Weight Distrubution

only way to know is to go and weigh when your at your heaviest and leave it there even when light.

 

Your fifth wheel goes where ever the weight will not exceed tire rating. In most cases, that is 12,350#. I keep mine as close to 12K as possible. With full tanks and a heavy load, my steer axle rolls at around 12,100. Once you have it set there, you will probably not have to move it again.

To properly move your fifth wheel with minimal potential for equipment damage:

Run your landing gear to the ground and turn the handle enough to hear air release from your suspension.

Dump your air suspension and wait until all the air is gone.

Flip the fifth wheel switch on your dash. If you have an International, you will have to hold the switch in.

Put your transmission in the lowest gear possible in whichever direction you need to move. Moving the truck forward will move weight off your steers, backward will add weight to your steers.

Very gently feather the clutch so your truck creeps only a couple inches in whichever direction you need it to go.

Engage your fifth wheel pins by flipping the switch back (or letting it go if you have an International) and gently move the truck in the direction for the weight you need, listening for the pins to snap in.

Check your pin engagement and placement with a flashlight.

Reinflate your suspension.

Wind up your landing gear.

Reweigh your truck.


If the spacing between pin slots is an inch or so, you will move roughly 250# per slot. If it's the wider spacing of about two inches, you will move about 500# per slot.

The key is to not pop your clutch. You don't want to slam your fifth wheel.

Some trucks do not have suspension dump valves. This makes it a bit more of a PITA. If this is the case, wind your landing gear down as far as you can, the put the lever into low gear and wind it down some more. The idea is to take pressure off your fifth wheel.

 

Yeah, full of fuel and max loaded, scale out and position your 5th wheel so you are close to 12,000 without going over. That'll cover you in all states. Only a few states require < 12,001 on steers off the interstate. Most, you can get away with the tire manufacture rating on the interstate. Look at the front of your Rand McNally Truckers map for the specifics of what states you are going through. Always check the weights, restricted routes and low clearances.

Once you have the 5th wheel set, then all you should have to do is worry about the trailer unless you get loaded nose heavy.

Most warehouses know how to load their product properly. Some don't. Especially new people in the warehouse. You have to watch them.

Basically, you can haul 26 - four foot pallets that weigh about 1750 lbs each or so.

When you start hauling heavier pallets, your pallet count is going to be less. You just can't cram them all in the front or you are going to be nose heavy.

The idea is to stretch the load out so it reaches your rear axle. Between the 44' and 48' mark is ideal because it's with in your tandems sliding range and will keep you savy on bridge laws.

Say you have 17 heavy pallets. I always started with a single in the nose to compensate for the trailer nose weight. Then simply keep an even pattern. You know you want to go 11-12 pallets deep. Use a piece of paper and draw it out until you get some experience. This particular way I would go 1-2-1-2-1-2-1-2-1-2-2.

20 pallets would be 1-2-1-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2.

I like 11 deep, but you can go 12. 12 deep tends to put you near the 45' max kingpin/axle bridge law in certain states. But if you ain't maxed out, you have some play room on sliding your axles.

Why lighter on the front? Besides the nose weight of the trailer, it's easier to shift weight to the nose by sliding your tandems. If the nose is heavy, it's hard to take it off and can cause problems when you scale out.

Always end in a 2 so you can use your load locks if neccessary and the next to last pallet doesn't have boxes that can fall. Then slide your axles so the rear of the last pallet is sitting about 1 hole past the center of the last axle.

Then when you scale out, if you aren't exactly right already, you'll be within 1-2 holes of being right.

Sorry Injun, we were typing at the same time.

 

Take a straight edge and slap it on the nose of the trailer. As it comes down towards the ground it should be even with the front edge of your front drive axle tire, just grazing the edge of that tire on the 9 o'clock position Now, if you have 20 skids all of the same weight you can set the tandems to where the back edge of the tail skids, if you were able to put a straight edge there, that straight edge will touch the 3 o'clock position of the rear tire. If your trailer had glass walls you could visually see the load perfectly centered on your drives and tandems. With practice you'll learn where to set the tandems even with odd loads that might be doublstacked. The idea is to center the load over the drives and tandems. I hope that makes sense. This is how my fifth wheel is set and I never move it.

 

I think I've had to slide my fifth wheel perhaps a half-dozen times in the last four years, the last time just a week or so ago.

Once in a while, you'll get one of those PITA loads that has many, many different items, and although the load will LOOK balanced, it will be a bunch of screwy!

My screwball load last week was only 40K, making me just over 73k gross, but I ended up with 34, 300 on the trailer and 26-something on the drives, adjusted as much as I legally could on the tandems and physically could on the fifth wheel.

I left early while the scales were closed and ran the load a bit stretched out (it was a short load anyway).

 

I've always used a rule of thumb to keep the fifth wheel (center of pivot pin) at about the 2 o'clock position from my front drive axle. It puts a van trailer dead even with the fender spray guard usually, but it's been a long while since I've pulled a van trailer. I have left it there tho as it is also where my tanks ride best wehn loaded and empty..... But I always scale ANYTHING heavier than 35k because lord only knows where the guys loading the trailer decided to put all that weight!!!

 

Coal, that doesn't work for all makes of tractor. They don't all have the fuel tanks placed on the same area of the frame. However, it is a good starting point.

 

Ha, no kidding. I can slide mine as far fwd as possible (about 8" ahead of center before the trailer frame hits the tractor) and I can't get any weight on the steering. With 58k on the drives I still only have 13k on the steering. Good thing I always pull a spread axle trailer.