Tandem Stoppers

i think he ment watch how far they turn



American Trucker

 

Sorry, my mistake. Slide the trailer....

I watch the ground next to the step and pick a spot and move the distance I need.

If it means putting a glove or something on the ground to mark the beginning, I'll do that too.

 

Psh, I picked up a load and looked at the bills and saw 23k I think it was. I took off with the tandems all the way to the front thinking this is great, I don't have to scale. It didn't take long before I thought "this...doesn't feel like 23k." then I looked at the bills again. The weight was in kg!

Oh, I've never used a tandem stopper. 90% of the time I'm pretty good at guessing where the tandems need to be. That other 10% is just a matter of moving it forward or backward a little at a time, getting out and looking. Once it's pretty close I'll hit the bar to engage the pins and then move it again until I hear the click. Then I'll go and look one last time to make sure I didn't over-shoot the hole.

and that reminds me of a load I picked up out of Chicago and scaled in Lake Station. It was at night and I had to slide the tandems (x) number of holes. I grabbed my nice maglite...it was dead. and I could not unscrew the cap to get it open. (this is where I needed a nice strong man to help me out). grabbed a smaller flashlight..it was dead. grabbed a little pen lite..it was dead. Then I started hearing the theme to the Twilight Zone. Someone didn't want me to get this load legal that night. I ended up having to use the light from my cell phone....

 

Same thing I do

 

Yeah kid youre an expert at 21 years of age, and 0-1 years of driving experience.

A driver with a few more years of experience might of just had their cargo weight distributed evenly to begin with, and would NEVER slide their tandems clear to the back. Thats a dead give away to "rookie on board"

Youve wasted IQ points learning which 25 states have which king pin laws. Which 25 dont, and which state has what exception to their rules. Personally, I have never had a DOT LEO measure my king pin. Many times I have had them check axle distances. Probably why Rand McNally has chosen to include Federal Bridge Formulas in every truckers atlas they sell...

Learn to distribute weight and 99 of 100 times youll never slide more than a couple of holes.

 

Haha thanks. Even though I received all that info from people with 10+ years experience.

Distributed evenly? Not possible with bails of scrap paper all equal in size and weight stacked from the headerboard to the ceiling and back. Before you start judging maybe you should ask for more info on it. I'm no expert. I called a few friends who have decades in this business and was asked what states I would run in. After I told them, they said just push the tandems back and take wide turns.

Ethan

 

I used to hate those loads...

 

I don't care for them much lol.

With my tandems at 13 holes between the rear axle to the trailer bumper. I was at 37k on them. I figured if 1 hole is about 250lbs I slid them all the way back, re-weighed and was at 33,2xx on them now and 34 on my drives. I like to keep more weight on my drives.

Ethan

 

You are a rookie no doubt about it. Here's why. Bales of paper that are the same size is an evenly distributed load. Around 900#/bale? So 50 bales? So you have to take turns wide isn't that how your supposed to drive a truck? So slider your trailer out before loading and chk weight your GVW done deal. But I'll tell ya that shipper is treating you like a red headed step child. After you've been used and abused for 10-20-30 years you won't put up that crap. It's their freight on their god #### scale and you should weight it any way you want. Have I hauled wood products? From Logs to paper and everything in between in trucks you never even heard of. Now go out there and drive another 2-3 million miles and then you still won't know it all.

 

I am a rookie. I ain't doubting that. Its a never ending learning experience.

I didn't have 50 bales though, I had 33. Gross on the bales was 45,167. 1360lbs per bail. My load comments on this load said "scrap paper loads required to be 44,000lbs minimum, bail ties not counted."

The bails were wrapped with 3 straps on the broad side. 2 straps on the ends.

On the BOL they printed out it had my gross for my truck which was 78k, the load grossed 45 and some change. And like i said before my gross was under 80 so they will not remove any bails.

Its very simple, it has nothing to do with me being a rookie. I did what was required to legalize the load. I did nothing illegal. I see a problem, I fixed it.
You can call me a rookie all you want, that doesn't bother me, I am a rookie. But it seems to me that you find it easy to just tell me I'm a rookie and made a rookie mistake. I don't mind driving with my tandems all the way back, my truck handles great and i like the way it looks lol.

Call me a rookie, I don't mind. I am what I am. I don't have to prove anything to anyone. I'm out here to learn and make a living. when i run into a snag like this I ask my friends what I should do. Like I said, they told me to slide then all the way back, and swing wider on turns. No problem.

Ethan