Have you guys ever had to slide your tandems all the way back?

It's only illegal in states that have kpra.

Both truck and trailer should have gauges. But most have no idea how to use them.

 

We've had a driver in NY get a ticket for having tandems all the way back while empty. 53' dry van. Doing shuttles of empty soda cans between the plant and a warehouse 45 minutes away. Tandems need to be all the way back for loading and unloading and driver just did not want to move them up between stops. DOT were set up in a rest area and gave a ticket.

 

Green states you’re good to go with them all the way back. And I can say I’ve not had any issue personally in MN, WI, or IL either.

 

40 pounds over gross??
8 gallons of fuel burned off will end that.
I’ve seen a few 53’ trailer’s broken in half when running with the axels all the way back.

 

facilities should know how to load for a legal haul.

 

More like a lowboy. Spread axles are easy, but a lowboy makes it real hard to get around.

 

Depends on what all he had. If it was a lot of Gatorade or water that would get him close to the back. I’ve picked up full loads of Gatorade before and just left the tandems all the way back and drove.

 

Within my 1 million + miles driving 53' trailers, never once did I drive down the road with the tandems ALL the way back. Just too d@mn much offtrack, even in places where it may have been legal.

Now, in your case, Pennsylvania has a 41' axle regulation, which is the most restrictive one in the eastern US. MOST trailers have a little paint mark on the sliding rail for the 40' (CA regulation) setting, which is one notch ahead of the 39'6" setting for ID off-interstate. The setting for PA is 2 holes further back (each hole is 6" apart). A prudent driver loading in a restrictive state (like PA or CA) would slide to that max. setting, and let the shipper know before loading. If you don't, then it's all on you if you get an overweight ticket.

When you scaled out at xx,xxx lbs overweight at the legal setting, you needed to turn around and go back to the shipper and refuse the load as it is. They can say they will pay (or your company can), but if they put it down in writing, you are still on the hook for the ticket. Yes, they can pay it, but it's still on your record. Also, they will not let you go out illegal, so be ready to spend many, many hours waiting for somebody with a truck and pallet jack to come and offload the extra freight. YOU are responsible for operating your rig safely and legally.

These shippers know what they are doing is illegal. That's why they rely on companies with a bunch of dumb newbies to take the risk. And the companies that accept this cr@p are just as bad.