Ports/Weight/Sliding Tandems

Dont use any oily type products to slide 5th wheel or trailer. Reason being it holds dirt and such. Making it harder to slide.
Use Windex, it washes off in rain.
It never let me down in 30 plus years.
To move 5th wheel, lower dollies.

 

and dump air bags

 

And each hole on the 5th wheel will change the weight by around 500 pounds, much more than when you slide the tandems. Keep that in mind.

But once you get the 5th wheel set correctly, you should never have to slide it again.
Get the steers as close to 12,000 as possible with a ~80k load and full tanks, and with the tandems set to give close to an equal weight on the drives and trailer.
Weigh stations will let the steers be a couple hundred over as long as your gross is not over.

 

I kept it simple and looked at my bol weight and removed the last two numbers.

Each hole was that number. I mean you gotta use common sense about it like you absolutely know Lowes is going to put the heaviest item they possibly can at the very back. That knowledge just comes over time to who can load and who can't load worth a dam.

 

Very well said!

 

Generally trucks that op

 

I drive reefer, so unsure if my tip helps. But, I always start by placing my tandems at the 40' mark. Usually gets it pretty close, if not legal right off the bat. Some trailers have fairly closely spaced holes. Rule of,thumb for them is it moves about 250lbs. per hole. Those spaced farther apart are about 500 lbs. Know that these are only approximations. Depending on the cargo and how it is loaded on the trailer, how much weight is moved can vary. Had a load where I moved 900lbs. on one hole.
First time I had to slide my 5th wheel, I didn't know how to do it. I looked on YouTube at several videos and figured it out from them. On my second week out solo had a load that was 79400 gross. Took me 5 reweighs to find that one combination of 5th wheel and tandem to get legal. But, I found it!
Also, on a couple of occasions, I'd be really close on my drives, but a smidgen over. Looked to see how far away I was from nearest weigh station and how much fuel and weigh I'd burn up by the time I got there.
Lastly, don't forget to scale your load!! Had a situation where my routine got out of whack and I forgot to scale. Came into Utah and got a ticket for being 800lbs. over on my tandems.
Lastly, pay attention to your 40' mark. In CA you can't slide your tandems any farther back than 40'. In the infamous trucker atlas, which every trucker should have there is a table by State showing how far back is legal for what State. Might be worth a scan of this table with the states you'll be going through to make sure you are OK. California's 40' is the shortest. I think a couple other states also have the 40' rule. I know some are 41'.
It gets easier and more routine in time.

 

Depends. Not all wagons are the same. But yeah 300-400 ish. Keep the 5th wheel centered between the drives and 99% of the time you won't have to touch it unless it's an oddball f'd up load