This happened to me on my first load.
I swapped trailers with another driver. He told me it was heavey but he didnt weigh it. I said, well I'm not taking any chances. So as soon as I got the trailer, I went over, topped off the tanks and made sure my weight was legal before I took off.
I got on the scale and found I had 200 lbs to spare.
Now, I'm a pretty big guy. thats 300 bs there.
As far as the weight of my fuel? does anyone know what 200 gallons of fuel weighs? roughly?
factoring the weight of fuel and you.
Discussion in 'Questions From New Drivers' started by slatherd, Feb 27, 2008.
Page 1 of 3
-
-
Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds
Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.
-
It is roughly 7 lbs per gallon,so your looking at about 1400 lbs.
-
and what, you get about 200 lbs per slide of the tandems right? worst case you could still slide out of that couldn't you?
-
Water 8.0 lbs per gallon
Fuel about 7 .2 lbs per gallon
I always use water when figuring the wieght when I'm getting fuel .
-
-
I'm saying I still had 200 lbs left on my trailer tandems. before I was over weight. So I was within legal limit. 34000 on my tandems, 34000 on my drives and 12000 on my steers.
I'm just saying, if you were on empty before you fueled up, ana you were at 80000 lbs, could you still get your tandems slid to compensate for the extra weight of the fuel? or would that only matter on the steers?
Sorry if I am asking a dumb question or if I am off totally. -
As for the question at hand if you are m/t on fuel and you scaled out at 80,000 lbs then you are pretty much screwed there is no place to move the weight you are already at gross.
There are alot of factors involved but if I could scale it I would put on 50 to 100 gallons of fuel and run it.But then you have your log book to consider because you are going to have to stop for fuel more often. -
Always remember that fuel weight is carried on the tractor, and unless you can adjust some weight by sliding the trailer or the 5th wheel, you are stuck with that weight. I run in a weight sensitive area, and always have to factor in the amount of fuel that I have on the truck, how far I have to go, and when and where I can fuel up. It can be a real balancing act sometimes. Last week one morning, I was low on fuel because I wqs heavy and had a scale to get across. I kept the fuel quantity low. Unfortunately, having 3/4 of the tank as open air space in the -2 degree weather resulted in my fuel gelling up and stopping me on the side of the road. If I had fueled up all the way, the fuel would have retained enough warmth that I never would have gelled, but then I would have been over on weight. Sort of ###### if you do, ###### if you don't.
-
How many drivers have ever achieved the maximum weights on a tandem/tandem five-axle? In the real world, a driver should aim for a gross of 79,000 lbs to be safe crossing state scales. For one thing, certified truck stop scales may be inaccurate by as much as 1,000 lbs. I know, I weighed on the side by side Cat scales at Oak Creek, WI. One scale showed 1,000 lbs more than the other scale. Also, your legal tandem weight is actually 17,000/17,000. Your front drive axle has the power divider and may have the maxi-brakes. It will weigh more than your second drive axle. And again, your steer axle weight may be limited by the tire foot print, and capacity as shown on the side wall. This talk about 80,000; 12,000, 34,000, 34,000 is strictly theoretical. It results in dodging the scales.
-
good post heyns.
good things to look out for.
Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds
Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.
Page 1 of 3