a whole different set of rules.

truck_guy, Jul 20, 2016

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MACK E-6 Moderator Staff Member

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Of course, enforcement of this varies by state.

VA goes by the bridge formula for dump trucks. That's why you'll see dump trucks there with 4 or 5 lift axles.

MD on the other hand offers the "dump service" registration which basically gets you around that if you're willing to pay the higher fee. Tri-axle dump trucks are allowed 70k here, but much less in VA.

In othet words, it's important to minimize stress on bridges and roadways, unless you come up with some extra money. Then, that's perfectly okay.

MACK E-6, Jul 20, 2016

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justa_driver Road Train Member

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Yea the state has a lot to do with it. In Ga, you could haul 73,280 on a triaxle dump in the 60s/70's but at that time you could only gross 78,000 on a tractor trailer, course the longest trailer was 40' long at that time, except for Lowboys and Mobile Homes.. I never got messed with on the bridge until I started pulling 53' trailers, makes sense that they would mess with dump trailers on the bridge though since they sometimes are or were short trailers. They have a lot of long dump trailers around here. Don't think Id want to raise one of them straight up in the air?lol Course they do it all the time.

Last edited: Jul 21, 2016

justa_driver, Jul 21, 2016

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