Newspaper story about the 97k weight limit!

And if I had my way with trucking y'all can stay in Canada, the Mexicans would stay in Mexico and we would stay in the Untied States.
Nothing personal its just business.

 

Everything... okay, most things you wanted to know, but were afraid to ask. Here.

 

hmmm I'll have to look that one up cuz I used to haul 163,000 gross in gravel on a tri&pony and the max. weight allowed is higher than that depending on your tires and spreads and bridge and material your hauling. I was hauling 80,000 lbs, in payload just on the lead.
just gotta remember it takes almost a city block to stop at 50kph withe the lead and pony cuz i forgot one day. lucky though, only bent his pickup in half and no injuries, I had time to write his obit. while I was waiting for the truck to stop.

 

Just told my finace` about this and she turns and asks me what I think about it. I turn to her and tell that was a question merely like walking into see a therapist and having them ask you "and how do you feel about that?" I bursted out laughing to say the least. Hmmmm, some thing's really make ya wonder.

New weight limit can't be upheld without the addtion of new trailers built to support that extra weight. Standard 53' trailers are built for a vehical max gross of 80K lbs. Anything more and you run the risk of failure from the weight reacting to gravity bounching up and down going down the road putting more flex and stress on the trailers frame rails than what they were orginally designed for. Companies and owners would have to by new up to standard trailers to handle the extra weight.

 

Yea but those dumps (of all types) are made of welded steel and can support that kind of weight. This is more along the lines of alluminum frame trailers with aluminum or wood floors being held together mostly by rivits. Big difference. No pun.

 

Liftable pusher axle, Tridem trailers with 10 ft spreads and you are good to go as far as roads etc. ND you can be 96K on the interstates with this setup. On state roads you can be up to 105,500. On minnesota state roads I can be 97K and in the winter I can be 99K with the same setup but then I have an ag permit to do it.

So depending on the roads and season, I have 60K+ in the box. I get paid by the 100ct weight or by the bag as we call it. I haul bulk potatoes to processing were they get made into frenchfries for some of the common fast food joints. AKA Wendys, Burger King, Macdonalds, Sonic etc.

So I am all for increased weight limits as long as the truck has the axles to properly carry it along with the bridge length.

 

Wish they would honor our extra pusher on our tractors in Manitoba. We spend alot of time up there.

 

the frames are steel but the boxes are usually aluminum these days, the weights we carried were dangerous though imo even with good brakes and tires you always had to be on the lookout for anything remotely stupid going on well ahead of you in the city.

 

I agree with what bikerboy said, & I can say 97k wouldn't be a problem unless your inexperienced. I haul 96k around Wisconsin several times a week with a 3axle truck & 2axle trailer, the fuel mileage is the same & everything handles the same. I used to pull a 3axle trailer & haul 110k, & didn't seem to have much of an issue. As long as u keep up with the maintenance you shouldn't have any problems aswell as respecting your equipment

 

The absolute last thing we need to do is to raise the load limit w/o imposing a tiered experience level to haul it (like pulling heavy haul for example). Could you imagine the "Big Companies" with their driver mills having student drivers trying to pull these even heavy loads. I've seen rookies turn loads at under 25k lbs loaded. You know these companies are way too cheap to upgrade their equipment or be willing to pay the o/o's a fair rate to haul the heavier loads. I see this as nothing but a speculative attempt to see what the trucking public thinks on the subject and quite frankly sounds like a screw tactic to me. Soapbox moment please forgive-Drive Safe everybody!