Not new to truck driving, but new to OTR.
The ports look simple enough. You follow the signs, drive in and get a green arrow for which lane they want you to go to.
But, do all ports weigh your truck? What if there's an issue with it being overweight?
Will the scale at the port tell you how much you need to shift your tandems to distribute the weight differently?
Or is that only for scales that I drive to that aren't in ports.
Each hole of the tandem is 250lbs right? How do I know which way to slide them and how much? Will the scale receipt tell me?
How do I know when and if to slide the fifth wheel?
Never needed to go to weigh stations, slide the tandems, or fifth wheel doing local.
I haven't slid the tandems or fifth wheel myself yet but I've seen a couple drivers do it.
Any tips are helpful.
Please remember you were new once too.
Ports/Weight/Sliding Tandems
Discussion in 'Questions From New Drivers' started by Outis, Sep 23, 2020.
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Sliding the fifth wheel changes the weight between drives and steers. 5th wheel forward means more weight on the steers less on the drives and vice versa.
Sliding the tandems ahead puts more weight on the tandems and less on the drives. The trailer is s lever and the tandems are the pivot, if thinking of it that way helps.
Weight redistribution per hole varies with the tractor and trailer brand, as they are not all spaced the same.
There's a calculator app that you enter variables and it tells you how many holes to slide the tandems. I've never used it but I've seen it so I can't vouch for it.
I wish you well. -
best book of all times. i also got a card that shows what brand and year trailer to set holes. i needed book the other day in fl. i ran 15th hole and 41,000 on trailer tandems. these two things saved my ### super fast. i turned too fl. it showed fl let you have 44,000 on a set but 80k and under
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Ports are for enforcement, not for finding out if you're legal weight or not. Never enter a port unless you know your weights are legal (i.e, weigh at a public scale like a CAT scale at a truck stop or a private scale at the shipper).
Make sure you have a couple of cans of WD40 or PB blaster in the truck. Unless a trailer slides tandems pretty frequently, they can get stuck, and a little spray oil (well, a lot of spray oil) goes a long way.
Sliding tandems goes easier if you get the truck moving and then hit the trailer brakes, than trying to slide them from standing still. It's easier to slide tandems and fifth wheels when empty.alds, LoboSolo, truckdriver31 and 1 other person Thank this. -
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[QUOTE="Any tips are helpful.[/QUOTE]
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