How come NO ONE talks about the importance of weight scales?

He said he was looking for a cat scale and could not find one. His stories remind me of that Lupe. He passed several no matter which way he went.

The Illinois scale at Litchfield has been out of the ground for several weeks. So, he did not go that way.

 

well it doesn't HAVE to bve a "cat" scale or a t/s for that matter. I have scaled loads at a lot of grain elevators, packing houses, steel recycling yards. There is a book in most t/s that will let you know where the t/s are in your area. scaling your load is important for many reasons least of witch is the quility of the ride.

 

Attitude makes a word of difference. Got myself a ticket for running down a road that I was not supposed to be on. Was very honsest with him. When he asked how long I've been driving. Told him six months. The officer reply was "what are you gonna do next time you see a sign restricitng you from the road". He informed me that I should fight it. took it to court paided the fine with no points. If you go running your mouth he will find something to write a ticket for.

 

I worked for a company that carried alot of beer. If you were empty anywhere near a town that had a brewery, you were going to load beer!! Many Anheiser Busch breweries do have scales on their some of their properties and you can not leave until your axle weights are legal. They weigh you in empty inbound, put the max weight on they can, not even allowing for fuel you'll put on later, so when I got a beer load (and we ran alot!) I always topped off my tanks so I went in heavy and there was that much less beer they could put on and when I fueled later I could fill tanks. I believe St Louis A-B didn't have a scale but their was a axle scale very close, you didnt even have to get on a interstate, you run city streets to the scale, probably no more than 3miles from A-B, anyone at A-B could have told him where it was. Houston and JAcksonville breweries did have scales and you didnt leave til your axles were legal, that was probably the only good thing about a load of beer. OP, was it load of beer?

 

First of all driving on city streets will get you in trouble in 3 ways. The first one is unless you have a good idea of where you are you might get on a truck restricted road. Second you might come upon a bridge with a sign that says 11 6 or so. Lastly you are increasing your chance of doing damage to either your truck, another vehicle or a stationary object.

I agree it looks as if you did not get proper training on weighing, this is a pity. However sometimes you have to go out of route a bit to find a scale. I loaded once at aberdeen Md then drove all the way to Baltimore just to scale then back north through the Md scales at the Toll Plaza. In your case there were 3 cat scales in Illinois you could have used got your weights legal then get back on 55 headed south. Get a truckstop guide and a good truckers atlas.

 

We have several shippers in my hometown which don't have scales. A lot of trucks use the scales at the county trash transfer station . The scales there aren't even long enough to weigh the whole truck at once. Grain elevators are a good suggestion as well as scrap yards , gravel plants, and household van lines warehouses.
The trainer may not have had to scale because he regularly loaded at the same shipper and supervised loading.

 

Well, in a round about way he did help you. Bet you a dozen donuts (maple bars please) this wont happen again. Chalk it up.

 

Exactly