My Experience with Lone Star Transportation

like i said , get center of trl, go 2 feet back , center the load from that point with a spread and you should be fine, i got mine marked on the rub rail,

 

same reason loading a coil in the center of a 48 foot flat dont work to well, need to put it 2 to 3 feet back of center.

 

Skateboardman--it appears we will have to agree to disagree. We encourage all drivers to load the weight in the middle of the trailer. We still see disproportionate wear on the front trailer axle. Moving the overall weight 2' back would only make this problem worse. We are never heavy on the drives.

 

I'd split the difference with you on this...

I'll load as close to the center as I think is prudent and tend towards the rear a little if the load is looking like it'll get too close for comfort on the drivers per my on board scales.
I get very good tire life on my spread but I am very dilligent about not making tight turns and I rotate my tires every 50,000 miles to help even out the wear.

If you are seeing seriously accelerated wear on the front axles of your spreads you need to talk to your drivers about not turning so tight....Some extra wear is to be expected as it's unavoidable considering the configuration.

I'm seeing between 150,000 and 200,000 miles average out of my trailer tires.

 

We have great drivers, but they are not the ones footing the tire bill so it is difficult to get everyone on that page. Some drivers try very hard, and others will make a tight turn in our yard...so you can imagine what they do on the road. We used to have dump valves, but had too many incidents where the driver failed to disengage the dump and ruined the tires.

 

Also, I am not suggesting that balancing the load is more important than being legal. I would also tell a driver to favor the spread when in doubt. I just feel it is better to try to balance instead of making the blanket statement to place the center of the load 2-3 ft behind the center of the trailer.

We also have suspension guages on all of our trucks, so drivers have some idea where they are on their drives.

Also, most trucks are pulling step decks. We haul very few 48' loads of steel...most fit in 24'.

 

I don't have a dump valve hooked up on my trailer...I don't think they're a very good idea on an all aluminum trailer.
I just compensate for that by easing up on the turns.

I'm sure you do have "great drivers" but as you yourself said..."They are not the ones footing the bill".
It's hard even as an owner to train yourself to always take the extra time and effort to do it exactly right and not "take the shortcut...Just this one time".
We're all tempted to do that at one time or another, I just resist the temptation because I know what it can cost to abuse my equipment like that and have seen the damage that a moment of carelessness can wreak.

Drivers on the other hand have much less motivation to resist the temptation to "take the shortcut" because they have no financial burden in the event of a problem nor do they usually ever see the end result of the "shortcut" on the bottom line.

 

You hit the nail on the head...there are a lot of days I wish I didn't have employees. You have to be good at management, not just trucking.