How much fuel to put on?

OK time for my 2 cents on this.

1st off you are to lite on the steers. You can have up to 13,000 lbs on them in all but 2 states. I know, I know the school told you that the steers could only have 12,000. Well like allot of things they where wrong. Not counting MO. and CA. you can have 13,000 and both of the other 2 will let you run with 12,500. So slide that 5th wheel forward so that you take 500-700 off the drives. I run mine at 12,780 when full of fuel and loaded to the max. Besides, the closer that trailer is to the tractor the better fuel mileage you will get. Now fuel.

2nd thing is never ever go load with less then 1/2 a tank. Unless you know for a fact that the shipper will not load you so heavy that you can't fill up. Never go in with less then 1/2. This will leave you room for fuel when needed. In the OP scenario if you loaded with 1/2 tanks then you can fill with out a problem.

I figure fuel at 8lbs to the gal. It's a little heavy but it keeps you out of trouble.

 

Well, first off- you should have hit the scale after buying that fuel.
Do you have a sliding 5th wheel, and what position is it in ?

And lastly, do you need bail money ??????????

 

Please becareful on your advice because if the tires are not rated for that much there's a ticket.

 

Really...twin 150's...so he puts on 150 gallons;

150 x 7.3 = 1095

he was showing 33,660 on the drives...assuming 52% drive and 48% steers;

1095 x 52% = 569

33,660
569
34,269

Now he said he was 100 miles from the scale, averaging 7 mpg, so he will consume 14.3 gallons reaching the scale. 14.3 gallons is 104.4 lbs and 52% of the 104.4 is 54.3 lbs...

As he goes over the scale his drives will be 34,215...depending on the mood of the weigh master (LEO) he could get an overweight or possibly a scolding, or if the LEO "got lucky" last night...he could get a pass.

The point is, don't run illegal and you don't need to worry about if the Leo "got lucky" or is in the mood to issue "souvenirs".

 

Makes me ask what tire you are running to be rated at 12,350...normal is 12,500.

Now a little more advice for you to play with:

When you get unloaded, get your 5th wheel set so you have about 11,950 on the steers...which will be when the king pin is directly (as close as you can) over where the rim touches the rubber of the front drive at the 0300 position (think a clock face 3 o'clock), and when the shipper asks how you want the freight loaded tell them "single, single, double the rest". In the refer freight, generally a pallet will weigh 1500-2000 lbs each, so this configuration will (should) work. You want to find the best place for the 5th wheel setting, and avoid moving that thing at all. The optimum way of adjusting freight weight will be using the tandems.

Remember any time you move your 5th wheel, have as little weight on the 5th wheel/king pin as possible...landing gear down hard...otherwise with weight on the unit you are stressing the equipment. An empty trailer is always best when adjusting 5th wheel position.

Finally, get yourself over to the scale and fuel, and do the 100 gallon proof to find out the % of fuel weight that is forward/aft, and don't forget about the refer tank...just include the refer in the 100 gallon total...95 in the truck tanks and the 5 in the refer then onto the scale the second time to see the weight exchange. And write it down to remind yourself if you ever get in the situation when tired and not thinking very clear...

 

Well Trekker I'd say you did fine!

You learned a few lessons one from OR with that 12,365 which apparently you didn't know about! You do remember what he showed you and how to rate them correct? Now for those of you scratching your head about what was just said, all of those tires on your truck has a "cold and hot" rating stamped right on the side! Go look at them and it tells you single or tandem and hot and cold in a chart. Add the single rate for your steers. EVEN if the state you are in says 13,000+ if those tires don't "add up" to the states max limit, there is a ticket in your future. And if you think 34,000 is legal if those tires don't "add up" Oopsie! There are actually some really cheap owners out there and a "deal' at the tire shop might not be such a good deal! A buddy of mine found that out buying a set of 8 off the truck stop parking lot, but he didn't look and they were rated for a 6 wheeler! Not a good deal for him at the scales!

As I said in my first post fuel in the reefer really won't show on your tandems IF the tank is set forward unless you have a 100 gallon tank or it's mounted at the back of the trailer.

Yes, you can do all your math at 8 gallons but why? If fuel is cheap do the 7.3 a pound! Math is math unless you screw it up! 10 gallons at .50 cents cheaper is still $5.00! That's actually a lot at the end of the year!

Something else that most drivers don't know is that tire manufactures recommend heaver weights on the steers. They tell us that 10,500 isn't enough on the steers unless that's where the load comes out at. !0,500 allows the front end to "skip" more causing uneven wear on the tires. When my tire guy told me that back in the 80's he knew from the look I gave him I didn't believe him and he pulled out the Goodyear "bible" and showed me the results from testing! Yep, longer life after I kept them at 11 and over and at correct pressure. And we ALL know steers are hard as hello to get to live a "long and prosperous" life!

As for adding the reefer fuel to the tractor and then weigh. Do like I said earlier. Scale first then fuel the tractor and reweigh then fuel the reefer and go back and reweigh again! It only costs a dollar and what ever the fuel card charges so thats not a budget killer when learning your truck and you don't always get reefer fuel at every fuel up either.

I think I covered all the comments that came back to Trekk and he isn't beating his head against the laptop! It'll hurt the laptop! There are no stupid questions when it comes to trucking! Just stupid answers! And I've given some of those too! LOL Remember we ALL have our own opinions and some of us do better telling them in the bars! Thank God for the internet as it can all be checked out now.

Now to go spread cheer on another thread! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Good Luck
Rollover

 

1st My advice on steer weight was right. Like I said I run mine at 12,780 when fully loaded and have never had a problem any where.

2nd The way you load a refer is single double single then double on back.

3rd the example I gave on fueling only works if your 5th wheel is set right to begin with. I don't care if you have 100 or 150 gal tanks it works.