Plz Help w/ some weights

The Ram GCWR is not a DOT rating.

The numbers to be concerned with are what are the tires rated at and what is your License plate registered at.

Don't exceed tire ratings and don't exceed plate registration.

 

IMO, trailer duals are worth it. You may lose 2k payload in your example, but you gain 6k in axle rating. My experience is that you need to be able to load the trailer axles pretty heavy to maximize real-world payload.

 

The GCVW of the truck and the trailers that you are talking about are above the 26,001 pounds which means you will be required to have a CDL.

With that understanding the limits that the DOT will look at are what the truck and trailer are registered for in total. Now you must look at the vehicles capacities. Add the front truck axle plus the rear axle of the truck plus the rated capacity of the axles of the trailer. This information is located on the stickers that are on the inside of the drivers door and the sticker that is located on the neck of the trailer. Add those 4 number together to obtain the maximum weight that the combination can haul and be legal. In addition to this limit the weight rating of the tires and wheels becomes important.

On each wheel there should be a stamped max weight. On each tire there should be a max weight. Your load must be located on the trailer so that the maximum is not exceeded on any one axle. The two tires may be rated at 4500 pounds each thus the axle could hold 9000 pounds according to the tires. The wheels may be rated at 4300 pounds times two equals 8600 pounds thus the limit is now dropped to 8600 pounds. Looking at the trailer sticker the axle itself is rated at 7000 pounds which since it is the lowest number becomes the maximum weight on that axle. Now the tires you buy may be 3300 pound tires and even though the axle says 7000 pounds it is limited to the 6600 pounds of the 2 tires. You must do this same investigation of the truck wheel, tire and axle combination.

The DOT will check the registered weight for your tags and the weight restrictions of each axle. If the weight of the combined 4 axles is less then the registered weight and the weight is distributed across the axles and does not exceed each axle's max then you are good to go.

Note: the ratings that the trailer manufacturers give each trailer include the weight that is transferred to the truck. That is how a trailer with 2 - 7000 axles is rated at 15000 pounds or more.This is why the long explanation.

Unless you have some connections for getting the loads I would hold off jumping into the market as the rates are very low. In fact a lot of the loads are paying under the cost of moving the truck. But for some #### reason people are taking the cheap freight.

Get a spread sheet and run the numbers if you get into this game. Do not fall into the trap of it was a back haul or I was getting to a better location. The brokers have learned how cheap the carriers will move a back haul so now all loads are a back haul thus rates have gone below carriers costs.

 

RV pay is pretty low and most of the time you dead head 50%

But, for part time work, and with very little investment, you could make a little side cash.

 

Your insurance cost will not let you run as a part timer. And if you can get onto a loadboard you will see very few loads on the weekends. If you have a full time job find a better hobby. This is one of those games that you need to go all in to win.

Say you do find a load and break down. You can not get up and running until Monday which job are you going to pick when your are 200 miles away from home?

Just an example of something that might happen.

 

Well, there is some transfer to the truck too, so a few lbs more will be fine. Just need to know what the loaded tongue weight is and make sure the truck axles don't overshoot that. And well, how the trailer is loaded and where that weight sits will matter too.

 

Andrew, what npok is saying is coming from experience as he says. I myself have always ran under 26k. I am limited in freight opportunities. The BigTex trailer you are looking at is to big to run under 26 and to small to run over 26. IMO this trailer is not widely used for commercial.